A positive constraint is a constraint that, rather than blocking progress, shapes it. A limiting condition that — when you build around it — generates focus, resilience, and creative force.
The name of my practice comes from this idea.
The intuition
Jeff Bezos built Amazon’s strategy around three things that are stable over time: low prices, vast selection, and fast delivery. These aren’t aspirations — they’re constraints. They rule out whole categories of decisions. And that is precisely their power.
A positive constraint does the same for any business: it narrows the possibility space so that what remains is clearer, more defensible, and harder to copy.
What makes a constraint positive?
Not every constraint is positive. Negative constraints just block you. A positive constraint is one that:
- Is stable over time — it doesn’t evaporate when the market shifts
- Is generative — building around it creates value, not just limitation
- Is discoverable — it exists in the problem domain, waiting to be abstracted out
In practice
Finding a company’s positive constraints is the core of The Process. The result is a core constraint set — usually 2–3 constraints — that becomes the foundation of the business identity and value strategy.
See it in action: Tapouts, CortiSense, User1st, LEAP Commerce.