This is a continuation of our previous post, “So I’ve Got A Great Idea, Now What? Part 1″ If you haven’t read it, please do as this post follows those previous steps. Don’t forget to USE YOUR NOTEBOOK.

If you have completed the last step you should have some similar patents. Read through the claims they are the most important part. Although the drawings help identify what the product is, the drawings are not defensible in a utility patent. As you move forward in the development, these patents will help a professional do a patent search, usually for around $500-$1000.

You know who the competition is, now find out everything about them.  Internet research can teach you about the company, their product offerings and what industries / applications they are focusing on.  You also need to know how their product works.  Buy the competitive products and evaluate them for your need.  Take them apart, examine how they were made, what technology to they use, a lot of questions can be answered by this process.  This can be expensive, especially if your product competes in the few hundred dollars price range.  If you wanted a cheap adventure, get a library card and start reading all the books.  Product development, even if you are bootstrapping requires investment. On one project I bought ten competitive products and spent $500 out of my own pocket. Hopefully when you get investment, like I did, those costs get reimbursed.  Plus “standing on the shoulders of giant’s” is a lot cheaper and easier than “reinventing the wheel”.

Now dive into the market. Uncover demand for your product. Having close (but not as good) competition helps, but you need to know the statistics. How many people need your product (total market), how large is the need for your product (market pain), how is your market growing? These three factors indicate the market potential, and directly correlate to the potential success of your invention.

Now that you know what the competition is, what the market wants and what patents are out there, you can start to define your product. Brainstorm the top 10 of 15 features that your product needs FROM THE CUSTOMER’S PERSPECTIVE.  Let it all pour out.  An example is on our PaperPro Part 2 post. Don’t over think the product goals initially, just put them all down on paper. Then go through and prioritize them. Then isolate the critical components, these are often the top 5. Use these as your T5+2, (we have a post about how to use the T5+2).

Sketch out a few concepts that incorporate your top critical product components. Don’t spent too much time on this because it will change dramatically, but get your ideas down on your notebook.  Now things are about to get very interesting.