When to stop

Defining success or failure criteria before committing to an idea, project, or business experiment, is vital for making a more objective decision to continue or stop when the time comes.

Failing to do so will only make it more difficult because we will be greatly influenced by our time and resources spent whilst working on it, as well as increased sense of ownership. Consequently, this then would demand much more energy, discipline, and arguing, compared to defining the criteria up front.

This is not to say that the criteria should not be updated during the project or experiment. But they should be updated based on the new insight, feedback, and learnings from relevant environment. The criteria should be stated so it is actually possible to agree if they were met or not. Nebulous statements should be avoided—it is better to be a bit more specific, and then revise when we know better.

By knowing when to stop, we create space for terminating ideas, projects, and business experiments in a timely manner. This in turn allows us to re-focus our time and resources on more important and valuable ventures and activities instead.