Postmortem Deadline

7 days.

Overview

Without a deadline, postmortems slip into "next week" forever. Seven days from incident close is the modern default; the deadline forces engineers to write while context is still fresh and prevents the familiar pattern where the PM is "almost done" three months later.

• Seven-day window. Default deadline keeps memory fresh; engineers remember the order of events accurately for about a week, then it fades fast.
• Forcing function. The deadline turns "we should write this up" into a scheduled commitment with an owner.
• Fresh context. Accurate timelines and honest root-cause discussion happen while the incident still hurts.
• Cultural signal and visibility. Late PMs are visible to leadership; the cultural message that PMs matter is delivered by enforcement, not by edict.

The approach

Fixed deadline plus named owner plus visible accountability. The deadline is policy; honouring it is culture; both have to be present.

• Set the deadline. Seven days from incident close is the default; pick a number and stop arguing about it.
• Assign the owner at incident start. Named in the incident channel before the page resolves; "everyone's responsibility, no one's job" is the failure mode.
• Track late PMs visibly. Overdue PMs surface in a leadership dashboard; visibility produces accountability.
• Allow extensions for cause, with approval. Major incidents need more time; the discipline is that extensions are explicit, not silent.

Why this compounds

The deadline compounds across every incident: PMs become the norm rather than the rarity, learning accumulates while it is still useful, and the team builds an institutional memory it can actually consult.

• Higher PM completion rate. On-time PMs become the default; the team stops carrying a backlog of unwritten retrospectives.
• Better PM quality. Fresh context produces accurate timelines and honest root causes.
• Cultural reinforcement. On-time PMs signal engineering rigor; sloppy PMs signal the opposite.
• Action items that ship. Timely PMs produce timely follow-ups; stale PMs produce action items nobody owns.

The postmortem deadline is one of those operational disciplines that pays off across years. Nova AI Ops integrates with PM tooling, surfaces deadline patterns, and supports the team's incident learning discipline.