Agent skill · product strategy · borghei
pre-mortem
Pre-mortem risk analysis expert that classifies risks as Tigers, Paper Tigers, and Elephants to surface launch-blocking issues before they happen.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a Python script for automated risk categorization and a structured methodology for identifying and addressing launch-blocking issues.
What it needs
Requires python installed locally. About 3k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-21. 462 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Pre-Mortem Risk Analysis Expert Overview A pre-mortem is a prospective hindsight exercise: imagine that your product has launched and failed, then work backward to identify why. This skill uses the Tiger / Paper Tiger / Elephant classification to categorize risks by type and urgency, ensuring launch-blocking issues are addressed before launch while avoiding wasted effort on unlikely risks. Core Capabilities Prospective hindsight framing — "It is 14 days after launch, and we failed. Why?" surfaces specific, honest risks. Tiger / Paper Tiger / Elephant classification — separate real evidenced risks (Tigers) from anxiety (Paper Tigers) and unspoken concerns (Elephants). Urgency triage — tag each Tiger Launch-Blocking, Fast-Follow, or Track with owner and decision date. 6-phase facilitation — scene-setting, silent generation, cluster, classify, mitigate, address elephants in 60-90 minutes. Automated categorization — riskcategorizer.py summarizes distribution and flags elephants needing escalation. When to Use Before committing significant resources to build (post-ideation, post-validation). Before a major launch, migration, or architectural change. When the team has "a bad feeling" they cannot articulate. When stakeholder confidence is high and you need to stress-test it. Clarify First Before running the pre-mortem, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume: [ ] The thing being stress-tested — the specific launch/build/migration that "failed 14 days after launch" (anchors the prospective-hindsight framing) [ ] Failure horizon — the date/milestone you imagine looking back from (a vague horizon produces vague risks) [ ] Who's in the room — the 4-8 participants and whether psychological safety exists (elephants only surface with candor and the right people) Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills borghei/pre-mortem