From 2375ce135dd7ebcd0d9ce59bac53d5b6f2ec6bb9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: jojoprison Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:17:35 +0700 Subject: [PATCH] feat: add pre-mortem step to plan-eng-review Add Step 0 (Pre-mortem) before Scope Challenge: "It's 3 months later and this plan failed. Top 3 reasons?" Forces inversion thinking before reviewing plan logic. Existing Scope Challenge becomes Step 0.1. Inspired by pre-mortem technique from structured plan stress-testing. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) --- plan-eng-review/SKILL.md | 9 +++++++-- 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/plan-eng-review/SKILL.md b/plan-eng-review/SKILL.md index b3f099a01..b0d8c2f4a 100644 --- a/plan-eng-review/SKILL.md +++ b/plan-eng-review/SKILL.md @@ -318,8 +318,13 @@ Options: If they skip: "No worries — standard review. If you ever want sharper input, try /office-hours first next time." Then proceed normally. Do not re-offer later in the session. -### Step 0: Scope Challenge -Before reviewing anything, answer these questions: +### Step 0: Pre-mortem +Before reviewing anything, perform a pre-mortem: +> "It's 3 months later and this plan failed. What are the top 3 reasons it failed?" +Think from the perspective of production reality, not the plan's logic. Name specific failure modes (data loss, performance cliff, security hole, team confusion), not abstract concerns. Present the 3 failure modes to the user before proceeding. + +### Step 0.1: Scope Challenge +After the pre-mortem, answer these questions: 1. **What existing code already partially or fully solves each sub-problem?** Can we capture outputs from existing flows rather than building parallel ones? 2. **What is the minimum set of changes that achieves the stated goal?** Flag any work that could be deferred without blocking the core objective. Be ruthless about scope creep. 3. **Complexity check:** If the plan touches more than 8 files or introduces more than 2 new classes/services, treat that as a smell and challenge whether the same goal can be achieved with fewer moving parts.