This exercise is something we run before product launches at Whimsical. It helps us anticipate potential issues with a launch from an end-user perspective so we can take proactive steps to mitigate them.


The pre-mortem was a handy tool to use to communicate with our Product team to highlight and bring awareness to potential confusion points that the UI changes may cause end-users. We were prepared for this at the launch, with options available to work around the changes until we received enough direct user feedback to revert one particular UI change. The exercise meant the launch and user response were managed seamlessly.


We ran this pre-mortem before we launched a major update to the workspace navigation in our product. It was a big UI change, and we wanted to ensure we had anticipated all the end-user impacts that could possibly happen so we could prepare for them. You can read more about that product launch 

When it came to prioritizing these tasks, our constraints were really role-based, since we couldn't impact direct product decisions within the timeframe pre-launch. Having that scope in place helped us focus only on things within our control that we 

Since we don't have a dedicated QA function yet, it's all hands on deck for us to keep testing to pick up any other potential risks. This item was more a reminder that testing helped us highlight the main issues in the pre-mortem so far, so let's keep testing because maybe there's something else we missed.


Darta Rina Türkmen

Jade Shearstone

Running this pre-mortem exercise prior to the launch of a major UI change at Whimsical allowed us to proactively mitigate any potential issues.

A pre-mortem is a technique used to foreshadow and mitigate the most obvious risks on a project. You imagine that the project has failed, and then work backwards to determine what potentially could lead to its failure.

By holding a pre-mortem, you are encouraged to spot major problems in advance of them occurring. Most importantly, action plans can be made to mitigate the top issues raised.

For product launch pre-mortems specifically

, it gives teams the confidence that all the most common scenarios and potential risks have been thought of and teams have a shared understanding of the why behind product decisions to best inform customers.

This board is focused on the upcoming product launch for Teams, so that CS/GTM can mitigate any potential problem areas for customers in advance of the launch.

Pre-Mortem Exercise at Whimsical

Pre-mortem: Teams Launch

What is a pre-mortem?

Why should we do them?

Pre-mortem board

Sign up to see more