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When I think of constraints, I think of it as sort of that meta problem level of The surrounding logistics of solving the problem and what we can’t do. So it might be: we need to ship this thing, but we don’t have the time or the budget to code our own solution, so we need to find it off the shelf. idea or we’re starting on a campaign but we can’t or a marketing campaign but we can’t do A B or C so how do we solve The expensive problem we’re tasked with solving with these constraints in play. We could even go as micro as, well, when we think about a podcast episode, we could get on here and talk about anything, but We have a system where we identify ideas, we talk about the ideas first, and we give a constraint to what that episode is. We’re going to talk within this arena. We’re putting limitations in place because Adding those limitations, adding those constraints forces us to think through different and new and innovative ways to solve the problem. Like, how would we How would we do a podcast episode if, say, we weren’t able to call each other for some reason? Or how would we do a podcast episode if If we didn’t know who our audience was, or if we wanted to promote a specific thing, I think thinking through constraints within the context of expensive problems or business problems forces us to Identify new and innovative ways to solve them. It forces us to say, well, my default path is A, B, C, D. Well, if I can’t do A, B, and C anymore, but we need to get to D as the destination. What are other innovative ways I could get there? And in my own consulting practice, I came across podcast outreach because the expensive problem I was solving for clients was we need more links to our website. And I started asking myself, well, What are the constraints I could put on this to find new and innovative ways to do this? And I came across the idea of: well, what if I focus my link building on just podcast outreach? Get clients on podcasts, get links in show notes? Perfect, we’ve done link building. And by applying that constraint to solving the business problem, I discovered a whole new way of thinking about business, of marketing, of outreach, of link building that turned into this two-year adventure as an outreach consultant. Constraints, I feel, are both limitations that are imposed by the scenario around you, but also can provide building blocks to allow you to. Grow in new directions as a consultant? How do you solve a problem when A is removed from your arsenal or B is removed from your arsenal?

No, I completely agree. It’s Yeah, you’re absolutely right in bringing realistic scenarios into it because it’s so easy for us to think about ways we could solve a problem given unlimited budget, unlimited anything. But you actually are sitting there face to face with a client, and the client says, We can’t do A, B, or C, or we’ve tried it before, or we can’t afford that. We need to find another solution. And you have to think on your feet and you have to adapt and you have to figure out: okay, what’s a unique way I could approach this that lets me get to that destination? And I think It’s important to interview clients about those constraints because, as you point out, that’s what gives a shape and form to the engagement. Because if you don’t understand what the constraints are, Well, you could get three-quarters of the way into the engagement and suddenly realize the basis you’ve been building everything on just does not exist. You have no ground floor anymore. What will that mean for your entire engagement as a whole? So, in my onboarding process for any client, I’m always focused on: well, what other marketing campaigns are you running right now? What issues are you dealing with in your business? What should I know that will impact how we can work together or how this project will go? Because knowing that will let me know where to focus my time and attention and what to focus my time and attention on.

Ah, good question. Time is one. Tools and systems are another. Budget is a third. Resources, and I think of resources as human resources, are a fourth. Knowledge would be a fifth. Who is my target market? What are their needs? What are their expensive problems? Logistical ability would be one. A lot of these are malleable too, which is very malleable. Knowledge of the problem itself can be a constraint. I’ve definitely been dropped into consulting situations before where the client says, we know we have a problem somewhere here. It sort of relates to your discipline. We don’t quite know what the problem is. This is why I think roadmapping sessions or paid discovery sessions are so valuable because it lets you discover the shape and form and constraints of the problem before you start the engagement. But what exactly the problem is can be another constraint. And in fact, I think it’s also interesting to view constraints through almost the opposite lens. What happens when we intentionally apply constraints to Our practice of a skill as a consultant, like Nick. If I say, Nick, I’ve been A-B testing a project for you, but you can’t change these six elements or these six aspects of the page. Okay, you now have a new constraint. You know what the goal is. We’re trying to increase convergence and increase revenue. But because we place these constraints there, because they’re Predetermined constraints due to the architecture, or their constraints are putting in place just to inspire new thinking, those constraints force us to confront the problem from a different direction or a different dimension. There’s a wonderful book, A Whack on the Side of the Head, that Mark Rosewater. Are recommended to me. And I think it’s a wonderful book for thinking through: well, innovative problem solving. How do you solve a problem or find a creative solution to a problem, especially when you’re faced with constraints and intentionally applying constraints? For me at least, can often be a way to think my way through a problem. I suffer from blank page syndrome. So if I’m writing an article and I’m just staring there at the blank page, I’m going to stare at that blank page for 30 freaking minutes. But if I give myself the constraint of, you know, a tiny doodle, I write a sentence on there, I drop in a question somebody asked, okay, well, now my constraint is that topic. Or, my constraint is that idea. Where does that take me? It gives me, there’s a statement an artist friend of mine gave me where she said that. The hardest challenge for her as an artist is staring at the blank canvas and knowing what to draw. So she’ll take her brush or her pencil and just make a random scribble. And then she gets to say, What is that scribble? What does it represent? And now she has that constraint of this initial design decision or this initial aspect of it. And she has to fill in around it, and it takes her down an interesting path. So I think constraints can both come in as part of the engagement or as something we intentionally apply to inspire new modes of thinking.

Yep. Yep. No, very, very much agree. No, and I like that flavor of it. And thinking more about constraints, like two of our friends, Philip Morgan and Jonathan Stark, both have switched over to writing daily emails to their list. And at first, that’s an interesting constraint. Like, write one email a day, go. And at first, there was some intimidation on their side. I think it’s fair to say, where it’s like, what am I going to write about? But what they discovered is the constraint of emailing their list daily actually inspired them to find. new topics or new ideas to write about. It made them comfortable with writing shorter, more frequent letters to their list that they could then gather up into larger articles. It inspired more conversation. So applying that constraint of you’re now emailing your list daily, go. Force them to think about their positioning, their areas of expertise, their domain knowledge in new and innovative ways. Which resulted in, for both of them, an increase in engagement, an increase in people liking what they’re writing, an increase in the true fans standing out and replying. So constraints can often provide A huge benefit when you view it as, okay, I have this constraint, but a constraint could also open up an opportunity.

I think that’s a key question. I think you don’t know a constraint until you start dealing with it and you really start exploring the problem as a whole. And again, roadmapping sessions are great for this, just sitting down with a client and talking through what exactly is the problem. What have you tried before? Why did that work? Why did that not work? What have you thought about trying but haven’t? You, as an outside consultant, don’t know, may not know what the constraints are in a client engagement until you get that chance to talk with a client. Having questions specifically set aside to understand, like, okay, what’s the problem? Okay, what are the limitations on how we could solve the problem? It might be that there’s no constraints and no limitations, and it’s the ideal scenario. Great, congratulations. It might be that the client says, well, we need to get approval from this manager because it touches the website in this way, and this other person is involved, and this is our timeline. And we have a launch coming up, and we can only afford to spend up to this amount. So that’s your entire budget. Okay, well, great. Now we know the constraints, but they come from talking with the client. Or in our own businesses, I think discovering the constraints comes from both Looking at our business and just asking that question, where am I pinched? Where am I constrained? It might be in terms of time, attention. Energy, money, deal flow, something else. Or it might be by looking and seeing what you’re good at doing and what you don’t enjoy doing. And Suddenly, what you don’t enjoy doing becomes a new constraint that you could work around or work against. Hey, I really hate creating these monthly reports. Well, Do I need to create these monthly reports or do I have the option of ditching them? Can I delegate this? Can I outsource it? Can I hand it to someone else? Is this something that actually provides value? But I think identifying the constraints comes from both practicing your skill or practicing the Craft of consulting or having a conversation with a client and observing, well, where do I naturally run into some sort of wall or some sort of constraint in my creative or business process? And that gives you information about the shape and the form of the arena that you’re playing in. And from there, you’re able to continue building your business and figure out what was this constraint I could route around. Or is this a constraint I have to deal with and it’s table stakes for playing at this game?

I mean, I personally love them. Like, when I’m presented with a new constraint or a new constraint on a project, I’m excited by it because it lets me. Think about how I’m going to solve the problem in a new way. And that’s really exciting for me. Whenever a client is like, oh, we can’t do A. But maybe B or C will work. It’s exciting because, like, okay, I might be practicing the same craft of outreach, get you on podcasts each time. But, well, the specifics of that engagement will change in unique ways based on the constraints the client reveals. And that. makes consulting more fun.

This connects perfectly to something that I don’t think I’ve talked about on the show yet, but I talk a lot about in my consulting and coaching work where Clients are wonderful at identifying the problem they’re experiencing, but terrible at knowing what solution makes sense. Yeah, you’ve mentioned this before.

Oh, okay. Oh, keep going. Keep going. Yeah, no, this hooks in, right? But, like, yeah, your client was like, we have this problem. We know what this problem is. And their toolbox is, let’s do A-B testing because Nick does A-B testing. We’ll A-B test it. But. You as a consultant, you probably couldn’t guess that this is a question that they’re going to ask. Consultants, I don’t think, are good at intuiting the problems clients might have. This is why I’m so focused on market research and conversations with clients to discover what the problems are. But you’re great at identifying what solution makes sense. So, client identified the problem, came to you, and said, How about we do the solution? Well, the solution, not the right solution. The problem That’s an interesting problem. That problem gives you a constraint. How do we find an answer to this question? You, as the consultant, now are able to take the constraints of this problem and say, well, The solution you propose doesn’t make sense. Let’s throw that out. But the question you’re asking is a good one. And based on that question, here’s how we could answer it with the tools we have available. So I think there’s a nice dichotomy there, and it’s perfectly illustrated by this example. Client reached into the toolbox and pulled out the shiny tool they love, but you, as a consultant, were able to say, We don’t actually need that tool, what we need is this thing or this other thing, or we actually already have that data over here. Here’s how we could solve the problem.

You’re rabbit holding there for a second. I mean, as consultants, we are often exposed to one small slice of the problem. And to us, it might be like, why are you asking this question? This is a dumb question. But to the client, it’s like, well, this question is actually a smaller subset of a much larger conversation and problem we’re trying to solve, which is why we’ve come to you to solve this one part of it. And just like you’re pointing out, like scroll depth might in fact be a proxy for something larger or a more pressing question or something that has an actual business need behind it. It’s just been translated into an imperfect idea of a solution. Oh, to solve this, we need to look at scroll depth. Well, no, to solve it, we need to do A, B, and C, or D. To understand that, we need to understand the constraints of the question we’re asking. Right, right.