  Online innovation communities allow for a search for novel solutions within a
design space bounded by constraints. Past research has focused on the effect of
creative constraints on individual projects, but less is known about how
constraints affect learning from repeated design submissions and the effect of
the technical constraints that are integral to online platforms. How do
creative versus technical constraints affect individual learning in exploring a
design space in online communities? We analyzed ten years of data from an
online innovation community that crowdsourced 136,989 design submissions from
33,813 individuals. We leveraged data from two types of design
contests-creatively constrained and unconstrained-running in parallel on the
platform, and we evaluated a natural experiment where a platform change reduced
technical constraints. We find that creative constraints lead to high rates of
learning only if technical constraints are sufficiently relaxed. Our findings
have implications for the management of creative design work and the downstream
effects of the technical constraints of the information systems that support
online innovation communities.
