He was a young team leader. Recently appointed in this position, he was eager to make his mark and prove to himself and the others how being chosen for this position was the best decision his new manager ever made. He was recognized by his peers for his technical proficiency and his interpersonal skills. It was as if everyone knew this position was for him, except for himself. Fueled by a desire to achieve great results and to make his team shine for their excellence, he was ready for anything. It was all pure energy.

He was thrilled by his first mandate. The customer was a large bank, one of the largest in the country. They were soliciting bids for the development of a next generation information system that would allow them to simplify how customers could shop for insurance. The project was innovative and challenging. He knew he and team were up for the task.

He rallied for the brightest minds in the department and invested an impressive amount of effort in designing what he would call the most sophisticated insurance platform ever built. This system was using the latest technologies and was, by design, future-proof for the foreseeable future. Robustness, resiliency and security were at the forefront of his concerns. He made sure that, by no means, it was possible to tamper with the system or make it unavailable. It was also modular enough so that it could integrate well with some other of the bank’s systems. He saw were his client wanted to go and anticipated all of their needs. He was proud of the result.

A few weeks later, he got word that another firm was selected to build the system. The solution was, without the shadow of a doubt, less complete than what he prepared. Some of his peers judged it was probably good enough though. The deciding factor was the total cost of the solution.

Feasibility if often overlooked as a system or a product’s attributes. A product is only cost unless someone outside of the business can use it and get value out of it.