Don’t you hate it when you read a headline promising you all the right answers and a perfect direction, but then the article that follows tells you it’s impossible to meet that promise? Yeah, me too. That being said, ensuring an invention’s success is nearly impossible.

No one should be making promises indicating the success of your invention. I’ve said it before and I can’t say it enough — hard work, luck and market timing make an invention successful. But there are a few things you can do to help yourself along the way.

Simply develop your invention to meet your customers’ needs. That’s the number one thing you can do. It sounds obvious enough, but for some of us, it really isn’t. At times, we become so swept up in our creativity that we lose track of the people we’re creating it for — customers. This can begin as early as when we first identify a problem. We see something as an issue requiring a resolution. It’s obvious, right? Well, maybe it’s just obvious to you. Perhaps it’s not even really an issue to anyone else, and therefore probably not a good invention to pursue.

So, why do we often jump the gun like that? For many, the inspiration hits them so fast and hard that they may not realize that the invention idea isn’t really on the top of a customer’s list of wants. A lot of people don’t want to hear it, and friends and family may not want to tell them. My suggestion is to take your time with a new invention idea and try to work it out in your head the type of market that might be interested in it then follow that up with research.

But losing the customer doesn’t just happen from the beginning. Sometimes you can be off to a great start, right on track, until you start creating for yourself and not for the customers. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with building something for yourself, because you should do it for yourself and find ways to leave your mark on a project, but don’t sacrifice the needs of the end user for your personal wants. It can be as simple as color changes to functional changes. Speak their language; use their imagery — a lot of this you probably learned during the research phase.

Once you’re finished, or at least you think you’re finished, make sure you do testing. Make sure the product actually works, of course, but also that it works for the customer. Just because it works fine for you doesn’t mean that the customer won’t use it differently. This real world testing may result in design changes and reworks, but in the long run, you’ll be thankful you did it.

In the end, developing your invention to meet customers’ needs will help when attempting to pitch it to a corporation for potential licensing. It helps you build relationships with these corporations and helps these corporations build relationships with retail buyers. As well, if you just want to take your invention to the market yourself, you’ll have a greater understanding of how to market it. Never lose sight of the customer.