03 What if the agency’s work reveals that our initial idea isn’t viable? Are we prepared to call it off or change course?
By this point, you should be able to guess what we’re going to say in this chapter, which so many companies struggle to accept: not every idea is a winner.
What if you're wrong?
Sometimes you’ll learn the truth before you’ve spent much time or money – for example by reflecting on the questions in the previous two chapters – but sometimes the truth will only reveal itself later. What seemed like a brilliant concept early on doesn’t hold up to market research, user testing, or technical feasibility studies.
It’s never too late to fail early!
Until a product has been launched, a change in course or even a cancellation will still save you a ton of time and money if your initial assumptions turn out to be off.
When you’re working with a digital agency, you’re not just paying for execution – you’re paying for their expertise and insights. Put this expertise to use to continuously challenge your assumptions throughout the product development process.
A good partner will have tools and processes in place to help you check against some of the biggest red flags:
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Lack of product-market fit
User research can help to reveal that your target audience isn’t all that interested in the proposed solution.
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Technical infeasibility
The technology required to implement your product or service is either not yet available or very, very expensive.
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Regulatory hurdles
Legal or compliance issues make the project unviable in its current form.
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Resource constraints
The project requires more time, money, or expertise than initially estimated.
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Misalignment with business goals
As the project develops, it becomes clear that it doesn’t support your overall business strategy.
But remember: just because you or your agency partner detect something that might make your project unviable in its current form, you don’t have to kill it outright. A carefully executed pivot will often help you adjust your bearings and get back on track.
A good partner will be able to support you in:
- Refocusing on a different target audience
- Changing the core features of your product
- Adopting a different technology stack
- Shifting from a product to a service model (or vice versa)
Of course, sometimes a pivot isn’t viable or even possible, and a cancellation is the right call. This can be a tough pill to swallow, especially if a lot of time and effort have already been invested. However, continuing to pour resources into a project that’s fundamentally flawed is a classic example of the sunk cost fallacy.
Think about it this way: canceling a project isn’t really a failure if it
- prevents larger losses down the line,
- frees up resources for more promising initiatives,
- provides valuable learnings that inform future projects.
If fail, fail smartly
In order to be ready to fail early, your team might want to consider a few mechanisms:
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01
Set clear evaluation criteria
This sounds obvious, and yet many teams discover that they don’t have a clear and (ideally) simple way of checking whether their work hits the mark. Define what success looks like at each stage of the project. Your agency partner – usually operating outside the cultural or bureaucratic constraints of your organization – should be able to provide honest, data-driven feedback about your project’s viability and assess progress against these metrics throughout the collaboration. If your team struggles to define these KPIs, ask your agency for help!.
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02
Establish regular check-ins
Schedule frequent reviews to assess progress and viability. A sensor counterpart at your agency partner might be able to help you avoid “just another meeting” and instead act as a sounding board for you and your concerns. A good partner should be able to objectively evaluate the status quo and offer alternative approaches or solutions if the original idea proves unfeasible.
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03
Create a culture of honest feedback
Encourage your team and agency partners to voice concerns early. This is often easier said than done, but also here an experienced agency might be able to lend a hand – an external partner will be more unencumbered by any constraints you or your team might feel. Ask them to join discussions with key stakeholders and decision makers to act as “foreign prophets” on your behalf. It goes without saying: a trusting relationship between your team and your agency is an absolute must. Trust is not established overnight and is always – we can’t stress this enough – a two-way street.
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04
Allocate budget for exploration
Allocate resources for research and testing phases before full development. Testing your assumptions and ideas with the actual benefactors of your work is the best way to discover the need to pivot (or cancel) as early as possible. Set aside time and budget for dedicated research and validation activities – not only at the end of the project but also throughout. Your agency partner will be able to help define these activities and even carry them out on your behalf so your team can focus on other matters.
Embrace uncertainty!
Remember, uncertainty is an inherent part of innovation. By being prepared to pivot or even cancel projects based on new insights, you’re not admitting defeat. You’re in fact demonstrating the kind of agility and pragmatism that characterizes truly innovative companies.
Your willingness to change course when necessary will not only save resources, but also build trust with your agency partners, encouraging them to bring their most candid and valuable insights to the table. In the long run, this open and adaptive approach will lead to more successful digital initiatives and a stronger, more resilient organization.
Info
“Kill your darlings” is a piece of advice that’s been handed down through generations of writers, often attributed to William Faulkner (though variations of it date back even further). It’s a dramatic way of saying: be willing to cut your most precious and self-indulgent passages for the greater good of your work.
In essence, it means that sometimes, the things we’re most attached to – our clever turns of phrase, our brilliant ideas, our masterful creations – can actually detract from the overall quality of our work. We might love them, but they might not serve a greater purpose.
In digital product development, this concept is just as relevant as it is in literature. That incredibly complex feature you spent months perfecting? The beautiful UI, the feature you spent days and weeks crafting and building? They might be your darlings, but if they don’t serve the user’s needs or align with the project’s goals, it might be time to take them off the map.
Remember, you’re building a product for your users, not for yourself. Sometimes, the most professional thing you can do is detach from your personal preferences and make decisions based on what’s best for the project. It’s not easy, but it’s often necessary for creating a focused, effective product.
So the next time you find yourself hesitating to simplify a feature or remove a design element, ask yourself: “Am I holding onto a darling?” If so, it might be time to kill it.
Our take
Leaving nuance by the door for a moment – all successful digital agencies are primarily looking to get three things (in order) out of a customer relationship:
- A reference (a.k.a. “something to show off our work”)
- A paycheck
- The ability to forecast (a.k.a. “how long until we have to sell our experts to a new customer?”)
If you want us to build a product or service only to check a box in a report to your board, we’ll probably get paid and we might even get some decent visibility, but we almost certainly won’t get a usable reference out of it. So, even if we didn’t care at all how we spend our time and your money, we’d still be better off not taking on the case.
Ultimately, our success as a digital agency is inextricably tied to our client’s success — when the product we built together thrives, it becomes the most compelling proof of what we can achieve together.
