We were building SD WAN. There was a brilliant evangelist spinning the story of how we were going to change the world with our new in house product. He listed off the features it would have, and I asked if our customers requested those features. He blew right by my question without even acknowledging me. There was a feeling in the room like I was being obtuse and asking silly questions. The implication was that the smart people in the room all understood why this was going to be big, and I had better keep my mouth shut and try to keep up.
To make sure the project was successful, we contracted the actual work out to BigCorp. I pointed out they were already selling a product in this space - we would be hiring them to build their own competition. No one seemed too worried.
Lots of money, lots of time, lots of progress reports, lots of calls with enthusiastic sales people. Nothing ever resembling a functional product came out of it. When it finally got cancelled I heaved a sigh of relief.
To make sure the project was successful, we contracted the actual work out to BigCorp. I pointed out they were already selling a product in this space - we would be hiring them to build their own competition. No one seemed too worried.
Lots of money, lots of time, lots of progress reports, lots of calls with enthusiastic sales people. Nothing ever resembling a functional product came out of it. When it finally got cancelled I heaved a sigh of relief.