614: Stop starting projects you cannot finish – with Mike Dalton

Prioritize the right product projects – for product managers Watch on YouTube

TLDR

I’m siting down with innovation expert Mike Dalton to discuss why capable companies overcommit to too many projects and struggle to move any of them forward. He reveals practical frameworks and tools to help product leaders focus on the right projects, avoid resource overload, and deliver more value to both customers and organizations.

Introduction

Picture a customer calling and asking, “Where’s my new product?” And you don’t have a good answer. That’s the situation a plant leader at Danfoss described being in, before today’s guest showed up. Three months later, on-time delivery was over 90%. 

Our guest, Mike Dalton, spent 23 years inside SC Johnson, running the P&L for its most profitable business unit, before he set out to answer a key question: Why do capable companies keep moving fifty projects an inch forward instead of five projects a mile? He answered that question at my favorite innovation conference — PDMA’s Ignite Innovation Summit. His books, Simplifying Innovation and Unlocking Innovation Productivity, also provide valuable insights for product innovators and managers. 

I wanted to have this conversation because every product leader I talk to is being asked to do more with less. Mike’s answer isn’t “work harder.” It’s “stop starting so much.” And to get there, you just need a few tools, including a simple pipeline control mechanism that can meaningfully increase how many projects finish. We’ll learn about that and more. 

Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers

Problem of Too Many ProjectsOrganizations routinely take on more projects than they have resources for. This leads to spreading teams thin, multitasking inefficiencies, and slower overall product delivery. Mike emphasizes that throwing more resources at the problem is never the answer. Instead, the key is focusing existing resources on a few prioritized projects.

Choosing the Right ProjectsSelecting the right projects to focus on is central to increasing innovation productivity. Mike describes a customer value lens for vetting opportunities, ensuring products are both valuable to customers and profitable for the organization. He warns against ideas driven solely by internal executives, advocating for direct customer engagement to identify high-value unmet needs.

Portfolio and Resource ManagementMike explores how to balance a portfolio of projects based on strategic importance, risk, and expected ROI. He suggests using resource bandwidth as a limiting factor—most organizations can only run about a third of the projects they attempt efficiently. He recommends zero-based project budgeting and prioritizing projects by return per unit of effort, with less promising projects placed in the backlog or dropped.

Improving Project ExecutionExecution challenges are often rooted in resource overload rather than a lack of project management skills. Mike describes the need for mechanisms like early wa