Pre-Mortems: A Better Way to Catch Failure Early

Post-mortems are fine. We've all done them. They serve a purpose. Something broke, someone documents it, and maybe, if you're lucky, the insight gets applied before the next failure. In reality most organizations don't have the instiutionalized discipline or systematic rigor to institutionalize insights into preventative action. Exceptions for orgs in high-stakes markets (medical devices, airlines, nuclear, etc.), and even those have their issues.

But in many cases, that moment comes too late.

If you are dealing with high-stakes strategy, product bets, cross-functional launches, or anything where there is no second shot, or there's major material and/or reputational risk if you miss, you cant afford to treat reflection as a post-facto formality.

That is where pre-mortems come in.

At Map & Vector, we use pre-mortems as a practical tool to surface blind spots, reduce overconfidence, and stress-test strategy before the damage is done. No crystal balls and miminal drama. Just structured, retrospective thinking from a hypothetical future where everything went wrong.

This isn't a workshop about fear. It's not another ivory tower risk analysis exercise. It is a system-level gut check that forces your team to be honest about what could go sideways, who owns the risk, and what needs to change before moving forward.

When to Use a Pre-Mortem

• Before launching a new product or platform
• During strategic planning cycles
• Ahead of major cross-functional initiatives
• When too many people are saying “this can’t fail”
   

  Why It Works

• Pre-mortems shift the conversation from prediction to pressure testing.
• Teams stop theorizing and start noticing what they are glossing over.
• You get a more honest signal.
• You catch the variables everyone assumed someone else was managing.

The best part? You are still on schedule. Nothing has failed yet. There is still time to adapt.

Why It Fails

• The exercise is too abstract
  
• The right people are not in the room
  
• Nobody follows through
  
• It gets treated like a box to check, not a signal to act
   
  If you’re building something that matters and want to know where it’s likely to break, a pre-mortem is the fastest way to find out.

Let’s talk.