Apple has always loaded the odds in its favor. Every big, audacious project that it has pursued — the Macintosh, Lisa, Newton, iPod, and the iPhone – have had one thing in common: all have had a great team behind them. A recent article in Wired, by David Piercesuggests that the Apple Watch has had one as well.

Each of these projects was a great adventure into the unknown; and each represented an explicit aspiration to disrupt an established industry. Some of these efforts worked, and others didn’t, but they were all built around great teams! This has been part of Apple’s signature throughout. When going into the unknown with a big move, don’t settle for anything less than acquiring the best skills you need – not relying on just the skills you have. It’s good advice for any organization.

Wearables are seen as perhaps the next great step forward in the future of personal computing and connectivity. Despite their being widely proclaimed as the new frontier, it remains to be seen if and how that prediction will be fulfilled. Last year, the actual shipments of wearables were less than 60% of what was predicted. Clearly, this is a big leap into the unknown, even for Apple… .Jonathan Ive, Apple’s celebrated number two, has admitted that: “It’s not very often that we start something that’s an entirely new platform.” Yet, what’s so breathtaking about the new Watch is how Apple’s team went about tackling this project, and what others can learn from it.

Among the key lessons are:

Dream Big

Ironically, the dream that launched the watch was born out of dissatisfaction with Apple’s most successful product, the iPhone. According to David Pierce, there was a feeling at Apple that “Your phone is ruining your life,” which became a challenge to “engineer a reverse state of being.”  The quest would take Apple far afield of much of what had made it successful to date, including moving into luxury offerings and providing fashion variety to a mass-produced consumer electronics product.

Give Big Projects the Attention they Deserve

Kevin Lynch, VP Technology at Apple, and newly hired from Adobe where he was CTO, ran the Watch project, but, clearly, everyone at the top of Apple, from Tim Cook down, was involved in one way or another with the Watch initiative. While this was very definitely a “special” project, it was never very far from the attention of the people at the top. Jonathan Ive, who had recently been given responsibility for both design and leadership and direction for Human Interface software teams across the company, met with the Watch design team weekly.