Use premortem brainwriting focus groups early in intervention design to surface barriers¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

For designing implementable practices, the article recommends engaging community members in "premortem brainwriting focus groups (Gilmartin & Battaglia, 2023; VanGundy, 1984) to identify barriers and pre-implementation challenges that may arise within their specific context" so developers can anticipate collective barriers and facilitators early in planning. A cited illustration is Rabin et al. (2024), who asked participants to generate ideas for why a COVID-19 testing workflow would fail, producing over a dozen substantial changes.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Community members engaged early and mid-implementation with materials describing the workflow or practice under design

Constraints¶

• Illustrative example comes from health-center implementation, not education; the article presents it as transferable

Target Learners¶

• Intervention developers and school-based teams

Target Learning Goals¶

• Anticipate implementation barriers before intervention launch

Related Strategies¶

• Use premortem analysis before implementing a reform to surface success factors and roadblocks
• Pair rapid evidence synthesis with community co-development to speed usable implementation plans

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Jason C. Chow · Ruben G. Martinez. (2026). Community and Participatory Evidence and Research Synthesis: Enhancing Alignment and Usability of Research Synthesis Methods. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10152-5