[theteapot]

> The amount of projects I’ve worked on that were dismissed by such people done anyway and invariably became the saving of the team/org/company is laughable.

That's intriguing. I would love some examples of these projects / products.

> The hallmark of these is the last minute surge in resourcing when management figures out they got it wrong.

Got what wrong? That they've heard the yeas and nays and chosen to undertake the project sounds like mang got something right?

[nvarsj]

> That's intriguing. I would love some examples of these projects / products.

It's literally the definition of skunkworks projects. Many companies have been saved by a small few ignoring all the "Nos" and just doing what they believe in at personal risk.

I really disagree with the general notion of people saying No. This is actually, imo, the death of big companies and very common. It is not heroic to say no, it is maintaining the status quo. People who talk about such things with glowing eyes probably have spent their careers only at big companies.

Experienced people tend to have narrow vision and will shoot down ideas because they can't think outside of their worldview. That's why new ideas are so rarely born at large orgs. And the most innovation tends to come out of scrappy startups from kids who don't know that what they're doing is impossible.

[slickrick216]

Good question hard to bake all the context in. The area I have worked most in is operations where a technique/widget/process is needed to fix a problem present within the environment due to an external actor which otherwise couldn’t be identified/monitored/resolved. Also to clarify I’ve been lucky to be part of such skunk work projects never actually lead one.