Quick Tips - Tips from the practice masters...
In an ideal world, you start out with a clear definition of a problem and then systematically work your way toward a great solution. But in the real world, you sometimes find yourself with a great technological solution in search of a compelling problem. Even if your business is currently successful, there are good reasons to leverage the investment you've already made by discovering new applications for your core technology. But how do you increase your odds of success? At a recent Product Strategy Network Roundtable, Arun Ranchod, Business Development Manager with MEDRAD, and Jim Thompson-Colön, Head of Future Business at Bayer Material Science, shared their experiences, techniques, and lessons learned with finding the possibilities.
Learn to learn. In beginning the search for new product applications, the most important skill set is not that of a salesman; it is more of a researcher or surveyor. The critical skill is being able to ask questions without influencing the answer.
Get out of your own way. If you're too close to an application, it's hard to get out of your own way to really see what the possibilities may be. One good exercise is to try explaining it to a third grader or your own mother. Don't talk about its properties, talk about its benefits. You have to abstract the core technology to a level above it so you can understand it better.
Conduct quick and dirty research. To be successful in taking a core technology into a new space, you first have to become an expert in that technology and shake it to see if it's sturdy. That can take a long time. So find quick ways of testing and do a lot of them, like putting the invention in an oven overnight at 100 degrees. But even if your tests are qualitative, they can be valuable to help you fully understand the technology's strengths and weaknesses.
Google it. Do an online search for the specific characteristic or property of your technology, like ‘cleanability.' It will help you to decide what the competition is, what people currently buy that gives them that quality, how it's being used, who is in its supply chain, and who makes what.
Get on the phone. Call the people whose names surface in an online search and chat them up. People are more forthcoming over the phone than in person. Call everyone in the supply chain and look for trade associations who represent those industries; usually their president is an expert and they have valuable databases.
Use patent databases. Commercial patent search databases are helpful because the structure of any type of Intellectual Property disclosure involves stripping it down to its essential application. And by uncovering patents around that same space, you learn which industries value solutions to that problem. AUREKA, Lexis-Nexus, Google/Patent can all be useful that way.
Convene a focus group. Organize meetings with people from different industries and areas of technology as a type of focus group. Then present an abstract of your core technology's characteristics and ask what they would do if they had something with those properties.
Match benefits to attributes. People frequently get enthralled by an attribute, which is often where the ‘Wow' factor comes from. But you need to match real benefits to those attributes. Once you have those benefits, make up a list of what products would theoretically compete with it and then do online searches for them.
Broker a deal. There are IP brokers who will take your invention and try to find potential clients for it. They can be expensive, but it can be a worthwhile investment.
Get outside help. Expand your world view; you're not going to get into a new market or new application by yourself. There are commercial services which can assemble a group of experts, either online or via teleconference, that typically include lead users and academicians from various universities discussing new technologies and applications.
Embrace the Wow factor. If you show somebody your technology and it makes them go ‘Wow!' follow up on it, regardless of market size or numbers. Eliciting a genuine Wow reaction is a big deal, and it's rare.
See if they're threatened. Sometimes when a person pushes back against a new idea, that's exactly what you want to hear. Particularly if you have an application that can automate a skilled procedure, the egos of the people who currently do it are put on the line; you want them to say ‘it stinks' because that can really mean ‘it threatens my credibility and my expertise,' which says that you've have something worth pursuing.
No more mister nice guy. In exploratory interviews, you don't want respondents to be nice to you. Some people go as far as to say "do you agree that this is a bad idea?" If they hesitate in confirming it's a bad idea, you know there's something good there.
Loosen up. You need a playful attitude. Don't get upset if someone tells you they don't like it; it's almost a good thing when they say ‘no,' because you can say ‘okay, I've got that one out of the way.' But dig into why they're saying no. A lot of times people will say no out of jealousy, out of pride, out of fear. Filter those out, but write them down.
Learn body language. What are the personal skills needed to be good at finding new applications? Reading body language is very important, especially with physicians. Doctors are generally reticent to actually tell you point blank that your idea is terrible. So look for body language clues which can tell you more than their words alone.
Write it down. Keep a database of all the ideas and people that come up in your contacts so you don't forget them. Anytime someone says that your technology sounds like something they can relate to, write it down. There's no substitute for legwork; it's like being a detective.
Champions of Product Management 
