Strategic Focus Isn’t Just About What You Start - It’s About What You Stop
One of the most costly (and invisible) execution problems in product and tech orgs is this:
Projects keep going long after their strategic value has expired.
Maybe they were launched under a previous leadership regime. Maybe they’ve become someone’s pet initiative. Maybe they just… never got officially stopped.
But because they’re “already in flight,” they stay in motion - quietly consuming time, talent, and budget.
Here’s the impact:
- High-impact initiatives get delayed because teams are tied up elsewhere
- Capacity planning becomes unreliable
- Morale suffers as teams work on things they don’t believe in
- And delivery momentum grinds to a halt
If your team is stuck with a few of these “zombie projects,” here’s how to bring them into the light and fix it:
✅ Step 1: Inventory All Active Work
Create a clear, honest list of everything currently in flight. Include projects, initiatives, feature builds, internal tools—everything. If it takes capacity, it’s on the list.
✅ Step 2: Map Each Item to a Strategic Priority
If a project doesn’t clearly support one of your 3–5 strategic priorities, mark it as “unaligned.”
✅ Step 3: Apply the De-Prioritization Test
Ask:
- Are we only continuing this because of sunk cost?
- What would we work on instead if this project went away?
- If we were starting fresh today, would we launch this?
✅ Step 4: Decide—Retire, Reframe, or Redirect
If it’s not aligned and not essential, retire it.
If there’s some value, but it needs reshaping, reframe it.
Or redirect the team toward priority-aligned work that moves the business forward.
You don’t need to kill every legacy project. But you do need a system for ensuring that what your teams are building still aligns with what your organization is trying to achieve.
For a deeper dive into how to make this work—along with six other moves to sharpen your strategy and accelerate delivery - grab our free guide:
Survive and Thrive: 7 Critical Moves for On-Time Delivery Without Burning Out Your Team
👉 www.techleaderadvance.com/thrive
