Practically Project Management

Do you remember how many times you crashed your bicycle before learning to ride? Can you recall how many times you fell over before learning to walk? Probably not. That’s because when we’re young taking risks is part of growing and failure is synonymous with learning.

Yet, somewhere along life’s journey, things change. Contrary to the mantras of “fail fast” or “we want to create a culture where it’s OK to fail“, many professionals stop associating failure with learning. Instead, failure becomes associated with weakness or incompetence. This stigma causes us to take fewer risks. The result is we self-limit our own potential.

Unpacking Failure

Awhile ago I took a really big risk.  I was part of a failed start-up company and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. I learned more during my time in a failed business than I ever did from MBA classes on entrepreneurship, marketing, or management.

Our business concept was purpose driven. Museums and art galleries provided us with used shipping crates that were previously destined for landfills. Our industry research indicated approximately 2 million of these crates were sent to landfills every year! Precious resources including water, trees, time needed to produce them, pollution from transportation, and landfill space was being unnecessarily wasted. 

For context, these were not basic wooden boxes.  Most of the crates were custom crafted to securely transport high value pieces of art. We would collect the crates, refurbish them, and place them online for resale and reuse.  Our business also included direct partnerships with art handlers to offer our products, alongside theirs, as an ecologically friendly and lower cost option to traditional crating.  

The primary business hypothesis was there would be a “middle market” of environmentally minded customers who would want to buy these crates. After launching the business we quickly discovered the following market dynamics.

• The high end of the market wanted new custom crates. Apparently no one was comfortable putting their Andy Warhol or freshly shredded Banksy in a used crate.
• The low end of the market couldn’t afford to ship the crate. The crates were heavy and could easily cost upwards of $500 to ship.
• And.... the middle market never materialized. After a lengthy campaign of marketing and direct sales appeals we only had a trickle of sales.

There are few things that feel worse than putting your heart and soul into a business, only to have it come up short. But taking risks can often have unforeseen rewards, and the value of the lessons I learned along the way were priceless.

Here are some insights from my experience.

1. Don’t get it perfect – just get it out there – One of the things we did really well was quickly getting our store online and products available for purchase. We didn’t waste a lot of time overthinking it, we just put a minimum viable product (MVP) out there. Once we were open, using agile principles, we quickly iterated and improved based on what we were learning from the actual market.
2. Market research isn’t everything – Before launching we spent time speaking with people in the art community. They all claimed to want low cost crating solutions that were environmentally friendly. When we presented them with our concept they were ecstatic. Yet, when it came time to actually buy our products they were nowhere to be found. This is a classic case of researcher bias where individuals will say favorable things just to be nice.
3. Define what success looks like – Before launch we defined a small set of goals. My partners and I agreed, if certain criteria weren’t met then we would pull the plug. This really helped with decision making when emotions were running high.
4. Don’t confuse business failure with personal failure – When you put a lot of time, effort, and money into something, it naturally becomes personal. This is true for start-ups, projects at work, and our daily jobs. It’s easy to blame yourself when things don’t go as planned. While it’s important to hold ourselves accountable, it’s healthy to keep things in perspective. A business concept can simply be ill-timed or mismatched with needs in the market. Sometimes things just don’t work out.
5. Everyone has the capacity to do new things – Resources are scarce in a start-up and there’s nobody to delegate to. This singular reason is why I believe it’s important for every business professional to spend some time working with a small business. It keeps you humble, focused, and grounded in reality. For example, while my role was initially related to strategy, project planning, and marketing, I had to expand my contributions to include warehouse operations, direct sales, and even driving a 26′ delivery truck.

Are you growing professionally?

As I reflected on some of these insights I found myself coming back to an important question that we should all ask ourselves.

“What professional risks are you taking that have the potential for failure?"

When you genuinely explore this question it naturally highlights opportunities for learning and growth. The funny thing that I realized is that even though our aversion to risk changes as we age, the inherent relationship between failure and learning doesn't.

So here's my challenge.  As project managers we're hard-wired to minimize risks.  Contrary to our PMI training, I recommend occasionally taking risks instead! It can be something as simple as working on a new project, learning a new skill, or applying for a position in a different part of the company you work at.  Just like learning to ride a bike, it’s OK to fall down. We all crash sometimes.  If you don't crash every once in awhile, then chances are you're not really challenging yourself to reach your fullest potential.  And that's really the biggest risk of all.  

** This article was originally published by Jon Hanley on his blog at practically project management