Strategy prompt

Pre-mortem: assume the launch failed

Gary Klein's method: imagine it's six months later and the project died, then fix every cause before launch.

How it helps

You get the failure scenarios in detail, when each one would hit, and one preventive move for each before launch.

How to use it

Copy the prompt below.
Swap each [bracket] for your own details. The more specific you are, the better the answer.
Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini and send it.

The prompt

I'm about to launch something in my [cannabis business] and I want you to run a Pre-Mortem Analysis using Gary Klein's method. Here is how it works: it is 6 months from now and this project has failed completely. Dead. Work backwards and tell me every plausible reason it died. Be industry-specific: state compliance and licensing, packaging and labeling rules, lab testing, seed-to-sale tracking, dispensary buyer response, customer reception, pricing and price compression, team execution, timing, harvest and supply, cash and banking, and competitive response. Do not give me generic risks like 'poor execution.' Give me scenario-level detail. What went wrong, when in the timeline, and why I did not see it coming. Then, for each failure scenario, give me one preventive action I can take right now, before launch. My project: [DESCRIBE YOUR UPCOMING PROJECT OR LAUNCH]

What you fill in

cannabis business
DESCRIBE YOUR UPCOMING PROJECT OR LAUNCH

More strategy prompts

See every prompt

Claude, ChatGPT, or GeminiFirst principles thinking for a stuck problemStrip a problem down to what is actually true and rebuild the answer, instead of copying what every other shop does.Claude, ChatGPT, or GeminiInversion: list every way this could failCharlie Munger's tool: find every realistic way an initiative dies, then turn each into a preventive action.Claude, ChatGPT, or GeminiThe 5 Whys: find the real root causeToyota's method for getting past the symptom to something structural you can actually fix.