Innovators' Initial Checklist

Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

Why do we need innovation or invention? Because there is a need that cannot be satisfactorily fulfilled by existing conventions and tools. (To put that in simple words: We are not happy with the way things are.) So, we think of other ways to do things. We come up with an "idea" (we think) that will blow away "the existing innovation" (once upon a time).

A spark has lit up a fire. It is burning inside. We can see it clearly in our wake and in our dream. We often don't see anything else. Let us take a moment to step back and look at our idea in relations to other things in reality. We should put the idea to tests to see if it can survive and take a place in the world. All ideas are like us must prove "fitness" to live or die to make room for other ideas.

Innovators' Initial Checklist (Own Assessment)

1) What need is my innovation fulfill?
   1.1) Who will pay and how much to have my innovation?
    (How many of them? Where are they?)
   1.2) When and how often my innovation will be used?
    (List consumables and output.)

2) Why do existing conventions and tools not work?
   2.1) How do existing conventions and tools work?
   2.2) Are the exiting ways of doing things
    "costly", "dangerous", "not meeting demand",...
   2.3) Can a part or a sub-method of existing ways be         "adjusted", "modified", "substituted",...

3) What problems do my innovation solve and create?
   3.1) List impacts on users who pay for it
   3.2) List impacts on neighbourhood, environment, society
   3.3) List costs and benefits using my innovation
    (where possible estimate ฿value for all items)

4) Is my innovation "mine" where it counts?
   4.1) Search Patent, Copyright or Internet - Search!
    (Indigenous, traditional and public domain conventions are usually protected or copyrighted by UN conventions.)  
   4.2) Record of my idea and development of idea

...

The above list is a rough draft to start discussions on what should be a good checklist for innovators to go through first before they take more expensive steps 'from idea to product'.

A more intensive study to 'evaluate idea' will include technical feasibility, 'make' and 'market' issues, cost-benefit estimates, environmental impacts assessment (EIA), and so on.

We can expect a ranking of the idea in some categories:

-- more technical details needed

-- patent issues - more details needed

-- material cost and availability study needed

-- market potential in ASEAN/EU/Africa/...

...

 

Innovation can be fun.(Let us have fun thinking creatively ;-)

The path and journey 'from idea to product' can be quite hard.