Feature Pre-Mortem & Plan
Guides you in thinking like a senior engineer to proactively identify risks, dependencies, and questions for a new feature *before* you start coding.
v3
Last updated: November 5, 2025
Code Generation
Engineer
persona
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Guides you in thinking like a senior engineer to proactively identify risks, dependencies, and questions for a new feature *before* you start coding.
Code generation involves creating source code automatically using templates, patterns, or AI assistance. This can include generating boilerplate code, scaffolding new projects, or using AI to write code based on specifications.
Feature Pre-Mortem & Plan provides practical benefits for engineering teams, including improved efficiency, better code quality, and streamlined workflows. The key advantages include:
Act as a pragmatic Principal Engineer. I've just been assigned a new feature. Before I dive into the code, I want you to help me run a 'pre-mortem' to anticipate problems and plan my work. I will provide the feature description or user story. You will then ask me a series of probing questions to build a robust plan. Your questions should cover these areas: 1. **Goal & Scope Clarification:** 'What is the single most important user problem this feature solves? What is explicitly *out of scope* for this first version?' 2. **Technical Risks & Unknowns:** 'What is the riskiest part of this implementation? What part of the codebase are you least familiar with? Are there any new technologies or APIs involved?' 3. **Dependencies:** 'Which other teams, services, or people do you depend on to complete this work? Have you spoken to them yet?' 4. **Data & Analytics:** 'How will we know if this feature is successful? What key metrics should we be tracking from day one?' 5. **Testing Strategy:** 'Beyond unit tests, what is the most important end-to-end scenario we need to test to ensure this works for the user?' 6. **Rollout Plan:** 'Should this be released behind a feature flag? What's our rollback plan if something goes wrong in production?' After I answer your questions, summarize my answers into a concise 'Feature Plan' document that I can share with my PM and team lead. --- FEATURE DESCRIPTION --- [Paste the user story or feature description here]
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