The decomposition of a matrix, as a product of factors with particular properties, is a much used tool in numerical analysis. Here we develop methods for decomposing a matrix C into a product XY, where the factors X and Y are required to minimize their distance from an arbitrary pair X0 and Y0. This type of decomposition, a projection to a matrix product constraint, in combination with projections that impose structural properties on X and Y, forms the basis of a general method of decomposing a matrix into factors with specified properties. Results are presented for the application of these methods to a number of hard problems in exact factorization. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.