Whiteboard PromptsProject pre-mortem on Claude Whiteboards
Declare that the project has already failed, have everyone write why, group and rate the reasons, and leave with a prevention step, an early warning sign and an owner for each top risk.
Use it when: A plan is agreed but work has not started, with 4 to 10 of the people who will do the work.
Project pre-mortem
What you type here fills every prompt below and stays in this browser.
- 0′Lay out the board
- 3′Put the plan on the board
- 8′Declare the failure and write alone
- 20′Round-robin readout
- 28′Group into failure themes
- 33′Find what nobody wrote
- 37′Rate likelihood and impact
- 43′Prevention and early warning signs
- 55′Owners and plan changes
Agenda, 60 minutes. Click a time to jump to its step.
Before the meeting
- Write the plan as 5 to 10 plain lines: goal, deadline, scope, milestones, who does what. You paste it in step 2. Claude only works from what is on the board, not from your project doc or connected apps.
- Invite the people who will do the work, not only their managers. Click Share and invite them by email; guests outside your organization need the outside-invitations setting turned on by a Team or Enterprise admin.
- Run step 1 ten minutes early, so people join a board that already shows the failure banner.
- 0–3 min
Lay out the board
Run this before people join. Check that the red banner is at the top and "Why it failed" is the largest area on the board.
Start a whiteboard for a pre-mortem on Moving 1,200 customer accounts to the new billing system. At the top, add a red banner that reads: "It is the week after March 31. Moving 1,200 customer accounts to the new billing system has failed. It was a clear failure, not a near miss." Below the banner on the left, add an empty section called "The plan". Next to it, add a large empty section called "Why it failed" that takes up most of the board. Below those, add an empty 2 by 2 grid called "Risk grid" with Likelihood on the horizontal axis (low to high) and Impact on the vertical axis (low to high). At the bottom, add a section called "Risk register" laid out as a table with the columns Risk, Prevent, Early warning sign, Owner, Check date.
Board after this stepRed failure banner, an empty plan section, a large empty "Why it failed" area, an empty risk grid and an empty register table.
Steps 2 to 9 are in the workshop kit
You have the setup prompt and the full agenda. The kit adds the other 8 prompts of this project pre-mortem, what to do while Claude works on each one, and 3 follow-up prompts: Risk register sheet, Revised plan doc, Weekly warning-sign check. The same for all 12 workshops, plus the 40-prompt library.
One payment, no subscription. Opens in this browser as soon as Stripe checkout completes.- 3–8 min
Put the plan on the board
In the kitIn "The plan", put each line of this plan on its own sticky note, in the same order, keeping the wording and every number and date exactly …
Board after this stepThe agreed plan as 5 to 10 notes, so everyone writes against the same version.
- 8–20 min
Declare the failure and write alone
In the kitAdd what I'm about to say as separate sticky notes in "Why it failed", one note per reason …
Board after this stepThirty to eighty failure reasons, each a past-tense event with initials.
- 20–28 min
Round-robin readout
In the kitAdd these reasons from the readout as separate sticky notes in "Why it failed", in the past tense, keeping the wording …
Board after this stepEvery reason anyone in the room holds is on the board, including the ones people only say out loud.
- 28–33 min
Group into failure themes
In the kitGroup the sticky notes in "Why it failed" by theme …
Board after this stepSix to twelve named failure themes with counts.
- 33–37 min
Find what nobody wrote
In the kitFind the gaps …
Board after this stepUp to five grey suggestions next to the plan; the team keeps the real ones.
- 37–43 min
Rate likelihood and impact
In the kitPlace a copy of each theme label in the "Risk grid" using only these ratings from the team …
Board after this stepEvery theme sits in a quadrant; the high-high square holds the top risks, usually three to five.
- 43–55 min
Prevention and early warning signs
In the kitLook only at the notes in this group …
Board after this stepEach top risk has sized prevention options, one of them ticked, and one early warning sign.
- 55–60 min
Owners and plan changes
In the kitTurn every top risk into a row in the "Risk register" table …
Board after this stepA filled risk register and a list of plan changes; the board stays as the record.
After the meeting
Risk register sheet
In the kitCreate a sheet from the "Risk register" table on this board with the columns Risk, Prevent, Early warning sign, Owner, Check date, Status, Last …
Revised plan doc
In the kitTurn this board into a one-page doc called "Moving 1,200 customer accounts to the new billing system …
Weekly warning-sign check
In the kitWrite the early warning signs from the register as a numbered checklist, one line each with its owner and check date, that I can paste into our …
What goes wrong on Claude Whiteboards
- Keep "has failed" in the past tense in every prompt. Ask Claude for "risks" and the notes come back hedged and generic, such as "possible delays"; ask why it failed and the notes name concrete events.
- 2 more pitfalls for this workshop are in the kit
Board layout
A board with the plan, every failure reason grouped into named themes, a likelihood by impact grid, and a prevention step, early warning sign and owner for each top risk. Plus a list of changes to the plan and a risk register sheet.
Agenda at a glance
| Minutes | Step | What the board shows afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 | Lay out the board | Red failure banner, an empty plan section, a large empty "Why it failed" area, an empty risk grid and an empty register table. |
| 3–8 | Put the plan on the board | The agreed plan as 5 to 10 notes, so everyone writes against the same version. |
| 8–20 | Declare the failure and write alone | Thirty to eighty failure reasons, each a past-tense event with initials. |
| 20–28 | Round-robin readout | Every reason anyone in the room holds is on the board, including the ones people only say out loud. |
| 28–33 | Group into failure themes | Six to twelve named failure themes with counts. |
| 33–37 | Find what nobody wrote | Up to five grey suggestions next to the plan; the team keeps the real ones. |
| 37–43 | Rate likelihood and impact | Every theme sits in a quadrant; the high-high square holds the top risks, usually three to five. |
| 43–55 | Prevention and early warning signs | Each top risk has sized prevention options, one of them ticked, and one early warning sign. |
| 55–60 | Owners and plan changes | A filled risk register and a list of plan changes; the board stays as the record. |
Run every workshop, not just the retro
Anthropic's help page gives three sample prompts. Free prompt packs give single prompts. The kit gives you the whole session: what to paste, in what order, how many minutes each step takes, what you do while Claude works and what the board should show before you move on.
| Free here | Workshop kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint retrospective | The whole script | The whole script |
| The other 11 workshops | Agenda, board layout and the first prompt | Every prompt in order, with what you do at each step |
| Prompts that turn the board into a doc, deck, tracker sheet or Miro board | Retro only | For every workshop (40 in all) |
| Mistakes to avoid on Claude Whiteboards | One per workshop | All of them |
| Single-job prompt library | 10 prompts | All 40 |
| Copy, print or download a script | Retro only | All 12, plus the whole kit as one Markdown file |
$19one payment
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