Gotta love constraints

Have you heard the one about the NASA pen?

Astronauts keep a lot of notes, and the standard issue ball-point pen doesn’t work well in zero gravity.

So naturally, NASA figured out how to make a ballpoint pen that works in space. Not exactly rocket science.

After a series of prototypes, several test runs and tons of money invested, NASA developed a fully functional gravity-independent pen, which pushes the ink onto the paper by means of compressed nitrogen. Brilliant.

When the Russian space program faced the same challenge, they were budget constrained.

So they used pencils.

Where can you add constraints?

Have you equipped your team to focus on the essentials and eradicate unnecessary complications?

How can you enrich your approach by applying constraints on funding and time to force creative thinking?

Simplest viable solutions are a key theme of Trusting Technology, my book about forming ideas, exploring opportunities with customers and colleagues, and building your future together. Order you copy here.