Pick the Right Pain Point

The side project that gets noticed solves a cross-team pain point — reporting nobody wants to own, a broken handoff between functions, a tool gap everyone complains about privately. Pick where the bar is low, visible, and ships in six weeks.

Pitch the project in one paragraph: the pain, the fix, estimated impact, time you need. Managers approve short, measurable bets — they rarely approve open-ended "explore X" asks with no finish line they can verify.