What I particularly liked was his example of the Formula racing game -- start with a list of "core game elements" and build the game around that. That's basically how my process would work in an ideal world. Of course I can't be that economical, but I think that's really what every game has to boil down to at the point that it's "done" -- a set of three to five "links" between your theme and mechanics, that also form the backbone of the interesting decisions the players are going to face.