WHAT ARE MOONSHOTS, EXACTLY?

As organizations strive to remain competitive through fresh innovation, more leaders are embracing the concept of “moonshots” to capture people’s imaginations spark major technological leaps. But what exactly does this term mean?

The phrase “moonshot” entered popular business lexicon when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin coined it as part of their management philosophy. They used the ambitious effort to literally land people on the Moon in 1969 as inspiration for the types of 10x innovative goals they wanted Google to set. In their eyes, striving for merely incremental improvements would only lead to average outcomes. Instead, they challenged their teams to envision radical solutions with planet-shifting potential, aptly dubbed “moonshots.”

In practice, business moonshots share common criteria that set them apart from typical projects or product roadmaps. First, they target enormous global problems like climate change, food shortage or disease. Their scope calls to mind President Kennedy’s rallying cry to put astronauts on the Moon within a decade when the technology to do so didn’t even exist yet.

Secondly, they operate on extremely long time horizons, often 10 or more years out. Given their grand vision, teams must exhibit extreme patience knowing efforts may not bear fruit quickly. But they’ll stretch technology dramatically in their wake.

Uncertainty abounds around moonshots, so setbacks and failures become expected aspects rather than exceptions. Management prioritizes learning rapidly under uncertain conditions versus focusing narrowly on quarterly metrics. A high risk tolerance allows creators freedom to experiment.

And moonshots require enormous cross-functional collaboration. Game-changing innovation doesn’t happen in silos but at intersections where diverse expertise collides. For instance, self-driving cars came about by combining leaps in AI, sensors, mapping, safety, policy, design and more.

While achieving actual moonshots may feel improbable at outset, their audacity is the point. By jolting organizations out of status quo thinking and decision-making, they unlock adjacent breakthroughs that redefine what teams believe possible. They also galvanize staff and capture public intrigue in ways incrementalism rarely does.

Just as the Apollo Moon landings yielded countless byproduct innovations we still use 50 years later, modern moonshots continue demonstrating technological leaps humankind never imagined. And their legacy pushes boundaries ever-further for future pioneers.