Innovation is the sum of all constraints

There is no such thing as innovation inhibitors. Innovation does not exist without friction, without a problem to solve, a purpose and constraints.

According to Charles Eames (1) the key characteristic of a good designer is her willingness to enthusiastically go out into the world and identify all constraints. Solving for these constraints is what makes her output worthwhile.

“[Design is] the sum of all constraints. Constraints of size, price, attention, motivation, distribution, time… The design process is defined by its ability to recognize all constraints, and its willingness and enthusiasm to work within them.” — Charles Eames (2)

The design process is not about having an idea and then protecting it against all evil. Its having an idea and then enthusiastically figuring out what could kill it, then improve it based on solving for all the constraints.

Example: Online advertising and data collection didn't have much constraints in the beginning. And look where that got us ... our online experiences are flooded with messy, disturbing animated rectangles, social media stole all our data and manipulated large parts of our society to hate each other. Online advertising isn't good. Its a terrible outcome of an environment with too little constraints. Good design, good innovation needs constraints.

But I have a secret for you. The moonshot factory is a messy place. But rather than avoid the mess, pretend it's not there, we've tried to make that our strength. We spend most of our time breaking things and trying to prove that we're wrong. That's it, that's the secret. Run at all the hardest parts of the problem first. Get excited and cheer, "Hey! How are we going to kill our project today?" - Astro Teller (3)

We often mention innovators who go through thousands of prototypes before finally getting to the solution that works. Why? Is there something in the magic that keeps innovations from working? No, its constraints. The lightbulb didn't work on the first attempt because they couldn't get the materials and the temperature right. They needed to explore the problem to understand the constraints in order to make something that worked.

When Edison exclaimed “The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.” he was talking about how willing and enthusiastic you need to be as an innovator in order to explore, find and solve for constraints.

James Dyson din't go through 5000 iterations because of the goodness of his heart. He only had the theory of cyclonic separation in place, but didn't know all the crazy that would happen when you put it into practice. So he had to learn all the constraints in order to make an amazing product.

Innovation is the process of exhausting the problem through known and unknowns, and then travel through all these constraints in order to find something that works. You have an idea and then constraints make it better. They are not inhibitors, they are realities, parts of the problem. And caring about the problem means seeing how the constraints make the work better.

Design / innovation is the sum of all constraints

Sources:

(1). Charles Eames, https://www.eamesoffice.com

(2). Design Q & A with Charles Eames, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYi2rd1QCg

(3). Astro Teller, The unexcpected benefit of celebrating failure, https://www.ted.com/talks/astro_teller_the_unexpected_benefit_of_celebrating_failure/transcript?subtitle=en