Nice post from Sean (again). This applies a lot to product domain as well as engineering.
Example, around a year a bunch of product people and like-minded engineers wanted to develop something that we believed could benefit other teams as well as ours. To fund officially (legible channel) would have been a nightmare for many reasons at the time so it was agreed that we would just do it (what OP would call illeigible channel) this required massive degree of trust and respect which this group had.
It felt like a pure grassroots initiate and not driven by top down, as such this helped the development get traction across the org, surprisingly quick in some cases.
Fast forward to today and senior management now citing this as a success story that fits into the narrative they are presenting...great..but...of course...no good deed goes unpunished!
The team is now having to retrofit the business case and justification through the legible channels, it's painful of course but in same easier as the chance of failure has been massively derisked.
One of the much more fun, satisfying and rewarding projects I have worked on in recent years.
Example, around a year a bunch of product people and like-minded engineers wanted to develop something that we believed could benefit other teams as well as ours. To fund officially (legible channel) would have been a nightmare for many reasons at the time so it was agreed that we would just do it (what OP would call illeigible channel) this required massive degree of trust and respect which this group had.
It felt like a pure grassroots initiate and not driven by top down, as such this helped the development get traction across the org, surprisingly quick in some cases.
Fast forward to today and senior management now citing this as a success story that fits into the narrative they are presenting...great..but...of course...no good deed goes unpunished!
The team is now having to retrofit the business case and justification through the legible channels, it's painful of course but in same easier as the chance of failure has been massively derisked.
One of the much more fun, satisfying and rewarding projects I have worked on in recent years.