🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

You wrapped up a big project last week—but something felt off. Deadlines slipped, handoffs were bumpy, and stress levels were high.

Now what? Do you just move on? Should you revisit what happened? What if doing so stirs up tension?

💡 Concept

When a project ends, it's tempting to jump straight into the next one. But skipping a post-mortem means you’re missing a critical learning opportunity. A post-mortem helps your team understand what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to change—so you don’t encounter the same problems again.

For distributed teams, this is especially important. The small gaps and breakdowns that happen in async or hybrid environments are easy to miss unless you create a structured moment to reflect.

Post-mortems aren’t about assigning blame. They’re an opportunity for continuous improvement and shared learning. When done well, they build psychological safety, drive clarity, and improve collaboration.

🧭 Here’s how to schedule and run one effectively on a distributed team:

✅ Schedule it intentionally.

• Block time within 1–2 weeks of project completion—while things are still fresh.

• Choose a format based on your team’s time-zone spread:

  • Synchronous: Hold a 30–45 minute video call for real-time discussion.

  • Asynchronous: Start a shared doc, Slack thread, or Notion page with guided prompts and a deadline for input.

• Make it clear that the purpose of this process is improvement, not performance evaluation.

✍️ Prepare with purpose.

• Send a short message that includes these essentials:

  1. The purpose of the post-mortem

  2. What to reflect on (see questions below)

  3. How to contribute (write in a doc, reply to a thread, or join a live call)

Sample message:

Hi team! Let’s do a short post-mortem to reflect on [Project X]. Nothing heavy—just a chance to improve for next time. Please take 10–15 mins by Friday to answer these three prompts in the shared doc. We’ll do a short wrap-up call next week to talk through any common themes that come up.

🧠 Ask simple, repeatable questions.

Limit discussion to 3-4 reflective prompts:

• What went well?

• What didn’t go well?

• Where did communication or collaboration break down?

• What should we do differently next time?

📌 Run the post-mortem with curiosity.

If live:

• Share your screen and walk through a lightly structured doc and allow for team input.

• Focus on general patterns—and potential fixes—rather than individual missteps.

• Ask clarifying questions like:
  “Can you say more about what made that process confusing?”
  “What would have made this easier to navigate async?”

If async:

• Look for common themes that arise and synthesize them to share back with the team.

• Tag team members with your short summary and invite follow-up comments or problem-solving. 

🎯 Close the loop.

• Document key insights and action items in a visible team space (team wiki, project wrap-up doc, etc.).

• Assign owners for any follow-up process improvements.

• Celebrate what went well—this isn’t just a problem-finding session.

A good post-mortem isn’t a box to check—it’s a strategic pause that helps your remote team work smarter every time.

🎬 Take Action

• Schedule a short post-mortem within 1–2 weeks of finishing your next project.

• Choose your format (live or async) based on your team’s working style and time zones.

• Use a simple structure to collect input and translate lessons learned into clear next steps.

• Add a recurring post-mortem habit to your project checklist.

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn more about how to manage effective distributed teams in Leadplaceless. 

✅ Check In

🎁 Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.