Begin from the Problem (Not the Embodiment)

AuthorRonald D. Slusky
Pages11-18
CHAPTER TWO
Begin from the Problem
(Not the Embodiment)
The problem-solution approach illustrated in Chapter One for the ball-
point pen is summarized by the prescription Begin from the Problem (Not
the Embodiment). That prescription should be followed in the analysis of
every invention.
This chapter uses the invention of the paper clip to illustrate in
greater detail what can go wrong if the analysis begins from the embodi-
ment rather than the problem and how beginning from the problem
can improve the odds of capturing others’ products that implement the
inventor’s teachings.
What Is the Problem?
Build a better mousetrap, it is said, and the world will beat a path to
your door.
It rarely happens.
Consider the mousetrap itself. Only a few kinds of mousetraps are
found on store shelves, even though hundreds of mousetrap designs
have been patented over the years, and even though each is “better” in
some way, even the best idea is unlikely to achieve commercial success
unless midwifed into the marketplace through attractive pricing, con-
certed marketing, and effective advertising. Contrary to the expectations
of many first-time patentees, obtaining a patent is rarely the end of a pro-
cess; it is usually only a beginning.
Yet the invitation to build a better mousetrap embodies the impor-
tant idea that a good invention solves a problem that its predecessors
solved less well or not at all. Not merely different from the prior art, a
good invention corrects for some deficiency in it. For example, some peo-
ple find the standard spring-loaded mousetrap hard to set. Others recoil
from its violent nature and don’t like having to look at the dead mouse,
preferring to trap the mouse alive and release it outdoors. The few “bet-
ter” mousetraps that have enjoyed marketplace accep tance have done so
by addressing one or more such problems.
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