  How should government and business solve big problems? In bold leaps or in
many smaller moves? We show that bespoke, one-off projects are prone to poorer
outcomes than projects built on a repeatable platform. Repeatable projects are
cheaper, faster, and scale at lower risk of failure. We compare evidence from
203 space missions at NASA and SpaceX, on cost, speed-to-market, schedule, and
scalability. We find that SpaceX's platform strategy was 10X cheaper and 2X
faster than NASA's bespoke strategy. Moreover, SpaceX's platform strategy was
financially less risky, virtually eliminating cost overruns. Finally, we show
that achieving platform repeatability is a strategically diligent process
involving experimental learning sequences. Sectors of the economy where
governments find it difficult to control spending or timeframes or to realize
planned benefits - e.g., health, education, climate, defence - are ripe for a
platform rethink.
