About Failure Hackers
In a World of Complexity, Failure is Everywhere
Modern organisations run on tangled systems — legacy processes, overstretched teams, mismatched expectations, political pressure, tech debt, roadmaps built on hope rather than truth.
When things go wrong, they rarely fail cleanly.
They fail chaotically — like a patch-wired machine held together by cables, assumptions, and good intentions.
At Failure Hackers, we study this chaos.
Not to admire it — but to understand it, map it, and help us all prevent it.
Our Mission
To help us all, leaders, teams, consultants and delivery organisations stop fighting fires and start preventing them.
To turn the messy, real-world failures of projects, products and programmes into practical insight, repeatable tools, and actionable countermeasures.
No jargon (…well maybe a bit!).
No theory without application.
Just clarity — built from the wreckage of things that didn’t the last time.
Why We Exist
Most organisations don’t fail because people are incompetent.
They fail because:
- Systems are fragile.
- Assumptions go untested.
- Risks compound quietly.
- Pressure outruns capacity.
- Problems are treated at the symptom, not the source.
This work focuses on exactly that: the root causes beneath the chaos.
What You’ll Find Here
Scenario-Based Problem Solving
Curated real-world failure scenarios that reveal how projects, programmes and services go off the rails — and how to stop it happening again.
Tools & Templates
Field-tested guidance for:
- Root Cause Analysis
- Incident & failure reviews
- Systems thinking
- Decision-making
- Project and service diagnostics
All designed to be used immediately by you, me and everybody.
Articles & Insight
A growing library of perspectives on:
- Why projects fail
- How to build resilient teams
- How to deliver deeper value
- Building a culture of prevention, not panic
Our Philosophy
1. Failure leaves a trail — follow it.
Every failure is a data point. Every data point is a clue. We open your eyes to learn to see the patterns.
2. Root causes matter more than symptoms.
Firefighting is expensive. Prevention is scalable.
3. Systems produce the results they’re designed to.
If outcomes are poor, the system is working exactly as built — and needs redesign.
4. Clarity beats optimism.
Hope is not a delivery strategy.
Who Failure Hackers Is For
- Project & programme leaders tired of firefighting
- COOs, CTOs & digital leaders seeking reliability and resilience
- Scale-up operations teams facing rapid growth pains
- Civil service and governmental delivery teams managing complex change
- Solopreneurs & independents shifting toward productised service models
If you work where complexity meets pressure, this site is for you.
Why the Aesthetic?
The visual identity of Failure Hackers reflects the real working conditions of complex delivery:
- messy environments
- tangled systems
- legacy tech
- unreliable wiring (literal and metaphorical)
- constant improvisation
- fragile structures nobody has time to rebuild properly
It’s not dystopian for effect — it’s a metaphor for the reality inside many organisations today.
We don’t fear that complexity.
We deconstruct it.
We make it understandable.
And we help people fix it.
Stay Connected
Join the Failure Hackers mailing list for updates, tools, case studies and access to workshops and future courses.
Turn failure into clarity.
Turn clarity into action.
Turn action into resilience.
— Richard Morgan
Founder, Failure Hackers
