Pre-mortem Analysis
Imagine failure before it happens to prevent it.
Explanation
Instead of waiting for things to go wrong, this technique has you imagine your project has already failed spectacularly. Then you work backwards to figure out what could have caused that failure. This helps you spot potential problems while you still have time to prevent them, rather than being blindsided later.
Real-World Example
Product launch pre-mortem: 'It's 6 months later and our app has zero users. What went wrong?' Maybe we built features no one wanted, had terrible onboarding, or couldn't reach our target audience. Now we can address these risks before launch instead of discovering them after.
How to Apply
Gather your team and say: 'It's [time period] from now and this project was a complete disaster. What happened?' Encourage wild speculation. List all possible failure modes. For each major risk, assign someone to monitor it or create prevention plans. Update regularly as conditions change.