Perhaps a better way to phrase it would be along the lines of, "You propose a to-do list app at a team meeting, and you want to demonstrate that it's a feasible product. However, you have a limited time box to ship it in. What do you reach for?" It lacks a bit of the urgency of the original question, but still comes with time constraints.

My original example is born of a decade of cynicism, and you're right that it could reflect poorly on the company. Thank you for the feedback, though in fact I'm happily unemployed right now.