think-premortemlisted

<!-- thinking-framework-skills | https://github.com/product-on-purpose/thinking-framework-skills | Apache-2.0 --> # Premortem A premortem stress-tests a plan by assuming it has *already failed* and reasoning backward to explain why, then converting each cause into a mitigation, a tripwire, and a kill criterion. The shift from "what might go wrong?" to "it went wrong, why?" is what does the work: it licenses dissent, surfaces more and more specific causes than ordinary risk review, and turns vague worry into pre-committed action while you can still change course. The output is a **risk register**, not a discussion. ## When to Use - Before a launch, hire, investment, migration, vendor selection, or any consequential, hard-to-reverse commitment. - When a plan has optimistic momentum and you suspect concerns are going unspoken. - When you want risks expressed as observable signals and pre-decided responses, not a feeling of caution. - Often *after* options have been compared and one has been chosen, as the last gate before committing. ## When NOT to Use - **After the outcome is known.** That is a postmortem, a different tool. - **For trivial or fully reversible (two-way-door) decisions.** The ceremony is not worth it. - **To generate options or to choose among them.** Use an ideation skill or a decision-option review; premortem is a risk tool. - **As a ritual to bless a decision already made.** If the mitigations will not be acted on, skip it; a premortem nobody acts on is t