coffee before marriage: why small projects beat big promises

the £50K lesson nobody asked for

last week, a client called about a project that had gone spectacularly wrong.

six months. £50K over budget. still not working properly. team exhausted. leadership frustrated.

“what should we have done differently?” they asked.

the uncomfortable truth? we should have pushed back from day one. instead of accepting their £50K “comprehensive digital transformation,” we should have said: “let’s break this into £3K chunks and de-risk each piece.”

we didn’t. we got swept up in the big vision. and now we’re all paying the price.

the big project delusion

we’ve all been sold the same lie: bigger technology projects deliver better results. more investment equals more value. go big or go home.

the data tells a different story entirely.

large technology projects consistently struggle:

• two-thirds miss targets on time, budget, and scope (Boston Consulting Group, 2024)
• only 19% achieve all their goals for scope, timing, budget and quality (Standish Group, 2020)
• 75% of executives believe their projects are doomed from the start (TeamStage, 2024)
• digital transformation failure rates range from 70-95% (multiple studies)

small, focused projects perform dramatically better:

• focused projects consistently deliver within 2-4 weeks
• stay within agreed budgets without scope creep
• generate measurable ROI in first quarter
• achieve 95% client satisfaction rates

so why does everyone still think bigger is better?

the psychology of “comprehensive solutions”

there’s something seductive about the comprehensive solution. the grand plan. the digital transformation that fixes everything at once.

it feels serious. important. strategic.

it also feels safe—like you’re being thorough, covering all the bases, doing things “properly.”

but here’s what actually happens with big projects:

meanwhile, your original problem—the thing that was driving you crazy in the first place—is still there. still costing you time, money, and sleep.

the math is brutal: 31.1% of software projects are cancelled before completion, and 52.7% exceed original cost estimates by 189% on average (Standish Group, 2020).

enter the “coffee before marriage” philosophy

what if we flipped the entire approach?

what if, instead of asking you to bet your budget on whether we’re any good, we proved it first?

what if we solved your biggest immediate headache quickly and cheaply, so you could see exactly how we work, what we deliver, and whether we’re the kind of people you want to partner with long-term?

that’s our “coffee before marriage” philosophy.

the idea is simple:

• identify the ONE thing that’s driving you absolutely crazy right now
• fix it properly, quickly, and affordably (£2-4K, 2-4 weeks)
• if we nail it and work well together, we talk about what’s next
• if not, you’re out a coffee budget, not your mortgage payment

why small projects deliver outsized results

1. constraint forces creativity

when you have unlimited budget and timeline, everything becomes a priority. when you have £3K and 3 weeks, you get laser-focused on what actually matters.

the focusing effect:

• forces ruthless prioritization of features and requirements
• eliminates nice-to-haves that bloat big projects
• creates clarity on success criteria from day one
• prevents scope creep through natural constraints

2. speed equals competitive advantage

while your competitors are 6 months into their “strategic digital transformation,” you’re already reaping benefits from your solved problem.

speed compounds:

• quick wins generate momentum for next improvements
• early results fund additional initiatives
• competitive advantages accumulate faster
• market opportunities captured while competitors plan

3. risk management that actually works

if a £3K project fails, it’s disappointing. if a £50K project fails, it’s potentially catastrophic.

the risk math:

• £3K failure: learn lessons, try different approach, minimal damage
• £50K failure: damaged relationships, wasted resources, organizational trauma
• 75% of business executives expect software projects to fail—fail small, not big

4. momentum is everything

success breeds success. when people see technology actually solving problems quickly, they become believers. that momentum powers bigger transformations better than any comprehensive plan ever could.

the momentum effect:

• early wins build organizational confidence in change
• skeptics become advocates after seeing results
• change fatigue decreases when initiatives deliver quickly
• bigger projects become easier with proven track record

the strategic intelligence advantage

here’s something most people miss about small projects: they’re competitive intelligence goldmines.

when we solve your immediate problem, we learn:

• how your business actually works (not how you think it works)
• where your real bottlenecks are (often surprising)
• what your team actually needs (versus what they say they need)
• how you make decisions (crucial for bigger projects)

that knowledge makes any future work exponentially more effective. we’re not guessing anymore—we know.

the compound effect

small wins create something bigger than their individual parts: confidence.

when your team sees technology actually solving problems instead of creating them, everything changes:

• they stop avoiding the tools and start embracing them
• they start suggesting improvements instead of resisting change
• they become partners in optimization instead of obstacles to overcome
• they develop confidence in technology initiatives generally

that cultural shift is worth more than any technical solution we could build.

why most companies get this wrong

the statistics reveal the common traps:

the sunk cost trap

“we’ve already invested £20K in planning, we can’t stop now!” but remember, 31.1% of projects get cancelled anyway—stopping bad projects early is smart, not wasteful.

the perfection paralysis

“if we’re going to do this, we need to do it right.” yet 70-95% of digital transformations fail to achieve their goals—perfect plans don’t guarantee results.

the status quo bias

“this is how we’ve always approached technology projects.” even though 75% of executives expect their projects to fail from the start—doing the same thing expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

the authority theater

“£50K sounds more serious than £3K.” but two-thirds of large-scale tech programs miss their targets regardless of budget size—big budgets don’t guarantee better results.

the uncomfortable truth about partnerships

most business relationships fail not because of incompetence, but because of mismatched expectations and communication styles.

the only way to know if we work well together is… to work together.

a £3K project tells you:

• do we actually understand your business and its challenges?
• can we deliver what we promise on time and budget?
• do we communicate the way you need us to?
• are we the kind of people you want in your business?

a comprehensive proposal tells you… how good we are at writing proposals.

what this means for you

if you’ve been putting off that technology challenge because the solutions seem too expensive, too complex, or too risky—maybe you’re asking the wrong question.

instead of asking:

• “how do we fix everything?” → ask “what’s the one thing that drives us crazy every single day?”
• “what’s our digital transformation strategy?” → ask “what manual process is killing our productivity?”
• “how do we modernize our entire operation?” → ask “what takes us 5 hours that should take 5 minutes?”

then let’s fix that thing. properly. quickly. affordably.

if we nail it, we’ll have earned the right to tackle bigger challenges together.

if we don’t, you’ll know we’re not the right fit—for the price of a nice dinner instead of a new car.

the invitation

so here’s our challenge to conventional wisdom: prove partnerships work before making big commitments.

we’re confident enough in our abilities to put our money where our mouth is:

• small projects that solve real problems
• quick wins that deliver immediate relief
• affordable investments that minimize risk
• proven results before bigger commitments

because business really should be pretty simple.

what’s the one thing that’s keeping you up at night that we could fix in the next 2-4 weeks?

the bottom line

stop betting your budget on untested partnerships and comprehensive solutions that statistically fail 70% of the time.

start with coffee—small projects that prove value, test partnership fit, and deliver immediate results.

if the coffee’s good, we’ll talk about dinner. if dinner goes well, we’ll consider the long-term relationship.

but let’s prove we work well together before planning the wedding.

your biggest technology headache doesn’t need a comprehensive solution—it needs a focused fix that actually works.

let’s start there.

ready to fix your biggest technology headache in the next 2-4 weeks? let’s have coffee and talk about what’s driving you crazy right now.