High-stakes projects often fail when the technical delivery disconnects from business reality. This post outlines how to rescue failing initiatives by replacing guesswork with clear acceptance criteria and rapid, MVP-based validation. Learn how to align your teams before a single line of code is written.
I once stepped into a high-stakes solution rebuild—a total 'redo' after a vendor delivery had failed business acceptance testing. The biggest gap? The delivery team failed to understand the ripple-through impacts of complex calculations across the solution. There were no clear acceptance criteria agreed with the business up front. Frustration all round.
The redo: building a read-only MVP for immediate business validation (using AI-accelerated discovery) enabling:
The takeaway - get clarity and alignment on ‘what good looks like’ and how it will be assessed before code is cut.
I'm building toward senior advisory, transformation governance and board-level engagements where complex problem solving, risk-based decisioning and strategic clarity are the brief. If you're a programme director, transformation lead or executive navigating a high-stakes complex problem, I'd welcome a conversation.
A New Zealand bank was auto-decisioning less than 1% of business lending applications. That meant almost every application needed a human to review it. Contact centre staff. Credit analysts. Manual touchpoints at every step.
Let’s talk about where things are stuck, what decisions need to move, and how to create momentum.
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