10 failed projects and the lessons learned

Every project teaches lessons with its successes and failures. Best practice courses highlight the importance of developing a mind-set of continuous learning from the outset of the project. In this blog we’ll look at 10 major public project failures and the lessons learnt from these mistakes.

Why should we analyse projects that failed?

Failed projects provide valuable lessons. Analysing failures can help to pinpoint weaknesses in project planning, execution, or team dynamics. By dissecting what went wrong, project teams can gain insights into the mistakes that were made and avoid repeating the same errors in the future.

Embracing failure as a learning opportunity fosters a culture of continuous improvement, which leads project teams to become more resilient, adaptable, and innovative.

10 projects that failed:

1. Apple Lisa

In the early days of Apple, Lisa was the first GUI computer marketed at personal business users. It was supposed to be the first desktop computer that incorporated the now famous mouse, and a 5 MHz, 1MB RAM processor – the fastest of its kind back in 1983.

However, the project was a big failure. Only 10,000 computers were sold. It was such as failure that Steve Jobs was taken off the project and allocated to another project, the Macintosh. Apple Lisa overpromised and under-delivered, with a price-performance ratio that was significantly worse than had been expected.

Lesson learned:

The importance of stakeholder collaboration and transparency.

2. Crystal Pepsi

The early 1990s saw the trend for ‘light’ drinks emerge. In 1992, Pepsi launched Crystal Pepsi, a soft drink that tasted similar to regular Pepsi but was clear-coloured. Initially sales were good, mainly due to the curiosity factor, but soon dropped away to the point where Crystal Pepsi was withdrawn from the market just 2 years later.

The mistake of David Novak, creator of Cystal Pepsi — and Pepsi itself — was making too many assumptions about the product and market demand. Novak was even told by the bottlers that the drink needed to taste more like Pepsi. Unfortunately, he didn’t listen.

Lesson learned:

Don’t make assumptions about your audienc