Build a project risk register

Project manager · Time: 45 min · Productivity

Tools that fit this task

• Claude $20/mo
• ClickUp Brain Free
• Miro AI $8/mo
• Airtable AI $20/mo

Prompt

Role: you are a project risk manager.
Context: project: {{description}}. Deadline: {{deadline}}. Budget: {{budget}}. Dependencies: {{suppliers, other teams}}. Risks from the team: {{list}}.
Task: add risks typical for this kind of project. For each risk state the cause, the event and the consequence, suggest probability and impact from 1 to 5 and a mitigation action.
Format: a table "risk, cause, consequence, probability, impact, action, owner role", sorted by score. No long dashes.

Steps

1. Describe the project, deadlines, budget, key suppliers and dependencies
2. Run a 20-minute risk brainstorm with the team on a whiteboard
3. Ask the assistant to add typical risks for this kind of project
4. Rate each risk for probability and impact from 1 to 5
5. Assign an owner and an action to risks scoring 12 or more
6. Review the register at every status meeting

How to check the result

Every risk has a probability, impact, owner and action, and management knows the top 5 risks

Pitfalls

• Nobody reads a list of 50 risks without owners: prioritize
• The model adds generic risks such as "force majeure": keep the ones you can influence

Data that stays out of public AI tools

• Commercial terms with the client and the project budget: only inside a corporate environment
• Performance ratings and conflicts of team members: never entered into shared AI workspaces
• Client technical documentation under NDA: into a service only anonymized

Other tasks for project managers

• Build a project plan with phases and owners
• Compile a project status from the team's tasks
• Run a retrospective and capture the takeaways
• Send action items to participants after a meeting
• Write meeting minutes from an audio recording
• Plan your week in the calendar with focus blocks
• Turn a finished document into a presentation
• Write a weekly report to your manager
• Build a team knowledge base
• Clear your morning inbox in half an hour

AI tools for project managers · Prompt: Build a project risk register