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Criterion
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Paper illustration for Evaporating Cloud.
Systems Thinking
Evaporating Cloud
Paper illustration for Failure Scenario Analysis.
Engineering
Failure Scenario Analysis
Paper illustration of a calm four-quadrant Assumption Map with hypothesis cards and emphasis on important assumptions with little evidence.
Product Discovery
Assumption Mapping
Purposedifferent
In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures.The method makes visible why two seemingly incompatible demands arise and which assumption must be tested to resolve the conflict.In critical processes, it is not enough to plan only for the normal case. Failure Scenario Analysis looks at the path into failure and shows which failures, chains, and control gaps cause the most damage.When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
20–45 min60-120 min1-3 h45-60 min
Participantsdifferent
Small cross-functional group2-83-82-8
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshopWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption logConflict Cloud, Assumption List, Breakthrough Ideas, Next ExperimentsFailure Scenarios, Risk Notes, Control Gaps, Test and Response ActionsAssumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking
Tagsno overlap
RiskDecisionFailurePlanning
Theory of ConstraintsAssumptionsSystems thinking
FailureResilienceRisk
AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation
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