When pursuing aggressive benchmarks, engineers must employ portfolio thinking, running multiple design projects simultaneously. But choosing winners requires a decisive way to eliminate projects that are not feasible to continue innovating, often referred to as a "project killer". In this episode, we analyze Tesla's battery development as a case study. We delve into their use of five clear-cut constraint categories that define failure conditions upfront: the Economic filter, Performance filter, Scalability filter, Resource filter, and System filter. We discuss the challenges engineers face in letting go of projects due to the sunk cost fallacy, where prior investments irrationally influence future choices, leading to the creation of "zombie projects". Learn why defining explicit kill criteria before development begins is a vital, often overlooked exercise that saves resources and ensures rational decision-making.Blog for this episode: https://deeneyenterprises.com/qdd/podcast/define-kill-criteria-to-avoid-zombie-projects/Episode with Dianna's review of Annie Duke's "Quit": Exploring Product Development and AI Through Literature: Insights from 'Loonshots', 'AI 2041', 'Quit', and "How Big Things Get Done' (QDD Book Cast) - Deeney EnterprisesReady to apply this to your project?→ Schedule a free discovery call: Dianna's calendarWant insights like this?→ Subscribe to my newsletter: qualityduringdesign.substack.comLearn the full framework:→ Get the Book: Pierce the Design Fog ABOUT DIANNADianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

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