Post-Mortem Reality

Why Projects
Really Fail

Spoiler: It's rarely bad planning or insufficient resources. It's information that arrived too late—or never arrived at all.

Anatomy of a Failed Project

Watch how "on track" becomes "off the rails"

Week 1-4
Status: On Track
Weekly reports show all green. Team is optimistic. Stakeholders are confident.
Reality: Technical debt is accumulating. PM knows but doesn't want to raise concerns "too early."
Week 5-8
Status: Minor Delays
Report mentions "slight timeline adjustments." Reassurances that team is "working through it."
Reality: Two major features are blocked. Team is working overtime. Director knows but doesn't want to alarm VP.
Week 9-12
Status: Risks Being Managed
"We've identified some challenges and have mitigation plans in place." Executive summary remains optimistic.
Reality: Vendor dependency failed. Scope needs to be cut. VP knows but needs "more time" to find solutions.
Week 13-16
Status: Escalation Required
Suddenly "unforeseen circumstances" require executive attention. Emergency meetings. War rooms.
Reality: Nothing was unforeseen. Data showed problems in Week 3. No one surfaced it.
Week 17+
Status: Post-Mortem
"Lessons learned" sessions. Process improvements. Blame distributed. Same cycle begins again.
Reality: The core problem—information filtering—is never addressed.

The Data Doesn't Lie

70%
of project issues are visible
in data before escalation
4-6
weeks average delay between
issue emerging and being reported
"The problem was visible in the data the whole time. We just weren't looking at it the right way."— Every Post-Mortem Ever

What SlideStrike Catches Early

Velocity Drops

AI spots when team productivity is declining—before anyone admits there's a problem.

Timeline Creep

Patterns across projects reveal when estimates are systematically too optimistic.

Risk Clusters

Connected dependencies and risks that span multiple projects become visible immediately.

The Question You Should Be Asking

If you had an unbiased analysis of your project data right now—would you make the same decisions you made last month?

Get that analysis. In 60 seconds.

Stop Managing Surprises

The data to prevent failures already exists. You just need to see it unfiltered.

See What's Really Happening