I have a friend who has a steady stream of ideas -- both great and hair-brained. A lot of times he comes up with viable new product ideas, but only occasionally stays the course required to bring the good ones to market. As a professional innovation consultant and brand developer, for me, this is like nails on a chalkboard.
Most recently, he brought me some samples for a chocolate eggnog he was developing. It was tasty, but the flavor profile needed tweaking and the packaging and marketing needed work. It had potential, if only he kept working on it. But the thought of having to continue in the development process was too daunting, or disappointing, or a combination of both, so he shelved the idea.
And that's where a lot of inventors fail. They give up too soon.
There are four essential tenets of inventing and product development -- especially once the rush of a great idea makes it from your imagination to paper or prototype.
1. Inventing is work that requires passion. Passion motivates us to persevere. Enthusiasm is essential to convince not only others of the worthiness of your ideas, but to convince yourself as well. You are going to have to do a lot of hard work before an idea reaches the point where a consumer realizes it's exactly what they've been looking for.
Truly passionate inventors embrace the flaws in an idea, seeing them as pathways to workable solutions. Many aspiring entrepreneurs, however, are like my buddy, seeing criticism not as the starting point for revisions, but as red lights.
According to psychologist Martin Seligman, we can overcome pessimism by consciously developing our brain's optimistic side using " self-talk " -- a technique that involves actively disputing pessimistic assessments of our situation. This isn't just a personal pep talk. It's a rational and impartial way of looking at failure as temporary and fixable, which allows us to move on to new solutions.
2. Question everything. The moment you discover your idea is somehow not working can occur at any stage on the journey. Since I know this from experience, when a new idea pops into my head, I immediately start looking at all the negatives and potential challenges. I know if I uncover problems at the beginning and can solve them, there will be fewer obstacles along the path.
This habit can be frustrating to others who want me to just enjoy the idea, and not be so objective. But I can't help it. I know that the myriad issues I have to tackle later will be lessened if I can eliminate other structural, marketing or packaging problems as soon as possible.
3. Trial and error is a good thing. There are times when you find you have to go one more round with an idea, create one more prototype, write one more description or marketing message and it just seems endless. You feel like the juices have stopped flowing. This is when you have to "act as if" and just sit down and do what needs to be done.
Going through the motions seems antithetical to creativity, but it's really not. In fact, thinking -- even seemingly "forced" thinking -- does fire up our neurotransmitters, and what started out feeling forced may turn out to be your best work ever. Bottom line: push through the resistance.
4. There is no magic answer. Just as there is no one perfect way to live your life, there isn't just one way to solve a creative problem. My friend, for example, could have gone in several directions with the flavor profile of his eggnog and more than one might have worked.
There are multiple ways to tweak a product to make it better. The one you settle on depends a lot on your purpose, audience and expectations. That's why I advise innovators to make a product as early and as quickly as possible in order to let people play with it and offer useful user feedback.
Remember: Criticism shouldn't invalidate your ideas. It should serve to strengthen them. If you really love your idea, you'll be willing to listen, learn and pivot when necessary.