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Comment by TameAntelope | Hacker News Reader

There's no mention about whether or not the flavor Montañez came up with was the one used in the hot Cheetoes, or if the CEO even tried one.

Not that it matters, but I think it's interesting that the actual product here we can safely hand-wave away, "The chefs in the test kitchen will make that part work."

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The exact flavor isn't important. What is important is that he identified an unserved, high-potential, market and put together what was basically a minimum viable product. I'm sure it needed massive refinement, but that shortcoming is a normal piece of any product development.

Totally agree, I just think it's unintuitive how the actual literal product is often the least important part of the process.

Also, it sounds like his presentation skills provided management with a spokesperson/avatar/salesman for the project, possibly making it the right time to move forward with some ideas they already had but didn't have the right person for.

I think coming up with the final formula requires an understanding of not just taste/food science, but also manufacturing logistics, raw material sourcing, etc. There's probably a lot of trade-offs involved, as you can imagine as well. I agree with you that it's a team effort, but unfortunately the impact of such stories is probably diminished if they weren't about the janitor walking into the CEO's office and hitting a home run.

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