3 Ways to Come Up With an Idea for a Disruptive Product

We’d all love to have that ‘big idea’ that makes us rich. Imagine if you were the person who invented Velcro, or post‐it notes. With a simple mechanical solution, you could change your life while also making life easier for millions of people around the world.

Not only would your own day‐to‐day life become much happier and easier (millions of dollars will do that), but you’d get to enjoy the incredible sense of accomplishment that only comes from ‘doing it on your own’.

But can you ‘force’ an idea to come? How do you encourage that spark of inspiration?

Here are a few experiments you can use to trigger that next big idea…

1. Think About Things That Frustrate You In business, this is called a ‘process fix’. It involves looking at the routine activities of that organization and then seeing where that routine could be improved upon.

The thing is, you can also apply the notion of the process fix to real life. That might mean making it easier to open cans, making toothbrushes last longer or defrosting the car more efficiently.

In other words: ask yourself what you find to be regularly frustrating and then challenge yourself to come up with a solution in product form. Chances are that if you could benefit from it, so too could other people.

2. Combine Two Useful Products They say that there is no such thing as a completely novel idea – that instead the closest thing is to combine two existing ideas into something new.

Well, why not embrace that reality by simply combining two ideas you like into one new idea? You see tons of inventions that work this way and serve a dual purpose, thereby removing the need to order two separate items – and they’re often very successful.

3. Go for the ‘Next Best Thing’ Many of us dream of products we wish existed but which we know are impossible to make. Often, a good way to come up with a great idea is to look at those ideas and then try to make them more realistic. How can you take an idea that’s impossible and create the ‘next best thing’ using the realistic resources you have available to you?

Often what you’ll find is that you can get much closer to fulfilling the original brief than you probably expected!