Inventoritis... Sounds like Gingivitis. But without the bad breath. Or, so I hear.
Generally, one of the most difficult challenges in developing a successful product or business is getting out of our own way. I struggle with this daily. I watch others struggle with it daily. We all do--from corporate innovators to independent inventors. I am certain that my own success as a business person and product developer is largely impacted by my own ability to train myself to get out of my own way.
How do we get in our own way in the first place?
Peter Paul Roosen and Tatsuya Nakagawa, two product marketing gurus, have co-authored a white paper, Inventoritis Exposed, which gives a name to the phenomenon of getting in our own way when it comes to innovation and new product development. I previously wrote a blog post on the authors' concept of "Inventoritis", which they have incorporated into the paper. In terms of product development, Inventoritis, is a condition that prevents market-driven innovation, or design for the user experience. Because it's a challenge, that I believe, one can only control and perhaps eliminate through sustained effort over many years, decades, and perhaps a lifetime, it's worth continually refreshing my awareness and knowledge of it. "Inventoritis Exposed" offers an interesting perspective on the issue, by analyzing the methods of America's most prolific inventor, Thomas Edison, who the authors assert exemplified the optimal path for commercializing innovative products.
Before reading the paper, I have to admit, i did not know much about Thomas Edison beyond his invention of the light bulb and a few other items (which I am sure I will use today, but cannot name them). But, Roosen's and Nakagawa's interesting stories of Edison (much of which is told through the first hand experience of Henry Ford) and analysis of his methods, create a vision of a person who was adamant about his own process of inventing and entrepreneurship, not just his own ideas and assumptions. Edison's most famous quote:
“Genius is one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration. As a result, a genius is often a talented person who has simply done all of his homework.”
The point that Roosen and Nakagawa make, is that "...all of his homework" does not just entail perfecting the product for perfection's sake, ego's sake, or science's sake. The authors note:
What is not as well known, perhaps, is that his penchant for invention was rivaled only by his effectiveness as a marketer. Edison was in the habit of working backward from the market and doing whatever was needed to most expeditiously fill what he found to be the real or actual need. He was known to always be actively researching what everyone else was doing and had done. He sometimes bought and, on occasion, stole technology from others.
Few people today know or appreciate that Edison did not invent the light bulb. Joseph Swan was installing them in homes and landmarks in England before Edison’s first successful test was completed on October 21, 1879, when Edison’s carbon filament lamp successfully operated for only 13.5 hours. Additionally, Edison had bought the Canadian and US patent rights filed in 1874 for a carbon filament lamp by a Canadian medical electrician named Henry Woodward and his colleague Mathew Evans. What Edison did was to create the first commercially viable filament lamp which incidentally did not occur until more than six months after Edison filed his patent.
Henry Ford, a big fan and friend of Edison, offers his perspective:
Not the least among the many remarkable qualities of the Edison mind is its ability constantly to maintain a perspective. He never has any blind enthusiasms. An inventor frequently wastes his time and his money trying to extend his invention to uses for which it is not at all suitable. Edison has never done this. He rides no hobbies. He views each problem that comes up as a thing of itself, to be solved in exactly the right way. His approach is no more that of an electrician than that of a chemist. His knowledge is so nearly universal that he cannot be classed as an electrician or a chemist. In fact, Mr. Edison cannot be classified. He knows instinctively what things can be used for and what they cannot be used for.
It seems to me, Edison was a master of a process that helped him stay out of his own way. He did this in terms of his assumptions of how things should be, and let the market guide him in terms of what products and product features to pursue. In addition, he was very adept at implementing a rigorous process that led him, technologically and commercially, to exceptional success.
The white paper offers much more. And I believe the book, "Overcoming Inventoritis", by these authors covering this subject in much more depth has just become available.
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