Most B2B proof-of-concept projects fail not because the technology doesn't work, but because no one validated whether the client was willing to bear the internal cost of solving the problem they just discovered.

Your POC worked perfectly. The technology performed. The data confirmed your hypothesis. The client nodded along in the final presentation.

And then nothing happened.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. After working with dozens of B2B startups navigating enterprise sales cycles, I've observed a pattern so consistent it deserves a name: the Successful Failure.

The POC technically succeeds. The commercial outcome fails. And founders are left wondering what went wrong.

Here's what went wrong: you validated the wrong thing.

Most feedback is useless.

Not because people lack good intentions. Not because organisations don't invest in training. But because we've been taught to give feedback in ways that trigger defensiveness, focus on personality rather than behaviour, and leave people with nowhere to go.