# The Premortem — Debrief

> A premortem earns its keep only when a worry becomes a cause, the cause gets a signal, and the signal gets a watcher. Three words on a board is a list; an owner and a by-when is protection.
> Use with `the-premortem-guide.md`. The assign round at minute 21 is the compressed version; this sheet is the full one.

## How to run this debrief

- Point at the board while you talk — causes, signals and actions are already in front of the team; the debrief pressure-tests them, it doesn't re-collect them.
- Push every signal twice: would you truly notice it two months out, and who watches it? Unwatched signals are decoration.
- Close on one thing done differently this week, with a name and a date against it.

## Read the board

1. **Which cause made the most people nod.** The one everyone thought but nobody had said — that's what the format was for.
2. **Which causes are the same cause in different clothes.** Cluster them before you act; five notes about "the handoff" is one cause with five symptoms.
3. **Whose cause is missing.** If someone went quiet mid-round, their risk is the one you didn't write down. Go get it.

## The four debrief questions

- For the cause you picked first: what is the early-warning signal, and would you actually notice it two months out — or only in hindsight?
- Who owns the signal, how often do they look, and what happens when they see it?
- Is the preventive action a real change, or a meeting to discuss the change?
- If this cause fires anyway, what's the fallback — or is "we'll deal with it then" the honest answer?

## Failure modes of the debrief

| Failure mode | Why it happens | The rescue |
|---|---|---|
| The causes are all safe | Nobody named the real one | Ask directly: "if this fails and you'd get blamed — what would you say it was?" |
| Signals with no watchers | Everyone agreed, nobody volunteered | Assign a name to each of the top three before anyone leaves. |
| It becomes a complaint session | The real risk sits with another team | Park it as a named dependency with an owner who will raise it elsewhere. |
| The action is a meeting | Real change feels expensive | Push for the cheapest concrete move that fits this week. |