Pre-mortem template
It’s a year from now and it failed. Why?
A pre-mortem starts from the failure and works backwards. “What could go wrong?” gets polite answers; “it already went wrong — why?” gets the real ones. The canvas writes the likely failure stories, how to spot each early, and what to do before launch.
- Price
- Free
- Online
- Runs in your browser — two runs with no account, then a free account
- Desktop
- Also works on your own files and writes the result up
Runs on the MindMax thinking canvas →All online tools
When to run a pre-mortem
Right before committing to a plan, a launch, a hire or an investment — when changing course is still cheap.
- Write failure as a story, not a risk category: “mid-size customers downgraded” beats “cannibalization risk”.
- For each story, name the early signal you would see in the first weeks, so you are not finding out at the end.
- Rank by likelihood and cost; act on the one or two that are both.
How the canvas builds it
Type the problem
One sentence is enough — the question you would bring to a whiteboard.
Pick “Pre-mortem”
The framework decides how the problem is cut: which cards appear and what each one must answer.
Read the map
One card per branch, plus a hub card that says what the branches add up to.
Go deeper where it matters
Expand any item: break it down again, ask a follow-up, or apply another framework to that branch.
Where it gets hard
- Two runs with no account, then a free account
Type your problem and the canvas builds it right in your browser. Two runs need no account; after that, sign in with a free account and runs use the AI allowance in your plan. Canvases stay in this browser — export them, or share a read-only link, to keep them elsewhere.
- Imagined failures, not predictions
The stories are plausible ways to fail, not a probability model. The value is in the safeguards you decide to put in place.
- In the desktop app today
Add the Pre-mortem skill from the skill library; on the desktop canvas it can also start from your plan document.
Common questions
Pre-mortem or risk register?
A risk register lists categories. A pre-mortem asks people to imagine the specific way it failed, which surfaces risks nobody wanted to say out loud.
Who should be in a pre-mortem?
Everyone who will carry out the plan. Use the canvas to prepare the first round of failure stories, then add the ones the team brings.
Is it free?
Yes. Two runs online need no account; after that a free account is enough, and runs use the Free plan’s weekly AI allowance. Exploring the examples is always free, and the AI canvas in the desktop app works on the Free plan too.
Find out how your plan fails — before it does
Two runs need no account, then a free account. To work on your own files, use the free desktop app.