The policy premortem: using lessons of failure to help predict policies that might actually work. 

Goranson, C. and Satiani, S.

In Spring 2019 we partnered with X (previously Google X) to conduct a premortem workshop during the Policy Innovation Lab course. A premortem is an exercise geared towards identifying problems proactively and coming up with creative solutions to mitigate them before implementation. Students were presented with four hypothetical products that had policy implications and asked to identify the reasons why they had failed in future generations. Students were then tasked with writing a policy to help mitigate these issues. The result was the creation of new policies that were more robust and more cognizant of long-term concerns. In addition to helping students learn to critique and develop solutions, the premortem more generally helps students connect key underlying principles or concerns to real-world examples. They also find it to be a fun activity, too. Participants will be given a premortem guide for adapting and implementing the exercise in their own course. 

Chris Goranson, Heinz
Smita Satiani