Thereâs a special kind of challenge that comes with long-running projects. The type of projects that force you to go dark for months. No releases, no visible progress, just you and your team building in isolation, hoping it all comes together in the end. The risk isnât just the massive scope; itâs the silence. The longer you go without a real finish in sight, the more fragile the project becomes.
I call this a submarine project. Youâre running silent, submerged for months, surfacing only when you hope everything works. But hope is not a strategy. Without small wins, morale fades, context is lost, and the chance of a painful, last-minute pivot grows with every passing week.
If youâre in this situation, you need to make progress feel real. Redefine what âdoneâ means and get good at celebrating the small stuff. Establish a momentum of small, visible milestones, not performative status updates, but real, tangible achievements that build confidence and prove youâre on the right track.
Even if you canât release to users yet, running small parts of your system in a test environment is a significant win. Showcase it. Be vocal about it. Celebrate it. Status reports are just words and numbers on a page; demos are proof. Every small, working piece is evidence that youâre solving the right problem and moving forward.
A long-running project is a marathon of belief. Youâre asking a team to stay motivated for a distant goal, knowing each quiet quarter increases the risk. These small, constant, and visible victories are proof to your team, and to everyone watching, that youâre not lost and the destination is real.