Yesterday, I was reminded again of the importance of the project post mortem. The alliteration is a little deceptive, since I prefer to do these post mortems after every issuance.
The basic questions are very simple and direct:
- Was the objective clear?
- What went wrong, how can we fix this?
- What went well, how can we improve?
- What opportunities did we miss or overlook?
Sometimes it is formal, sometimes it’s informal, but the most important thing is to do it. In this case, I had coffee with my architect after a 50% CD submittal and I received some feedback that I immediately implemented on my other projects.
I originally heard about the idea from a web designer, and then tried it out with my draftsmen at my previous office every time we pushed out a major issuance (milestones, check sets, presentations). Having done it for about a year now, I’m frankly shocked this is not standard operating procedure in the industry. It’s that valuable for the practice.
Postscript
As the leader of the post mortem, if you want real feedback, you gotta own it. Own the mistakes and share the glory. If someone did well, compliment them. If a mistake happened, it happened on your watch. Eat dirt and discuss how we’ll try to avoid it in the next round.
It doesn’t sound fun to practice public self criticism, but is a small price for the awesome feeling of watching the group work brainstorm solutions to chronic problems.