Postmortem Cadence

Within 7 days.

Overview

Postmortem cadence is a hard deadline on completion. Seven days after the incident is the typical default; faster than that loses thoroughness, slower than that loses memory and momentum.

• Within 7 days. PM published within seven calendar days. Engineers still remember the details; action items still feel urgent.
• Forcing function. The deadline forces prioritisation. Without it, PMs slip indefinitely behind feature work.
• Fresh context. Recent timelines are accurate; week-old timelines have gaps; month-old timelines are reconstructions.
• Cultural signal plus public tracking. Cadence signals that PMs matter; late PMs visible to leadership produce accountability.

The approach

Three habits make the cadence stick: set the deadline at incident start, assign the owner immediately, and track completion publicly so slips are visible.

• Set deadline at incident start. 7 days post-incident-close, written into the incident record. Owner sees the deadline before the bridge ends.
• Named owner. One engineer named as PM author at incident creation. Ambiguity here is the leading cause of slipped PMs.
• Track completion publicly. Late PMs visible on the engineering operating dashboard. Slips have a name attached.
• Extensions with cause plus documented policy. Major incidents earn an extension; the policy lives in the wiki for new on-call to reference.

Why this compounds

Each on-time PM reinforces the cadence. The team’s completion rate climbs; the action-item backlog stays current; engineering culture absorbs the rhythm.

• Higher completion rate. On-time PMs become the norm. The team’s incident record stops having holes.
• Better PM quality. Fresh context produces accurate timelines and useful analysis. Reconstruction-from-memory is the leading cause of bad PMs.
• Cultural reinforcement. On-time PMs signal engineering rigour. New engineers see the cadence as the standard.
• Year-one investment, year-two habit. The first quarter is heavy enforcement. By year two the cadence is reflexive.