How to Know When to Stop a Strategic Project

Launching strategic efforts can be challenging, whether they are strategic experiments meant to yield learning and discovery, or strategic initiatives meant to deliver on defined strategic goals. But deciding whether it’s time to stop them can be even more difficult. How do you know that the project is no longer worth the (often large) investment of resources? It’s important to make the call because the consequences of indecision can weigh down or even paralyze an organization. So how can executives know when it’s time to pull the plug? Questions to Ask What was the original purpose of the project? As organizations seek the way forward in uncertain conditions, the line is increasingly blurred between two types of strategic projects: strategic experiments, which are meant to yield learning and discovery, and strategic initiatives, which are meant to deliver defined business results. Knowing which you’re dealing with is critical, because each comes with different types of criteria. Strategic experiments should have explicit assumptions, hypotheses, and learning goals. For example, will customers be willing to pay for a new type of offering? Strategic initiatives should have concrete success criteria, for example, a certain level of revenue from a new market or business model. These desired outcomes ideally should have been laid out at the project’s outset, and an executive sponsor should ensure that they are aligned with the strategy that the project is meant to serve. Are we falling short of the original goals? What does the actual data show? Again, this looks slightly different for experiments and initiatives. For experiments, if what you’re learning about your assumptions and hypotheses isn’t helping you move the idea or your organization forward, or if you’ve already fully achieved your learning goals, it’s time to stop. Similarly, for a strategic initiative, be realistic about whether it is delivering on promised results. Is the goal no longer worthy? Just because the project is meeting the goals established at its outset doesn’t mean it’s still viable. Are you getting something out of it now, and do you still have the resources to commit? Ask yourself: Have market conditions changed? For example, the advent of gen AI rendered obsolete many in-process strategic efforts. Given market shifts, does the project still promise or deliver adequate ROI given your overall strategic goals? Has your strategy changed? Alignment with the overall direction of the company or unit is critical. If the project serves goals that are no longer priorities, it’s no longer serving your needs. Is the investment needed to continue the effort no longer feasible? Economic or financial conditions may have changed such that it’s harder to allocate ongoing resources to the project—and harder still to imagine increasing them to build scale, as might be necessary for an experiment to deliver its ROI. That may be more immediately apparent for a small firm, but this discipline is equally important at big companies. What else could we be doing with these resources? Just because you can continue to make the investment doesn’t mean you should. The opportunity costs for strategic projects can be high in terms of time, money, talent, and executive attention. Letting failing projects continue can keep an organization from reaching its goals and being nimble in the face of new opportunities. Ask what you have to stop or cut back on to keep this effort going. What other experiments or initiatives could benefit from the investment you’re making here? How do their expected outcomes compare? If their promise is high enough, pulling back from the current initiative may be in order. What are alternative next steps? Continuing the project or killing it entirely aren’t your only two options. Others to consider include: Pivot: Shift the focus of the project based on what’s working, for example emphasizing a successful customer feature, targeting a different customer segment, or changing the business model. Redeploy: Fold useful assets from the project, such as newly developed technology or learning, into another ongoing effort. Sell or divest: Even if it’s not right for your firm right now, you can recover part of your investment if the project produced something others might value. . . . It can be difficult for executive sponsors or others who have championed projects in the past to cut them loose, whether they’re concerned about reputational loss or simply because their proximity makes them overly optimistic about the effort. Some companies identify “exit champions”—senior leaders who aren’t tied to the project at hand to ask these questions of those who are. Finally, when you do decide to kill a project, make sure it doesn’t come back. “Zombies continue to take up resources when team members committed to the idea carry on even after the project has been shut down. Redeploy personnel and resources quickly and celebrate those who participated in order to provide emotional closure and allow people to move on to something new. Go Deeper Why Bad Projects Are So Hard to Kill By Isabelle Royer HBR, February 2003 (40-minute read) Your Company Needs to Focus on Fewer Projects. Here’s How. By Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez HBR.org, August 15, 2025 (13-minute read) How to Design and Analyze a Business Experiment By Oliver Hauser and Michael Luca HBR.org, October 29, 2015 (10-minute read) Is It Time to Pivot Your Strategy? By Ron Ashkenas HBR.org, July 30, 2024 (13-minute read) Credits Expert advice courtesy of Ron Ashkenas (partner emeritus, Schaffer Consulting), Iavor Bojinov (associate professor, Harvard Business School), Michael Luca (professor and director of the Technology and Society Initiative at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School), Rita Gunther McGrath (professor, Columbia Business School), and Martin Reeves (chairman of Boston Consulting Group’s BCG Henderson Institute).

How to Know When to Stop a Strategic Project

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