Inventor Inquiry Two — THE CUSTOMER

Second in a 101-part series of questions every inventor should answer before spending another dollar.

The Question: Who has this problem badly enough to do something about it?

You have identified a problem.

Good.

Now comes a question inventors often answer far too quickly:

Who has that problem?

The tempting answer is usually something like:

“Everybody.”

“Homeowners.”

“Parents.”

“Older people.”

“Anyone who drives.”

“Anyone with a kitchen.”

“Anyone with half a brain!”

Possibly.

But none of those answers identifies a customer.

A customer is not simply someone who could use what you have invented.

A customer is someone for whom the problem matters enough to do something about it, such as... pay for it.

That distinction can save you a remarkable amount of time and money.

EXPLORE

Imagine you have invented a better way to open a stubborn jar.

Millions of people occasionally struggle with jars.

That sounds promising.

But how many struggle often enough to care?

How many already have a workable solution?

How many hand the jar to someone else?

How many bang the lid on the counter?

How many use a rubber grip, a spoon, hot water, or one of the fifty-seven jar-opening gadgets already on the market, and likely in your kitchen drawer?

And how many would actually spend money on another one?

Those are very different questions.

A problem can be real without being important.

It can be annoying without being urgent.

It can affect millions of people and still produce very few customers.

WHO CARES MOST?

Start looking for the people who experience the problem more often, more severely, or at greater cost than everyone else.

Perhaps the real customer for your jar opener is not “everyone who opens jars.”

Maybe it is:

• someone with limited grip strength,
• a commercial kitchen opening dozens of containers a day,
• an older adult living independently,
• someone recovering from hand surgery,
• a caregiver,
• or a manufacturer trying to make its packaging easier to use.

Now you are getting somewhere.

The narrower your first answer becomes, the more useful it may become.

That does not mean your eventual market must be small.

It means you need to find the people who have the strongest reason to care first.

A TRUE STORY

I once met an inventor who had a clever solution to a familiar problem with those large five-gallon water bottles used on office and home water coolers.

He had noticed that if the person changing the bottle wasn't strong enough — or quick enough — water could splash all over the cooler, the floor, and often the person doing the refilling.

So he painstakingly designed a plastic device that replaced the bottle cap and slowed the flow through a layered baffle system.

Friends and relatives said, “Great idea!”

And, of course, he knew it was.

After filing for patent protection, he ordered a small manufacturing run.

Soon he had several large boxes filled with his clever blue plastic device.

And, as you've probably guessed by now, he couldn't sell more than a few of them.

When I met him, he was getting a bit desperate. He was hoping a large bottled-water company might buy the entire inventory and give the devices away to its customers.

The problem was real.

The solution was clever.

But apparently the people with the problem didn't have it badly enough to do something about it.

His clever solution had become an costly problem.

THE USER MAY NOT BE THE CUSTOMER

Here is another trap.

The person who uses your invention may not be the person who buys it.

A child uses a school desk.

A school district buys it.

A nurse may use a medical device.

A hospital may purchase it.

An employee may use a safety tool.

A supervisor may request it.

A purchasing department may approve it.

A corporation may pay for it.

A patient may benefit from something that an insurer ultimately funds.

So ask several different questions:

Who has the problem?

Who uses the solution?

Who chooses it?

Who approves it?

Who pays for it?

Those may be one person.

Or five.

If you don't know the difference, you might spend months trying to sell your invention to someone who has no authority, budget, or reason to buy it.

CHALLENGE

Inventors frequently ask prospective customers:

“Would you buy this?”

It is an almost useless question.

People are nice.

They want to encourage you.

They can imagine buying all kinds of things when no money is actually leaving their wallet.

“Oh, that's clever.”

“I could definitely use one of those.”

“You should take that to Shark Tank.”

None of those statements is a purchase order.

Instead of asking people to predict what they might do, investigate what they already do.

Ask:

How are you solving this problem now?

What does that cost you?

How often does it happen?

What happens if you do nothing?

Have you ever paid for a solution?

What have you tried?

What did you dislike about it?

When was the last time this happened?

Now you are collecting evidence.

WATCH FOR WORKAROUNDS

One of the best signs that a problem matters is that people have invented their own imperfect solution.

Tape holding something together.

A spreadsheet doing the work of missing software.

A block of wood propping something up.

Three separate tools being used to accomplish one task.

Employees performing some absurd manual ritual every Tuesday because “that's just how we've always done it.”

These improvisations are valuable.

They tell you someone cares enough about the problem to spend time, effort, money, or inconvenience dealing with it.

That is much more meaningful than someone telling you your invention is a good idea.

THE MOST POWERFUL COMPETITOR

Your toughest competitor may not be another product.

It may be:

Nothing.

People tolerate inconvenience astonishingly well.

They live with bad tools.

They repeat inefficient processes.

They complain about something for years and never fix it.

So your invention does not merely have to be better than competing products.

It often has to be better than:

“I'll live with it.”

“I've always done it this way.”

“It's not worth the trouble.”

That is a very high bar.

Which leads to an important customer question:

WHAT WOULD MAKE THEM CHANGE?

Would your solution save enough money?

Enough time?

Enough effort?

Would it reduce enough risk?

Would it make something dramatically easier?

Safer?

Faster?

More reliable?

More enjoyable?

Or does the customer simply not care very much?

That answer matters enormously.

ACT

Do not try to define your entire market yet.

Find five to ten people who experience the problem you identified in Inventor Inquiry One.

Not friends who want to encourage you.

People who actually live with the problem.

Talk with them.

Better yet, watch them.

Your first assignment is simple:

1. Find the people who have the problem most intensely.

2. Ask how they deal with it now.

3. Discover what the problem currently costs them.

Money is only one kind of cost.

Also look for:

Time.

Effort.

Risk.

Waste.

Frustration.

Lost opportunity.

Embarrassment.

Discomfort.

Complexity.

4. Determine who actually makes the buying decision.

5. Look for evidence that they already take action.

If they spend money, improvise solutions, search for alternatives, complain repeatedly, assign employees to deal with it, or accept some other significant cost, pay attention.

Those behaviors mean something.

ONE MORE QUESTION

Before you begin designing the next version...

Before you order tooling...

Before you file another patent...

Before you build inventory...

Before you spend another dollar...

Ask yourself:

Who has this problem badly enough to do something about it?

And then go find out.

Not in your head.

Out there... in the world.

The Series

INVENTOR INQUIRY: ONE to ONE-O-ONE

Before You Spend Another Dollar...

Inventor Inquiry is a continuing series built around 101 questions inventors should answer before investing heavily in an idea.

The complete Questions-Only Q-Sheet is available now, with the expanded Workbook and workshops to follow.

Because a good invention deserves more than enthusiasm.

It deserves inquiry.

Thanks for asking.