The View from the EndPre-mortem for a project

The situation

The new project starts soon and the plan looks good. In the meeting, nobody said what could go wrong, because nobody wants to look like the one holding things back.

The cut

After

Goal: Help me find reasons for failure while the project has not started yet.

Context: Project: [Project text, e.g. description in three sentences]. Start: [Start, e.g. date]. Goal: [Project goal, e.g. one measurable goal].

Source: Only my description and general project knowledge. Label every assumption as an assumption.

Expectations:
1. Assume it is [Point in time, e.g. a date six months after the start] and the project has clearly failed. Tell in no more than 150 words how it came to that.
2. The seven causes you consider most likely, each with an early warning sign I can watch for from the first week.
3. For the two most dangerous causes, one measure each that I can put in place before the start.
4. The assumption in my description that has the weakest support.

No add-on license, in Microsoft Copilot Chat. Without a copy button: select the text and copy it with Ctrl+C.

How to use it

1. Describe the project in three sentences, fill in start, goal and point in time, then send.
2. Read the story of the failure without refuting it right away.
3. Add the warning signs to the project plan or to the agenda of the project meeting.
4. Schedule both measures before the start, with a date and an owner.

How to spot a good answer

• A short story of the failure, no more than 150 words.
• Seven causes, each with an observable warning sign.
• Two concrete measures before the start.
• Assumptions are labeled as assumptions.

The check

Count the measures you add to the project plan. After six months, check how many of the named warning signs actually occurred.

Limits

• The answer does not know your team or your company. The causes are food for thought, not a forecast.
• Gary Klein describes the premortem in Harvard Business Review (September 2007) as a team exercise. The prompt does not replace that conversation, it prepares it.
• Only insert internal project details as far as your internal rules allow.

Sources

Microsoft Learn: Write an effective prompt (training unit), Harvard Business Review: Gary Klein, Performing a Project Premortem, September 2007. As of October 15, 2026.

Mark as practiced

Prefer to practice with guidance? Live course “Copilot Ninja in 4 Wochen” (in German) at the Power Platform Academy

Pass it on

Technique 7 from the PowerPlatformAcademy Dojo: The View from the End. A pre-mortem as a prompt: Why did the project fail, and how do you notice it from the first week? Free to copy, with a source.

https://copilot.ninja/en/techniken/pre-mortem-fuer-projekte/