Some things never change. There are just some things that hit me the same way almost every time. Take yesterday for example. I was in Home Depot and I found three of our new products on the shelf. I was kind of taken back. I mean, I knew they were going to be there, but I didn’t know when they got there or even how long they’d been there. But just like the first time I saw a product on the shelf, I felt a sense of accomplishment. To tell the truth, it made my heart race. To me, for some reason, it always feels like the first time you kiss someone or that first glimpse of gifts under the Christmas tree. Your heart starts to race, a few capillaries burst in your cheeks and you tilt your head to the side, smile and enjoy it.

Once the excitement settled, I realized that it was something deeper. It wasn’t just seeing these products on the shelf. What was really exciting was seeing the system bringing the products to the shelf. In InventionLand we use a process to get our products out in front of corporations for potential licensing.

We understand that getting a product licensed is risky and often times very difficult, but seeing those walls come down is what is important. We produce as many resources around a product for potential licensing as we can. It’s not a drawing on a piece of paper with a clump of wax that we give our clients. It’s an idea broken down to its core. It goes like this:

What is the problem this idea is supposed to solve? Does it solve that problem? If so, is there another product on the shelf that already services it? If so, can this idea become the product that picks up the shortfalls with added incentives? Then it’s designed. Then it’s engineered and rendered into a 3D model. Then the packaging is put together. How will it look on the shelf? Why should it look this way? Why should it be this way? How do we communicate this concept’s core functionality to the consumer? Is it being communicated in both its design and packaging?

In the end, the goal is to have the physical product prototyped with the engineering (to show that it can be actually manufactured and not some drawing that ignores the basic rules of math and manufacturing) with packaging and details about what the problem is, how it solves that problem and why it has more value in comparison to a similar product, if such exists.

Now, knowing that I have that all in place and that it happens in InventionLand in our design environment, on our build line, in our metal shops and wood shops, I get excited. So, yeah, I guess some things do change, but that feeling in the end remains the same – at least for me.