Risk Management
Risk Matrix
| Likelihood → | Low | Medium | High |
|Impact ↓|---|---|---|
| High | Monitor | Mitigate | Block |
| Medium | Accept | Monitor | Mitigate |
| Low | Accept | Accept | Monitor |
Common Risks by Phase
Intake
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| Vague requirements |
High |
High |
Ask Nick clarifying questions BEFORE starting pipeline |
| Scope too large for appetite |
Medium |
High |
Break into phases. Ship v1, iterate. |
Research
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| Market already saturated |
Medium |
High |
Scout's demand validation score catches this |
| No clear ICP |
Medium |
Medium |
Require ICP before moving to design |
Design
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| V0 generates off-brand output |
Medium |
Medium |
Pixel iterates. Max 3 attempts per screen. |
| Too many screens for appetite |
Medium |
High |
Scope hammer — cut to core screens only |
Build
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| Maks deviates from design |
High |
Medium |
Require Maks to reference Pixel's V0 preview |
| Complex feature (auth, payments) |
Medium |
High |
Flag at intake. Have Forge pre-review architecture. |
| Build runs over time |
Medium |
Medium |
Scope hammer at 60% of time budget |
Review
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| Forge blocks repeatedly |
Low |
High |
Circuit breaker: 3 loops max, then escalate |
| Security vulnerability found |
Low |
Critical |
Fix before ship. No exceptions on P0 security. |
QA
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| Animation/JS bug hides content |
Medium |
High |
Test with JS disabled as baseline |
| Images fail to load |
Medium |
Medium |
Prefer local assets over external CDN |
| Responsive breakpoints broken |
Medium |
Medium |
Test at 375px, 768px, 1280px every round |
Launch
| Risk |
Likelihood |
Impact |
Mitigation |
| Product not differentiated |
Medium |
High |
Scout's research should catch this at research phase |
| Launch materials generic |
Low |
Medium |
Launch has 10 skills — provide good context |
Pre-Mortem (run at Intake for complex projects)
Before starting, ask: "If this project fails, why?"
- Write down 3 most likely failure modes
- For each: what would you do to prevent it?
- Build those preventions into the plan
Lessons Learned
- Brew & Bean (2026-03-20): Scroll animation (useScrollReveal) hid all sections. Took 3 QA rounds to fix. Lesson: always test with animations disabled as baseline. Require CSS fallback for any JS-driven visibility.
- Brew & Bean (2026-03-20): External CDN images (apiframe.pro) intermittently failed through Next.js optimization. Lesson: download images to local assets for production.
Changelog
- 2026-03-20: Initial risk management framework
- 2026-03-20: Added QA risks and lessons learned from Brew & Bean