What Went Wrong with Your Project: Top 3 Tips

What Went Wrong With Your Project?
Regardless of the outcome, effective project leaders always ask, “What went wrong?” Whether a project is celebrated as a success or labeled a failed project, every experience offers lessons and opportunities for improvement. Like most team endeavors, the difference between success and struggle begins with strong, thoughtful project leadership.

Three Project Leadership Questions to Set the Stage
Before you begin a project retrospective, ask yourself a few key project leadership questions to set the right context:

• Was I the right leader for this specific project?
• Was this the right project for our company?
• Was this the right team (i.e., motivations, capabilities, availability, experience) to pull it off?
• Did the team have the right resources for the project to be successful?

Once you set the stage from a leadership perspective, then it is time to design and deliver your project postmortem.

Postmortems Are Worth The Effort
Project postmortems can challenge even seasoned leaders, but after-action reviews are essential for continuous improvement. Without them, how else can you identify missteps and elevate your team’s performance on the next project?

There is Always Something to Celebrate, Learn, and Improve
Ideally, there’s more to celebrate than to critique, yet every project holds lessons on what could have been done better. The real challenge is asking, “What went wrong?”— and navigating these difficult conversations in a way that uncovers insights while preserving team morale and a positive spirit.

Three Expert Tips to Face What Went Wrong with Your Project
Here are three tips to face what went wrong with your project:

1. Focus on the Future, Not the Past
   While it’s important for everyone to understand what happened regarding the business case, project definition, scope, deliverables, timeline, and budget, the focus should be on what the team could have done differently to improve future projects. This isn’t about assigning blame—it’s about learning, adapting, and setting the stage for better outcomes next time.
2. Create an Open Environment for Open Discussion
   Psychological team safety is essential to getting the most out of any project postmortem. Include only those team members and leaders who foster honest, straightforward dialogue. Everyone should feel free to share observations and ideas openly — but always with respect and consideration for others.
3. Set the Stage for Future Success
   Paint the big picture of what your team will look like when transformation is achieved and how each member will benefit. Gain team buy-in to your vision for change and incorporate your lessons learned into your next project plan.

The Bottom Line
Too many critical projects fall short of stakeholder expectations. Make sure your project teams consistently carve out time to reflect, learn, and continuously improve.

What to learn more about what went wrong with your project?  Download the Top 10 Project Management Mistakes and How to Prevent Them from Destroying Your Next Project

Tristam Brown

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.