As much as it goes against the grain for most of us, sometimes the most productive thing a manager can do is give up on a project.

Now, I'm not suggesting you throw in the towel as soon as the going gets a little tough; productive people never give up without a fight. But there may come a time when you hit a point of diminishing returns, when investing further resources in the product would just be wasteful. Remember Microsoft Bob, or Gerber's attempt to create adult entrees? Both companies wisely dropped those products when they flopped. 

Little Clues

As a manager, canceling failing projects may be one of your most important secondary responsibilities. But this begs the question: how do you recognize when a project hasn't got a chance? After all, a project's failure may still produce an unexpected success. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after a failed experiment with staphylococcus bacteria. 3M rejected the adhesive used on Post-It notes for general use because it wasn't sticky enough.

But you need a benchmark to measure against, so for a standard business context, let's define failure as something that:

a) Doesn't work as intended;

b) Goes too far over-budget; and

c) Won't (or can't) be delivered on time.

Watch for these common indicators: