Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share You Pre-Mortem the Project. You Don't Pre-Mortem the Contract.
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
You Pre-Mortem the Project. You Don't Pre-Mortem the Contract.
A non-compete signed in good faith does not care about good faith when conditions change. Engineers know this. They build redundant pumps before commissioning starts because hindsight is expensive and foresight is cheap. The same engineers will sign contracts that constrain their future on the assumption that the relationship lasts, the business holds shape, and the timeline cooperates. None of those are guaranteed. Episode 027 is about the pre-mortem you skip when the runway looks long, and what it costs when the runway shortens.
What You Will Take Away
- The pre-mortem engineers run on projects, and the one they skip on their own career
- The contractual equivalent of a redundant pump: sunset clauses, carve-outs, mutual termination triggers
- Why pre-mortems are insurance, and why insurance gets skipped when the basement has never flooded
- The failure mode in a souring agreement: optimism on all sides, and a missed pre-mortem
- The selective rigor that engineers apply on projects but skip on their own commitments
- A simple question to run before signing: imagine this is binding me in a situation neither of us anticipated. What would have to be true for that to happen?
Who This Is For
- Engineers about to sign a non-compete, non-solicit, or equity agreement they have not stress-tested
- Engineers who have accepted a role on the assumption of a long runway nobody has actually guaranteed
- Engineers who run failure-mode analysis on every project and have never run one on a contract
- Engineers who feel a clause is restrictive but are not sure what to ask for
Follow Re:Engineered wherever you get your podcasts.
Send us Fan Mail
Re:Engineered is a podcast for engineers and technical professionals navigating the shift from technical excellence to leadership responsibility.
Hosted by Chris Stasiuk, a professional engineer with over 25 years in engineering consulting and leadership roles, the show treats leadership, communication, and decision-making as systems to understand — not personality traits to fake. No buzzwords. No corporate theater. Just clear thinking about how technical people actually lead.
Explore episodes, transcripts, and related resources at https://chrisstasiuk.com/podcast/.
View all episodes
By Chris StasiukA non-compete signed in good faith does not care about good faith when conditions change. Engineers know this. They build redundant pumps before commissioning starts because hindsight is expensive and foresight is cheap. The same engineers will sign contracts that constrain their future on the assumption that the relationship lasts, the business holds shape, and the timeline cooperates. None of those are guaranteed. Episode 027 is about the pre-mortem you skip when the runway looks long, and what it costs when the runway shortens.
What You Will Take Away
- The pre-mortem engineers run on projects, and the one they skip on their own career
- The contractual equivalent of a redundant pump: sunset clauses, carve-outs, mutual termination triggers
- Why pre-mortems are insurance, and why insurance gets skipped when the basement has never flooded
- The failure mode in a souring agreement: optimism on all sides, and a missed pre-mortem
- The selective rigor that engineers apply on projects but skip on their own commitments
- A simple question to run before signing: imagine this is binding me in a situation neither of us anticipated. What would have to be true for that to happen?
Who This Is For
- Engineers about to sign a non-compete, non-solicit, or equity agreement they have not stress-tested
- Engineers who have accepted a role on the assumption of a long runway nobody has actually guaranteed
- Engineers who run failure-mode analysis on every project and have never run one on a contract
- Engineers who feel a clause is restrictive but are not sure what to ask for
Follow Re:Engineered wherever you get your podcasts.
Send us Fan Mail
Re:Engineered is a podcast for engineers and technical professionals navigating the shift from technical excellence to leadership responsibility.
Hosted by Chris Stasiuk, a professional engineer with over 25 years in engineering consulting and leadership roles, the show treats leadership, communication, and decision-making as systems to understand — not personality traits to fake. No buzzwords. No corporate theater. Just clear thinking about how technical people actually lead.
Explore episodes, transcripts, and related resources at https://chrisstasiuk.com/podcast/.