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Productivity Blueprint

Stress-Test Any Decision With a Six-Persona Pre-Mortem

Neil KawdeProduct DesignerG2.comMay 2026

Uncover hidden failure modes before major decisions by stress-testing through six expert lenses, then get specific kill criteria and cheap tests to de-risk before you commit.

7 Files Included

  • README.md

    2 KB

  • plugin.json

    503 B

What does this do

Decision-makers use forward-looking pro/con lists which only surface 70% of risks. Need a structured way to stress-test hard-to-reverse decisions before committing.

How It Works

User invokes `/pre-mortem` command and describes a decision (product launch, hire, contract, job offer, strategy, relocation). System frames the decision with four attributes: statement, success criterion, reversibility class, and constraints. Then six expert personas (Skeptic, User, Operator, Lawyer, Exec, Future You) each independently surface 2-4 specific failure modes in their own voice. Failures are scored by likelihood × severity × (4-reversibility) to produce composite risk scores (1-75). Top 5-7 modes are ranked, and each gets a mitigation: either a kill criterion (pre-committed trigger to stop/pivot), a cheap test to run this week, or a pre-commitment decision rule. Finally, a one-page Markdown brief is generated with decision statement, top risks, mitigations, and a 90-day check-in prompt.

About This Blueprint

Industry
Information Technology