I was chatting with a friend yesterday about some failed product launch projects we have seen through out our careers and it got me thinking…
Organizations have had failed projects for numerous reasons. Some have failed at the product development stage because they were more focused on using the most advanced tech stack, such that they could not find enough developers to sustain the project, even with an ample budget. Some failed because they thought their “great idea” would surely be widely received by the market. Others failed because of their go to market strategy. So many other reasons than can be contained in this post, but you get the point.
Being burdened by the fear of failure is not recommended because of the limitation it infuses into your innovative development and processes. However… the risk of failure and the probability of success should always be a consideration. It is simply irresponsible not to consider them. Some realistic questions to ask include: “Why will this fail?”, “what strong data points are indicating a high probability of success?”, etc.
This is not about the fear of failure. It is about responsible leadership that will mitigate the risk of NEEDLESS losses from failed projects. Some losses might end up being too big to recover from.
Avoid needless losses…
