Your Team Just Quoted 8 Weeks. What if They’re Off by 99%?

I thought I was running a standard innovation workshop with one of my favorite clients. Instead, I accidentally broke an entire organization’s understanding of what’s possible.

Let me explain.

The Setup

Picture this: I’m in Mexico City, working with a large company that had just completed several successful weeks of basic AI training. We’d spent the morning ideating transformative AI possibilities for their business-the kind of blue-sky thinking that gets executives excited. By lunch, we had compiled about a thousand ideas and down-selected to ten promising concepts.

Ten teams. Ten big ideas. All championing something they genuinely believed could transform their business.

Before we broke for lunch, I asked a simple question: “Real quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation-if you were going to prototype this idea to test in the market, what’s your request for leadership in terms of budget and time?”

The company leaders were all in the room, so I gave folks a moment to make their calculations.

The answers rolled in: “Eight weeks and $50,000.” “Nine weeks and $80,000.” “Seven weeks and $60,000.”

Variations on a theme, but all in that same ballpark.

I thanked the group, and we went to lunch.

The Plot Twist

While everyone else was enjoying their 90-minute break, my partner and I built one of their ideas.

Not a mockup. Not a wireframe. A working prototype.

When the teams returned, I casually asked that specific team, “How long did you say that prototype was going to take?”

“About nine weeks.”

“And how much would it cost?”

“Around $60,000.”

“Wait,” I said, pulling up the screen. “Is it something like this?”

We walked them through the live prototype. People could create accounts, generate purchase histories, see real-time recommendations. It was functional, testable, and ready for customer feedback.

You could watch everyone’s minds being blown in real time.

The Moment Everything Changed

At that point, the workshop unraveled—in the best possible way.

Nobody cared about the planned agenda. The room buzzed with a new question: If this only took 90 minutes, what else are we overestimating?

This wasn’t just about speed. It was about recalibrating ROI itself.

Most companies are still calculating innovation investments with old math. They’re stuck using eight-week timelines in a world where eight hours might be enough.

The danger? Not knowing what’s now possible.

The Confession That Made Me Sick

Two weeks before Mexico, I’d run another workshop in New Zealand. It felt successful—lots of ideas, clean process, detailed documents.

But now? I realized I had just led a team into the old way of doing things. I’d given them innovation theater instead of transformation.

I actually felt sick about it.

So I reached out to that CEO and told them the truth.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

This isn't just about moving faster—it's about expanding what I call "experimental capacity," the real bottleneck to innovation.

Innovation isn’t about having great ideas.

It’s about the capacity to test them—quickly.

You can’t scale innovation if you can only prototype a few ideas a year. The weird, counterintuitive, potentially brilliant ideas never get a shot.

AI is quickly removing that constraint.

The Pattern Is Everywhere

This isn’t an isolated phenomenon. I’m seeing it across continents and industries. Companies like Homebase are ditching 20-page product documents for 2-minute clickable demos.

Teams are getting feedback in real time—not after weeks of planning.

When we re-ran the session in New Zealand, one developer said, “What we just did in 30 minutes would’ve taken weeks before.”

The shift was real—and empowering.

The Massive Blind Spot

Here’s what’s terrifying: organizations are making go/no-go decisions based on obsolete investment assumptions.

A project quoted at eight weeks might actually take… 45 minutes.

The risk isn’t just inefficiency. It’s falling behind competitors who’ve already recalibrated.

The Recalibration Challenge

So here’s my question for you: When was the last time you actually tested your assumptions about what’s possible?

Try this experiment:

• Take your next estimate and divide it by 100
• Build something in that timeframe
• Test more ideas, faster
• Build, don’t just plan

This is how innovation capacity scales.

The Stakes Are Higher Than You Think

This moment won’t wait for you to catch up. While you’re accepting eight-week estimates, your competition is recalibrating their entire innovation engine.

The future won’t wait for eight-week planning cycles.

Your competitors are already prototyping during lunch breaks.

What if your team’s estimates are off by 99%?

P.S. My teaching partner and I are hosting an AI Breakthrough Weekend this October for leaders who are done with outdated timelines.

You’ll go from concept to working prototype—in real time, no technical background needed.

👉  Read the full story, including what happened next—and why I felt sick about it