A famous franchise of fried poultry was developing an innovative new product line. Through market research and focus groups, the Product Folk (P.F.) knew what the eating public was longing for… and the P.F. could easily state it in one unambiguous line:

“8 piece chicken – just legs and thighs“

The development team lost no valuable time. They jumped right into creating their estimate. Historically, the P.F. trusted the team’s estimates, which were based on the scientific principals of famed mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci. Further, the team was known to use devices and techniques of prolific Las Vegas gamblers in arbitrating their estimates. After 2 weeks, the engineering team returned with an estimate of 14 years.

14 years seemed a bit long, so the P.F. joined the team to collaborate in real time. The team began to sketch the concept as they understood it. They asked the P.F. “do you want the chicken to have 8 pieces total — 4 legs and 4 thighs — or do you want the chicken to have 8 leg-thigh combinations?” They showed the P.F. their sketch (see above.)

The P.F. mumbled some clarifications. Heads nodded, folks chuckled, the team got to work, and the project was finished that very day in 4 hours.