What Is Kill Criteria?
Explicit conditions that, if met during a POC, would cause the buyer to disqualify the product. Documenting kill criteria before kickoff is one of the highest-impact scoping moves an SE can make.
Kill criteria force the buyer to articulate, in writing, what would cause them to walk away from the product. The act of writing them down is the value. Buyers who articulate kill criteria upfront commit themselves to a specific evaluation frame that protects the SE from goalpost-moving later in the POC.
SEs at companies running structured POC programs (security, infrastructure, complex enterprise software) document kill criteria as part of the standard POC kickoff. The criteria become part of the success criteria document signed before evaluation begins.
How to Set Kill Criteria
Ask: "what would cause your team to disqualify this product before the evaluation is complete?" Capture the answer. Have the technical and economic buyer sign off. Refer back to the criteria at each POC milestone. If a criterion is met, document the outcome before continuing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are kill criteria valuable?
They force the buyer to articulate what would cause disqualification in writing. The commitment protects the SE from goalpost-moving later in the POC.
Do all POCs need kill criteria?
Most complex POCs benefit from them. Simple SaaS POCs at horizontal products may not need formal kill criteria. Security, infrastructure, and complex enterprise POCs always should have them.
Who should sign off on kill criteria?
Both the technical evaluator and the economic buyer. Sign-off from the technical team alone leaves the economic buyer free to introduce new disqualifying conditions later.