if you've been part of any project you know things don't always go as planned even if you finished on time and under budget there's a good chance you can always find better ways to run projects the post-pandemic world has made managing projects even harder team configurations constantly change both internally and at client organizations and with more communication happening virtually no wonder it's tough to build the strong connections you need to make projects succeed that's why it's more important than ever to carve out time and space to gather feedback from your team and figure out ways you can work better together the best way to assess your work is to conduct a project post-mortem meeting let's take a closer look at what a postmortem meaning is in project management but before we get started go ahead and subscribe to the channel and hit the Thumbs Up Button if you want to see more content like this and turn on notifications while you're at it so you don't miss any of our videos a post-mortem meeting brings all key project team members together at the end of a project to examine what went well and what can be improved upon to make the next project more successful this gives you an opportunity to celebrate both individual and team wins while also reflecting on how you can improve project workflow team collaboration and client management as a project manager your job is to facilitate a useful meeting and then take any feedback and work alongside others to implement positive change you also need to pass any accolades on to leadership and the larger team the core reason to conduct a post-mortem analysis is to continue getting better at project delivery taking time to talk about what didn't work allows you to prioritize issues and brainstorm ideas for improving as both team and individuals if you're on the fence about whether you really need to do a project postmortem I get it the budget is over at this point and your team is moving on to other projects as a PM though it's up to you to educate your team and leaders about the importance of this meeting let's take a look at some additional benefits of a postmortem review everyone wants to know their work is valued and appreciated by their team members so don't miss a chance to reflect on the work that's been accomplished with difficult projects it's easy to forget everything you did successfully taking a moment to recognize all the awesome stuff you did together is a great way to boost morale as you head into the next project post-mortem reviews help you learn how to collaborate better as a team highlighting where you worked well together and where communication broke down transparent and honest sharing builds Mutual understanding and brings you closer together as a team this is especially critical in workplaces that rely on Virtual meetings and slack relationships to get things done sharing perspectives as a team creates opportunities to look at the project from other Vantage points understanding how certain challenges affect team members differently enables you to work together to adjust and address issues you may not have been aware of before sometimes it's important to have space to Simply get something off your chest a good open post-mortem discussion gives everyone the opportunity to say their piece and move on this is especially critical for projects that go sideways if you've ever heard of a retrospective in project management you might be curious how it differs from a postmortem some people use these terms interchangeably especially if they're using more of a waterfall or hybrid process versus scrum or agile all that being said there is technically a difference between a project post-mortem and a retrospective it basically comes down to the process and rituals you set for your project here are the main differences postmortems occur at the end of a fully completed project while retrospectives occur at the end of each Sprint or iteration this means you'll review the entire project at a post-morta meeting versus just the most recent Sprint retrospectives include a smaller group which is just the project team on the current Sprint a postmortem should span all project team members and management stakeholders across the entire project since post-mortems happen after project completion they typically focus on what went wrong and fixing it for the next project retrospectives on the other hand focus on improving the quality and Effectiveness for the next Sprint preparing for your project post-mortem is even more important than running a good postmortem meeting that's because it sets the tone for the people you invite signaling whether or not the meeting is going to be worth their time as a project manager you likely know this moment All Too Well the one where attendees decide if they're going to fully participate or check out of the process while the steps you take to prepare for the project post mortem will vary based on your project approach length and team these tips can help guide your preparation a project post-mortem should happen quickly after the project wraps so the details are fresh on everyone's Minds it also enables you to strike while the iron is hot before folks move on to the next thing book the meeting for 45 to 50 minutes that should be plenty of time to get some real tangible next steps put together if it's too long people will check out plus making it shorter than an hour leaves room for overrun if an important topic needs closure and who doesn't appreciate a few extra minutes between meetings you want to include all team members who are part of each different aspect of the project be sure to consider these key groups team members involved in the initial project Discovery often get left out of post-mortem discussions maybe it's because their participation happened so long ago or they played a smaller role in the project either way they're just as important as other team members and Can Shed light on critical areas of improvement between early and later phases of project development I get it it's the end of a project and you've most likely gone over budget and don't want to pay a contractor for more time but if you plan to keep using that contractor investing in how they work with a team now will provide efficiencies down the road issues with the Project's original scope or contract often pop up in post-mortem meetings inviting the people responsible for sales into the conversation gives them the opportunity to understand those concerns while demonstrating how you work and building empathy between the teams sending an agenda ahead of time makes sure everyone knows what to expect from the project postmortem and can adequately prepare for the meeting here are some details you may want to include in your postmortem meeting agenda let's be honest most people ignore the invite list until one minute before the meeting listing out all the attendees in your agenda brings the scope of the meeting into focus it not only shows how many people are investing time in the post-mortem analysis but that you value the conversation and opportunity to change make it clear why you're getting everyone together to reflect on the project it's also helpful to outline the steps that will follow the meeting so everyone's clear about what comes next many people feel more comfortable knowing how a meeting will be structured especially if this is their first time participating in a project postmortem giving attendees a preview of the questions you'll address together enables them to collect their thoughts ahead of time so the conversation can run more smoothly on meeting day some attendees may not have worked on the project for months while others might have a limited view of project activities or communication a brief project recap brings everyone up to speed on the project goals and whether or not you met them you'll make the most out of the meeting if attendees walk in prepared the big question is how do you motivate them to do it consider these two options option one survey attendees before the post-mortem meeting many folks recommend asking people to complete a questionnaire or pre-fill the Retro board before the meeting the risk you run when using a post-mortem survey is that your team might be too busy to fill it out so if you do go this route be ready to follow up for responses or better yet make the postmortem questionnaire short and simple project postmortem survey questions could be as simple as what worked and what didn't work or you can go deeper by asking your team to rate overall team performance on a scale of one to ten option two book prep time on attendee calendars ask each person to throw 15 minutes on their calendar ahead of the meeting to think about the good and bad of the project looking over the questions you'll cover if any attendees use a resource planning tool to schedule their days go ahead and book that for 15 minutes for them for others consider sending them a meeting invite to block out the time on their calendar for thinking it may be a bit of extra work but it is effective feel free to list a few themes that have already been mentioned to get folks thinking all of this prep work will go a long way toward helping your post-mortem review go smoothly on meeting day remember to keep this meeting focused by following these Simple Rules a good moderator drives a conversation and makes sure the post-mortem meeting stays on track while the project manager often wears this hat this role doesn't have to default to you look for someone who is actively involved in the project with up close knowledge of the ins and outs of what happened the right moderator should be able to get all attendees engaged in the discussion keep the meeting moving at a steady pace and de-escalate conflict and facilitate constructive conversation if you do end up moderating the meeting be sure to designate a separate Note Taker that way you can focus on the big picture without missing key action items or Lessons Learned it's important to outline what you expect from each attendee so kick off the meeting with a few ground rules on screen are a few guidelines you might consider there are all kinds of formats for post-mortem meetings some of which can get very lengthy and specific to the project in general simple is always better because it keeps people engaged in the process and leave space for discussion to flow more freely essentially your goals are to uncover project wins and losses lift up team celebrations or frustrations and brainstorm solutions that ultimately lead to action and here's a bonus tip don't be afraid to mix things up and Infuse some fun if your team just finished a massive project that left them demoralized because the client responded poorly digging into what went wrong might not be the best approach I heard of one project where the PM ditched the traditional meeting format and surprised the team with a candy-filled pinata instead while it probably didn't shake the Dark Cloud completely I'm sure it relieved some of the weight and was a big step towards team building collaborative board apps enable you to visually process and organize comments as a team it's also an easy way to get people involved in the process by letting them add their own feedback and suggestions to the board use an online whiteboard like fig Jam or teamgants project boards to capture key points create columns that fit the format of your meeting color code notes by topic or type and rearrange issues and ideas by priority here's a post-mortem review meeting board we built in teamgantt in this example we use custom labels to tag ideas by team and next steps by priority you can also assign people and deadlines to action items for instant accountability and tracking you may be in charge of the post-mortem meeting but that doesn't mean you're responsible for solving all the issues your job is to craft an action plan then share it with the right people and ask them to execute it the point of capturing action items and owners in a plan is to spread the information and work around sure there will be project management items you need to address but you don't have to fix it all and shouldn't that's where a postmortem report comes in let's walk through what goes into a good project post-mortem report a postmortem report enables you to document important findings and put issues and ideas into accountable action download our free post-mortem report template then follow these simple steps for writing a post-mortem report for your projects provide a brief recap of the basics so it's easy to tie your report to the right project and people these details should include the project name postmortem meeting date and attendees you may also want to add the project time frame budget and team members your post-mortem report should be framed around opportunities for improvement create a new line item for any issue identified in your postmortem meeting log all the solutions proposed for the issues outlined in your report some ideas may not be the direction you want to head in but keep them for reference just in case now you need to turn those ideas into action give every solution your team decides to pursue an actionable next step and be sure to note what done looks like clearly state who's responsible for each action item otherwise those well-intentioned next steps may not make it past the page use the notes section to add any relevant project context or background information for example maybe your team tried scrum for the first time or use the new communication tool to collaborate on the project it's a group effort to roll out changes as you take on new projects so find a way to share your project postmortem Report with others especially if you work in a larger organization the more you can socialize the changes the better your whole organization will evolve its process and practices teamgat makes it easy to smooth out processed Kinks and get your team in sync use an interactive board to capture feedback during your post-mortem meeting and instantly turn action items into a collaborative plan that's easy to schedule track and share you'll have everything you need to make sure projects finish on time and budget from drag and drop Simplicity and team collaboration to customizable views and Resource Management best of all it's wrapped in a simple and intuitive interface your whole team will love and that's it for this video on our project post-mortem meaning and Report template I hope you found it helpful if you did I'd love it if you could return the favor and hit the like button and don't forget to subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so you don't miss any of our videos thanks for watching I'll see you next time [Music]