Breakthrough innovations do not come from incremental improvements. They come from moonshots: ambitious, unreasonable attempts to solve massive problems with breakthrough technology. The moonshot discipline has a structure, and its logic is captured in this framework.
The full strategic foundations behind this framework are explored in The Business Engineer: https://businessengineer.ai/
2. Radical Solution — The Paradigm Shift Requirement
A moonshot solution cannot be reasonable. If it sounds reasonable, it is not a moonshot. This is the principle popularized inside Google’s X Moonshot Factory.
The solution must:
fundamentally reframe the problem
replace the status quo
eliminate the problem, not improve it
feel improbable, uncomfortable, or unreasonable
Examples of non-moonshot “solutions”:
“Build a better chatbot for support tickets.”
“Faster fraud detection with AI.”
These improve existing paradigms. They do not break them.
A detailed explanation of paradigm shifts and radicality is unpacked in The Business Engineer: https://businessengineer.ai/
3. Breakthrough Technology — The Glimmer of Hope
A moonshot is not magic. It requires a technical pathway that did not exist before. The technology does not need to be ready, but it must be plausible.
The glimmer of hope requires:
evidence-based feasibility
a new technical unlock
a pathway created by scientific or engineering breakthroughs
Examples of missing breakthrough:
“Let’s solve world hunger with current tech.”
“Eliminate all disease with existing medicine.”
Without a technical unlock, ambition is just fantasy. The technology threshold is detailed in The Business Engineer: https://businessengineer.ai/
The Filtering Mechanism — How to Test If Something Is a Moonshot
This framework uses a simple but strict filter:
Does it solve a huge problem? If not, stop.
Does the solution sound unreasonable? If it sounds reasonable, it is incremental.
Is there a glimmer of technical hope? If no, the idea fails the moonshot test.
If all three conditions pass, proceed to test.
This filter provides discipline. It prevents teams from confusing ambition with breakthrough potential, a distinction explored further in The Business Engineer: https://businessengineer.ai/
True Moonshots — Real-World Examples
Built Environment (Anori)
Huge: 25 percent of global waste and emissions
Radical: Untangle development complexity for entire cities
Tech: AI platform for coordination and real-time modeling
Conclusion — How Leaders Should Use the Moonshot Framework
Most organizations default to:
incremental improvement
optimization
risk minimization
This framework forces a different mindset. It filters out incremental work and highlights true breakthrough opportunities.
A real moonshot requires:
a problem big enough to matter
a solution unreasonable enough to break the old paradigm
a technology new enough to open a pathway that never existed
This is the structured foundation of breakthrough innovation. For the deeper strategic reasoning behind the framework, see The Business Engineer: https://businessengineer.ai/
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
