Skunkworks Projects – Solving The Real Problems?

How many times have you been assigned to a new project and wondered, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìWhy are we doing this??¢‚Ǩ¬ù You can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t see the relevance of the project to the current business needs or perhaps management has failed to communicate effectively.

Each year companies have a long list of new projects that usually go through a severe prioritization process. After all, you usually can’t find the dollars for all the things people in the company want to do. So, the project that may have the best real ROI (return on investment) never makes it to the top 15 on the list.

If you find yourself scratching you head and trying to make sense out of the exclusion of a project that you think will make an incredible contribution, you may have an alternative route that you can take.

Projects that are not budgeted or above the radar are often referred to as skunk works or skunkworks (one word) projects. Here are the definitions I could find for a skunk works project:

“A small, loosely structured corporate research and development unit or subsidiary formed to foster innovation.”

“A semi-official project team that is tacitly licensed to bend the rules and think outside the box.”

“Projects often are undertaken in secret with the understanding that if the development is successful then the product will be designed later according to the usual process.”

“Group of people who, in order to achieve unusual results, work on a project in a way that is outside the usual rules. A skunkworks is often a small team that assumes or is given responsibility for developing something in a short time with minimal management constraints.”

Here a few key characteristics of a skunk works:

• Innovative
• Semi-official or secret
• Bends the rules
• Minimal management constraints

Tomorrow I will talk about why I think skunkworks projects are something you should seriously consider.