In my experience (I make tools for the network and security guys): that's why you don't propose only one thing. We often have one new project every year, we propose multiple ways to go about it, the leadership ask us to explore 2-3 solutions, we come back with data and propose our preferred solution, the leadership say 'ok' (after a very technical two-hour meeting) and propose minor alterations (or sometimes they want to alter our database design to make it 'closer' to the user experience...)