Reader situation
You want to share a lesson from a project or decision, whether it went well or badly. Without a structure, lessons tend to become either success stories or vague reflections, and readers can’t tell whether they apply to their own work.
Central idea
Lessons from successes and setbacks need enough context for another person to assess their relevance. This template separates intended outcomes, actual events and contributing factors before identifying what to repeat or change.
Practical steps
- Context. Describe the setting briefly.
- Intended outcome. State what you were trying to achieve.
- What happened. Describe the actual events and results.
- Contributing factors. Identify what helped or hindered.
- What to repeat or change. Name what you’d do again and what you’d do differently.
- Attribution and confidentiality check. Review the contribution before sharing it.
Tool: template
Complete each section in two or three sentences.
Lessons learned
Context: [Your role, type and size of organization, the project or decision and the timeframe.]
Intended outcome: [What you were trying to achieve, and how you’d have known it worked.]
What happened: [What actually happened, including results. Separate what you observed from what you think it means.]
Contributing factors: [What helped, what got in the way, and which factors were within your control.]
What to repeat or change: [One or two things you’d do again. One or two things you’d do differently.]
Question for others: [Optional. A question that invites others to share related experience.]
Attribution and confidentiality check
Worked example
Fictional example
Context: I led a team of eight launching a customer portal at a regional insurance company over six months.
Intended outcome: Reduce phone calls about policy documents by letting customers download them online.
What happened: The portal launched on time, but call volumes barely changed in the first three months. Customer feedback showed that many didn’t know the portal existed.
Contributing factors: We spent most of our effort on building the portal and very little on telling customers about it. The launch email went out once and had a low open rate.
What to repeat or change: I’d repeat the early testing with real customers. I’d plan communication from the start and include it in the project budget.
Boundaries
- A setback lesson isn’t a place to assign blame. Focus on factors, not individuals.
- If the situation is too recognizable to share safely, consider sharing only the general lesson.
One action to try with a professional peer
Complete the template for one recent project and review it with a colleague who wasn’t involved, asking what they’d take from it.
Discussion prompt
What’s a setback that taught you more than a success did?
