Project Postmortem Facilitation that Gets Results

“We hired LSA to design and deliver a Project Postmortem and Retrospective for 65 key people on a critical project with a very tight turnaround. The objective was to get agreement on the key actions that we should implement going forward to ensure that the rest of our project was a success.

It was not an easy task with so many skeptical people with different agendas, styles, experiences, and perspectives. LSA got to the heart of the issues in a constructive and unbiased manner that exceeded my expectations.”
Darrell Gallagher | Head of Studio | Crystal Dynamics

“LSA recently designed and delivered a project postmortem for a highly strategic project with a group of 25 team members from engineering, design, marketing, product management, sales, manufacturing, purchasing, business development, research, and finance. The pre-workshop diagnostic, interviews, and experiential session greatly exceeded our expectations.

We were able to honestly and effectively get everything out on the table, agree upon key lessons, and create a targeted action plan that made sense for our unique situation, team, and culture. The whole process made a very complex and potentially political situation a big success. We could not have done the retrospective without LSA.”
Eric Vernon | Director of Operations | Dolby Laboratories

Project Postmortem and Retrospective
Research suggests that nearly 75% of projects fail to fully meet their original objectives, timelines, budgets, or success criteria. For organizations operating in fast-moving and high-stakes environments, that level of underperformance represents a significant missed opportunity.

Research from the Wharton School, Cornell University, and the University of Colorado demonstrates that teams that intentionally reflect before, during, and after major initiatives significantly improve future decision-making and execution effectiveness. In fact, structured project reviews can increase a team’s ability to accurately identify the drivers of future outcomes by nearly one-third.

LSA Global’s highly experiential and customized Project Postmortem and Retrospective process helps organizations turn project experience into measurable performance improvement. Often paired with our Principles of Project Management Workshop, change management simulation, and Project Best Practices Diagnostic, the process combines multi-industry project management best practices with practical, research-backed methodologies designed to improve execution, alignment, accountability, and results.

Rather than assigning blame, the process creates a structured and psychologically safe environment where project leaders, team members, and stakeholders can objectively evaluate what worked, what did not, and what should change moving forward.

The targeted insights and recommendations help project leaders and teams to:

Launch projects with greater clarity, alignment, and confidence.
Establish shared understanding around current realities, priorities, and project status.
Create closure and strengthen trust by ensuring team members and stakeholders feel heard.
Capture actionable lessons learned and identify specific opportunities for improvement.
Apply proven project management best practices to future initiatives.
Identify, assess, and proactively manage project risks throughout the project lifecycle.
Recalibrate priorities and determine the most critical next steps.
Implement practical solutions tailored to the organization’s strategy, culture, operating environment, and business objectives.

Depending on the organization’s goals, the assessment can focus exclusively on the project team or incorporate a broader 360-degree stakeholder perspective to provide deeper organizational insight and alignment.

This proven Project Postmortem and Retrospective methodology evaluates three critical project success dimensions supported by 27 key performance indicators to identify strengths, gaps, risks, and targeted opportunities to improve future project execution and business impact.

Project Postmortem: A Step-by-Step Guide to Learning From Failed Projects

Structured debriefings that create a shared experience with colleagues reduce stress, foster resilience, and improve future performance by up to 30%.

I. Project Definition: Laying out the foundation for a successful project.

Project Business Case, Urgency, Current State Analysis, and Vision for Success
Project Goals and Accountabilities
Project Success Metrics
Project Statement of Work
Project Stakeholders
Project Roles and Team Norms
Project Sponsor
Project Resources
Project and Change Communication Plan

II. Project Planning: Organizing and planning in a way to succeed the first time.

Project Risk Management Planning
Project Risk Identification
Project Plan
Project Support
Project Schedule
Project Resources
Project Balance of Cost, Quality, and Time

III. Project Execution: Executing the plan effectively and efficiently.

Project Kickoff
Project Problem Solving
Project Conflict Resolution
Project Continuous Improvement
Project Reward Systems
Project Meetings
Project Accountability
Project Trust
Project Communication
Project Decision Making
Project Change Management
Project Progress

Target Audience
Anyone who is managing a project, sponsoring a project, starting a project, or completing a project. Valuable tool for project kickoff, project check-ins, and project postmortems.

To speak with an LSA Expert and learn about the Project Postmortem Management Training and Consulting customization and Project Retrospective delivery options for your company, please contact us.

Related Information

We hired LSA to design and deliver a Project Postmortem for sixty five key people on a mission critical project with a very tight turnaround. LSA’s ability to identify the key trends, leverage points, and next steps was remarkable.

They really got to the heart of the issues in a constructive and unbiased manner that exceeded our expectations.

It was not an easy task with so many skeptical people with different agendas, styles, experience, and perspectives. But they nailed it. Thank you!

Darrell Gallagher
Head of Studio

The customized Program Management Leadership workshop was exceptional—highly engaging, practical, and immediately actionable. The team gained valuable strategies to strengthen execution excellence, elevate program leadership, and drive meaningful impact on the company’s growth.

Scott Bordelon
Senior Principal Engineering Program Manager

Thanks for a great and valuable session. The Project Management expertise and methodology that you brought to the table was perfectly targeted to our needs and our company. You definitely helped us launch an important step in driving best practice company standards around project management. I highly recommend this workshop to anyone looking to improve project management skills and methodologies.

Bill Thayer
VP Field Operations

We recently designed and implemented two high value Project Management Workshops with LSA. The goal was to improve the fundamental project management skills for less experienced project managers and team members and to prepare our experienced project managers to become PMP certified. The programs were very well received and additional sessions have been requested. Both facilitators were excellent, building strong rapport with our scientists and taking time to encourage & answer questions. Based upon the results and the feedback around the company, the next workshops are already full. I highly recommend LSA to any company looking to take their project management skills to the next level.

Stacey Porter
Senior Manager Learning & Development

We turned to LSA Global to help us take our project risk management practices to the next level. As we continue to grow and our projects are increasing significantly in complexity, it is imperative that we incorporate risk management best practices deeper into our Delivery and Project Management methodologies to continue to increase productivity, efficiency, and client satisfaction. I am really happy with the results and would recommend LSA to anyone looking to take project risk management to the next level.

Scott Wassmer
US Director of Production

LSA recently designed and delivered a project postmortem for a highly strategic project with a group of 25 team members from engineering, design, marketing, product management, sales, manufacturing, purchasing, business development, research, and finance. The pre-workshop diagnostic, interviews, and experiential session greatly exceeded our expectations.

Eric Vernon
Director of Operations

The project management training program was fantastic. It could not have gone any better. It was extremely helpful to me as a manager to be strategic during a time of explosive growth and change. It was fully customized to our industry and our needs, everyone came out of it with a solid direction of next steps. We are excited to take the next steps with LSA Global and to implement the project management best practices in a way that works for our unique culture.

Karen M. Inzilla
Director, Sales Operations

LSA’s Project Management facilitator is one of the best I have ever worked with. His efforts and work in teaching complex and intensive Project Management principles across all levels and backgrounds within our organization have been of the highest value.

Leslie Guzman
Learning and Development

We have found LSA to be highly responsive to meeting our unique project management training program needs. Their passion for high levels of customer satisfaction and quality align very closely with our core values.

Kudos to LSA Global for the custom program that they provided my team. It was exactly what I wanted, and your team did a great job of engaging our group and providing the solid Project Management skills that we need.

Laura McHugh
Director

LSA’s ability to do an effective project postmortem and then help us to use those insights to define and plan our next strategic project were invaluable. Their practical approach and built-for-purpose project kickoff and definition methodology have definitely taken our project definition, project planning, and project management skills to the next level.

I bet they helped us to move 4 times faster than we would have without their help.

Elizabeth Smith, PMP
Senior Project & Portfolio Manager

LSA did a great job. The project management solution was really well done from both a content and approach perspective. Overall a very positive experience that provided a lot of value. They really understood the art and science of project management and the specifics of our industry.

Laxmi Peri
VP Technology & Product Development

FAQs

A project postmortem is a structured review conducted after a major milestone or project completion to evaluate what worked, what failed, and what should change moving forward. Effective project postmortems help teams identify root causes, improve accountability, strengthen communication, reduce future project risk, and accelerate execution. Research shows that organizations that consistently reflect on project outcomes significantly improve future performance and decision making.

LSA Global combines research-backed project management best practices with highly customized facilitation designed around your strategy, culture, team dynamics, and business objectives. Instead of generic “lessons learned” sessions, the process focuses on honest dialogue, identifying systemic issues, aligning stakeholders, and converting insights into targeted action plans that teams will actually implement.

The most effective project postmortems involve key stakeholders across functions and levels, including project sponsors, project managers, core team members, cross-functional partners, and, when appropriate, customers or external stakeholders. LSA Global often facilitates postmortems with participants from engineering, product management, operations, marketing, sales, finance, manufacturing, and leadership to ensure a complete and balanced perspective.

Project postmortems are most valuable immediately after a major milestone, project completion, failed initiative, strategic pivot, or critical launch. Many organizations also use “mini retrospectives” throughout long-term projects to identify risks early, improve alignment, and recalibrate before problems escalate. Some teams combine project premortems before launch with postmortems after completion to strengthen execution from start to finish.

Organizations that use structured project postmortems often see improved cross-functional alignment, stronger project governance, higher employee engagement, better risk management, faster decision making, and fewer repeated mistakes. In one high-stakes global technology engagement, LSA Global helped a client align on the top ten actions needed to directly improve future project results after a politically sensitive two-year initiative.