Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

Manage your not working products properly!

19 Feb 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:43

In this short instructional video, Lara Guevara discusses why founders and product managers often keep loss‑making SKUs alive due to emotional attachment and sunk‑cost thinking. She illustrates the point with a case study of "Maya," who kept her brand’s first product on the market for 18 months despite it losing $4 per sale and delivering only a 3 % contribution margin. Guevara explains the hidden costs of maintaining a non‑profitable product—warehouse space, mental energy, and ad spend—then shows the outcome after Maya finally discontinued the SKU: negligible customer backlash and an immediate boost to overall margin. The video ends with a call to action, urging viewers to identify a product they’re emotionally attached to but should kill, and promises a framework for product‑kill decisions in the next episode.

Chapters

She kept a product alive for 18 months that was losing $4 per sale. She couldn't kill it. It was her first SKU. Most founders know exactly which products are not working. They just can't pull the trigger. The attachment is emotional. The cost is financial. Here's what's happening with Maya. Her first product, the one she launched the brand with, It still had fans. It is sold 200 units a month consistently. But when we did the math last week, style full contribution margin, it was making 3% margin at her scale. That translated to losing $4 per sale when you included allocated overhead. Every month she kept it alive, she was spending warehouse space on it, mental energy managing it, and ad dollars defending it. Why didn't she kill it? It was our first product. It feels wrong to discontinue it. What will our loyal customers think? We already invested $40K developing it. None of those reasons are about the future. They're about the past. The $40K is gone whether she keeps selling it or not. That's sunk cost. After 18 months of hesitation, she finally discontinued it. And know what happened? Nothing. A few customers emailed, but within 60 days, nobody noticed. But her overall margin improved immediately. Look at your product line. Which product would you kill if you weren't emotionally attached? Write down its name. We'll talk about the framework tomorrow. Comment stock if you have a product you know isn't working but can't bring yourself to kill.