A pre-mortem meeting allows teams to identify potential failures before they happen, creating psychological safety and a shared vocabulary for discussing risks.

In a pre-mortem, team members share concerns about what could go wrong, which fosters a culture of openness and proactive problem-solving.

I encourage teams to identify 'tigers' (real threats), 'paper tigers' (seeming threats), and 'elephants' (unspoken issues) during pre-mortems to enhance discussion.

A common mistake teams make when trying to implement the working backwards process is that they start with a solution instead of a customer problem, which leads to retrofitting the problem to fit the solution.

Engaging in hard questions before a project starts enables us to ship something successful later.

The working backwards review is a meeting with leadership to review the concept, press release, and fact, which can serve as a gate to approving a project.

If you fail, it's better to fail early in the process rather than after investing months into a project.

When faced with a failing project, it's often best to shut it down rather than invest more resources into it.

Before starting any work, forecast the potential outcomes of your efforts. If the best-case scenario is not significant, reconsider whether the effort is worth pursuing.