Inventoritis: The Surefire Way to Decrease Profits

I recently had a conversation with Tatsuya Nakagawa, author of the Product Life blog and CEO of Atomica Creative, a Vancouver based product marketing company, about the syndrome he likes to refer to as "Inventoritis".  He defines this as:

Inventoritis n. Any of a group of disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, paranoia, delusions and hallucinations accompanied in many cases by a portfolio containing granted patent applications and other forms of intellectual property including trade secrets. Inventoritis is associated with depressed or non-existent product sales and defects in marketing programs and is caused by excessive reliance on the assumed idea that one’s product or idea is an excellent one.

Taken from a product development and manufacturing perspective, I watch companies and inventors make their way through the trade-off process, in which they select their optimal combinations of features, costs, materials, and so forth for a product.  We've recently worked on a product requiring a rather simple component--as simple and as common as a button for a TV remote product or a shoulder strap for a carrying case.  With a common component like this, it's probably a good idea to see if one is already being produced out there that might fit with what you had in mind.  Avoid the need to spend thousands on tooling for a new component for your product!  Take that money and put it in marketing, or keep it as profit, or put it all on Black in the nearest casino.  Why design and build a new TV button? 

We sourced a nice alternative component, but the specs weren't quite a match (slightly wider than needed).  Rather than modify the designs for this (which would only have been an aesthetic modification), the client is still interested in tooling to maintain exactly what was envisioned.  This is where inventoritis and its evil cousin 'designeritis' smack into reality.  Multiply this approach a few times within one product development process and your looking at a surefire way to decrease your profits.

I say let it ride on Black...