If I understand the gist of it, you want a flavor event that will prologue the design\construction of ships. Since each ship is composed of various components, this can be achieved in several ways.
1. A random chance during research of components, that will shave or add few RP to the project e. g. A breakthrough or delay in the research team effort of prototyping . . add something creative.
2. Same for the first construction\retrofit of a ship, only with BP and a shipyard.
Pretty much, yes. That's the big idea. As for now, research actually does quite ok, as, well, in the time of researching, of course there goes in prototyping as well. But when ship design is created, it's kinda strange, that all you do is refit shipyard and suddenly by magic means, every mechanic knows exactly how to construct completely new design. It's like giving for truck mechanic task to design a F1 racing car. So, adding some flaw to shipyards of "We will build it first and then we will be ready. " makes sense.
Also, I like your idea of adding 'bit randomness of creativity. It sounds logical, as in human history, sometimes great designs in many things come out just in construction process. . . or mistakes as well.
Actually, many games simulate with random events of "sudden breakthrough", like Jesus come out from nowhere and shared technology. If come back to SOTS, there was another interesting mechanic. When research is conducted by overflowing funding, chances raise with bigger funding overflow of breakthrough. And again, it was quite logical, as leisure life for scientists could possibly give them enough to shine and outsmart planned time. The same goes for long research, as if tech is researched quite long time, it slowly get's even slower to finish.
I'm sorry if I mention SOTS so much. . . It's just the awesome Aurora and I can't feel nostalgic, while remembering gem like sots and it's quite awesome mechanics, which in many cases are unique in 4x games.