Decide before the fight.

If nobody’s allowed to say stop. This is the session I run most, because it’s the one most teams need first. Most metrics show up after the work is over and everyone’s moved on. Survival Metrics show up while the project’s still in your hands: thresholds your team agrees out loud, before the project starts, that say stop, pivot, or invest. It’s a forcing function against sunk cost, which is the real reason nobody kills the zombie project.

If what’s broken is something else. Maybe it’s how your team explains itself to the rest of the company, or how it says no to sales. Then we build the session around that instead. Same shape, your material, your live project. I work from what you already use. You don’t need another framework.

If the whole organization needs to hear it. Same material, bigger room: the pattern, the team that got it wrong, and one thing everyone can do on Monday. I’ve taken it to Mind the Product in London and to Agile 2024.

This is the deliverable. Three statements, written before the work starts, in the team’s own words. These are BobCo’s, the example we work in the room:

Who’s trusted me with their team

You’re about to put someone in front of your people. You should know who else already has.

Those are the five organizations that have hired me directly, not events where I happened to be on the program. The people below worked with me and said so publicly, under their own names.

Adam was critical in the process of hiring and building new teams at speed and scale. His superpower is building trust across the organization, evangelizing innovation and vision.

Frances Ibe
SVP Product, Tide

Adam sees in 8 dimensions. He appreciates both the big picture and the subtle details. Trust Adam for insight, foresight, candor, and product courage.

Eli Holder
Founder, 3iap

Adam is a results-oriented professional who helped drive focus and bring outcome visibility through his strong data-driven approach.

Guido Lonetti
Head of Product

The quotes below come from the survey I send after every session, which 513 attendees have filled in. Unlike the names above, they answered a feedback form, not a request for a testimonial, so you get a first name and nothing else.

I’ve been using the approach to talk about a particular pilot I’m engaging in with a start-up. I’ve been very clear that there is a difference between a pilot and an enterprise roll-out and that we need to determine what are the non-negotiable success criteria for our organization to make sure that we are fully aligned on whether we kill, pivot, or move forward.

Mike

I joined because I’m currently facilitating conversations with the VA about how metrics for Veteran benefits are defined and iterated… The course clarified gaps in my discussions with stakeholders, and helped me articulate stronger questions regarding how the VA operates its benefits services.

Sade

The Organization elements definitely stood out to me, especially thinking about how to effectively position metrics to people based on their level and/or position in the organization and the effect I’m seeking… I wish there was a take away or something I could reference after the course beyond my notes.

Diana

What you’re paying for

The session, run on a project your team is actually living with, not a case study. Your people leave with stop, pivot, and invest statements they wrote themselves, for work they’ll still be doing next week. The statements are yours to run again without me.

This isn’t for you if you want someone to run your product org, hand you a framework and leave, or tell your team what to build. I don’t do transformation programs and I don’t do interim leadership. And if nobody in your organization is allowed to say a project should stop, a session about deciding when to stop won’t survive contact with Monday. Fix that first. I’d rather tell you now than take your money.