When you sit down with pad and pen trying to think of that next great invention idea, you often find yourself staring at a blank page in frustration. You dig deep into the recesses of your mind, but nothing seems to come up and grab you instantly. When this happens to you, there’s no reason to give up, while some inventions are inspired by a specific circumstance, most inventions involve lots of research and planning. In fact, one of the easiest ways to come up with a great invention idea is to look for a problem to solve.
How to Identify a Problem That Needs Solving
As people evolve, so do their problems. One of the first problems to be solved, back during the time of cave dwellers, was the need to stay warm when the sun went down. Now, humankind didn’t invent fire, but learning how to create fire at will was a problem that needed solving. You can imagine what kinds of experiments went on when humans first tried to make a fire.
People probably sat around for countless hours pondering the situation, and they must have tried out dozens of innovative ideas, before finally figuring out that rubbing two sticks together caused enough friction to create a spark.
Since those early days, our society has grown increasingly sophisticated. With every new lifestyle advance comes new complications. With every new virus that is cured, another mysterious one pops up to take it’s place. Problems are everywhere, but it’s your job to figure out which ones can be solved with an innovative invention.
The first place to look for a problem with potential is in your immediate environment. What types of problems do you encounter on a regular basis?
Have you ever said to yourself, someone should come up with a way to fix this or that?
Is there something that really bugs you about a product or service you use?
These are all things that you should be writing down in your invention idea notebook.
Another good source of ideas is the people in your life.Invent HelpListen carefully to the complaints of your family, friends and co-workers. People complain about all sorts of things. While it’s easy to brush them off as just someone blowing off steam, you may find a few golden nuggets to write down in your notebook.
You can also type in various problems into an internet search engine to see how many people complain about that same issue. If the problem is common enough, it may be a good candidate for a new invention.
Researching the Problem Invent Help
Once you’ve gotten a good list of potential problems that could use an innovated solution, your next step is to see if there are already inventions out there on the market for each problem you found. This will probably be very time consuming, and you’ll need to look at various resources, including doing a patent search.
As your list narrows down, you’ll probably find one or two ideas that could be quite profitable. Here’s where you can put on your inventor’s cap and get to work on those creative solutions. Some of life’s best inventions start out as a unique problem that is begging to be solved.