What is the one thing this project needs in order to survive? What is its most basic nature, the quality or qualities that make it what it is? What is the essence of the problem?
Rip a paragraph out of a magazine, or take the text from an email you just received. Start crossing out extra words with a pen or marker. Don’t think about nouns and verbs; just keep eliminating words that are unnecessary to the meaning of the paragraph. Can you get the meaning from one sentence? From a few words? How low can you go?