When to fail fast in #digitaltransformation #corporate #technologystrategy #failfast

I just finished a yoga class focused on like arm balances and inversions, and during the class the teacher was talking about how yoga is this constant balance between figuring out when to push through something and when to release something in your body, especially when you're trying to do something like get your feet up into the air. And as always the case with me, my brain immediately started going to how that idea relates to digital transformation. One of the things that we constantly talk about in the world of transformation is this idea of failing fast and how failing fast is one of the key things that allows us to try and be innovative is to recognize when something's not working and move on quickly. But realistically no project is without its challenges so when do we push and when do we release? How do we tell if something isn't going to work or if we need to keep pushing forward to get to our ultimate vision? In my mind there's really three key things that we should be focused on when we're trying to make this decision of push through or release. One is the strategic alignment. Is this something that is truly going to give you a leg up on your competition or at the very least get you even with the other players in your industry? If a project is going to truly give you a strategic advantage over your competitors or it's absolutely needed to keep you moving forward as an organization, pushing through the challenges is likely going to be worth it. Assuming that you did the prep work on the front end to make sure you were tackling the project the right way in the first place. You need to get really honest with yourself also about why we think the project is failing. Is it failing because it wasn't the right solution? Is it failing because we didn't take the time to do things like manage a change or allocate the appropriate resources? When you get really honest with yourself about what's going wrong, you can actually evaluate what it's going to take to save a project. If the project wasn't planned out appropriately like I just mentioned, then you're likely going to need to push through those challenges and think through what resources, budget, timeline is actually needed to accomplish your goal and be realistic about if you can accomplish it or not with the resources, budget, and timeline you have available. And then the third factor is going to be your company's risk tolerance. Are you willing to bet it all on that innovative idea that gives you a strategic advantage even if you have to push through for longer or it costs more than you were anticipating or is the risk not worth the potential reward? If you're in the position where a project might not be going the way you'd like it to be, you need to get really honest with yourself on the strategic alignment, your risk assessment, and how you set that project up for success. Once you've moved through that thought experiment, I think you're going to have a pretty clear idea of whether it's time to push through or release the project.