Surviving the ‘messy middle’

It's important to remember that every product goes through the "messy middle." This is where the project has gone beyond the initial exciting phase, and you begin to face implementation challenges that seem insurmountable. 

We've all been there. Sometimes we push through to achieve a successful outcome, while other times we give up. The question is, when we give up, is there anything else we could have done to make it a success? And what should we do next time we find ourselves in this position? 

To answer this question, we must first understand why the "messy middle" occurs. It's a phenomenon that organizational psychologists refer to as Kanter's Law, named after Professor Rosabeth Kanter. As she describes in the Harvard Business Review, it's the point where ‘grand promises give way to the tough challenges in implementation.’ It happens because our plans never quite play out as we anticipated. 

If you find yourself in this position, the first step is to examine your foundations. Have you proven that your solution is a good fit for the problem you're trying to solve for your target market? If not, take a step back and make sure you've proven those assumptions. 

If the answer is yes, keep moving forward. The key is to break the end goal into smaller, achievable goals. The advantage of this approach is that every goal achieved gives you a sense of success, and this starts to build a positive cycle that helps you move forward more positively. 

The second trick is to remain agile. Not every step forward will be successful, but if you take it one step at a time, you can autocorrect and take another direction. Step by step, you'll get there, with small but meaningful wins keeping your motivation high. 

My final piece of advice, and perhaps the most important, is to realize that you're in the "messy middle," and that every successful project goes through this phase. As long as you have a solid foundation (as mentioned above), keep pushing through, taking it one step at a time.