use orders of magnitude to unlock possibilities and find the priceless core

If you’re in an organization that has been around for a while, problems have likely been priced. There’s a typical way this kind of problem gets addressed and a certain amount that gets spent to do that. There’s efficiency in this (you probably don’t need to pick a new caterer for every team lunch) but there can also be missed opportunity.

When addressing a priced problem, consider an order of magnitude analysis to unlock new possibilities. What if you had to solve this with only $10 or $100? What if you could suddenly spend $10k or $100k? 

At the largest enterprise level, executives consider buying entire companies to address problems. That’s one of the options on the menu. 

With some problems, you may find the amount available to spend doesn’t matter much. The quality of your solution isn’t that much different at $10 or $10,000. When that’s so, there’s some other value at the core of the thing. All the choices in all the marketplaces in the world probably can’t deliver that priceless core. It’s something about gathering or relationships or meaning-making. Put your attention there. “Spend” generously on that part and let yourself be cheap on the others.  

-Eric