Post Mortem

/cs:post-mortem — Honest Retrospective

Command: /cs:post-mortem

Closes the strategic sprint loop. Scores a decision against the success and kill criteria written before the decision (not retro-fitted) and revisits the preserved dissent. This is the rigor that compounds over time.

Pipeline Position

/cs:office-hours  →  /cs:brief  →  /cs:boardroom  →  /cs:decide  →  /cs:execute  →  /cs:post-mortem
                                                                                       ↑ you are here

When to Run

• At the 90-day checkpoint (auto-scheduled by /cs:decide)
• When a kill criterion triggers
• After a major decision is reversed
• Quarterly on all decisions of the past quarter

Inputs

• The decision record (output of /cs:decide)
• The execution plan (output of /cs:execute)
• Actual outcomes (metrics, events, customer signals)

Output: Post-Mortem Record

Saved to ~/.claude/postmortems/YYYY-MM-DD-.md:

# Post-Mortem: 
**Decision date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Post-mortem date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Status:** WIN / PARTIAL / LOSS / MIXED

## Outcome Scoring (against pre-committed criteria)

| Success Criterion | Threshold | Actual | Met? |
|---|---|---|---|
|  |  |  | ✅ / ❌ |
|  |  |  | ✅ / ❌ |

| Kill Criterion | Threshold | Actual | Triggered? |
|---|---|---|---|
|  |  |  | ✅ / ❌ |

**Overall:** WIN / PARTIAL / LOSS / MIXED

## What We Got Right
- 
- 

## What We Got Wrong
- 
- 

## Preserved Dissent — Revisited
[Original dissent from the boardroom memo, scored:]

- **:** 
  - **Did it materialize?** YES / NO / PARTIAL
  - **Cost if YES:** 
  - **Lesson:** 

## Assumption Audit
[Original brief's assumptions, scored:]

- **Assumption 1:** 
  - **Held?** YES / NO / PARTIAL
  - **Why:** 

## Process Lessons
- **Phase 2 isolation worked?** YES / NO
- **Devil's advocate concerns played out?** YES / NO / PARTIAL
- **Cadence was right?** YES / TOO LOOSE / TOO TIGHT

## Forward Actions
- [ ] 
- [ ] 
- [ ] 

## Status
- WIN → archive, log lesson
- LOSS → schedule follow-up boardroom: `/cs:brief` for the next call

Why Pre-Committed Criteria Matter

The biggest temptation in post-mortems is retroactive justification: "we always knew X, that's why we did Y." Pre-committed criteria, signed at /cs:decide time, eliminate that move. The numbers either matched or they didn't.

Why Revisit Dissent

The dissent column from /cs:boardroom is the single most useful piece of organizational memory. Most of the time, the dissenter was directionally right. Revisiting and scoring it builds calibration over years.

Routing

• /cs:brief — if the post-mortem surfaces a new decision
• /cs:freeze — if the post-mortem reveals a process gap that needs cooldown enforcement
• Updates to company-context.md via cs-onboard

Related

• Skill: [decision-logger](../../../skills/decision-logger/SKILL.md)
• Agent: [cs-chief-of-staff](../../agents/cs-chief-of-staff.md)
• Sibling: [/em:postmortem](../../../executive-mentor/skills/postmortem/SKILL.md) — adversarial single-decision post-mortem

---

Version: 1.0.0

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: AlexBramall
• Source: AlexBramall/claude-code-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.