I am looking for ideas to find an $n\times n$ real matrix $X$ which approximately solves
$$X^{\otimes m} a = b$$
where $a$ and $b$ are given $n^m$-dimensional real vectors (or perhaps $n^m\times k$ matrices). There is lots of material on finding $a$ from $X$ and $b$, which is rather different.
If it is easier, though it probably isn't, I am also interested in cases where there might be a set of such equations, to be solved simultaneously for the same $X$, for example
$$X a_1 = b_1$$ $$(X\otimes X)\, a_2 = b_2$$ $$(X\otimes X \otimes X)\, a_3 = b_3.$$
Background: The problem comes from considering iterated-integral signatures in rough path theory, and trying to interpret a given truncated signature of an unknown path, asking which linear transformation of a certain known path makes it like the unknown one.
This is a "procrustes problem". This 2003 paper by Bojanczyk and Lutoborski gives an approach when $m=2$.