The document discusses various topics related to invention and innovation including: barriers to innovation within organizations, how individuals can contribute new ideas as employees, sources of innovation, and how to develop, document, and commercialize new inventions. It provides advice on how to think more innovatively and outlines processes for taking an idea from conception to implementation.

1. Invention and Innovation
1
Dr. Tal Lavian
http://cs.berkeley.edu/~tlavian
tlavian@cs.berkeley.edu
UC Berkeley Engineering, CET

2. Fail your way to Success
2
“Many people dream of success.
To me, success can only be achieved through
repeated failure and introspection. In fact,
success represents the one percent of your
work which results only from the ninety-nine
percent that is called failure.
-Soichiro Honda, founder, Honda Motors

3. Who invents?
3
In a given company, ~1% of employees produce 99%
of patents.
Thus, individuals who have mastered the skill of
inventing and patenting are incredibly valuable!
How can we become inventors?
How can we produce inventions as employees?
How can we encourage inventions as business
owners?

4. Typical Barriers to Innovation
4
There is no shared understanding of what innovation
means
Little consensus for roles and responsibilities around
innovation
Task versus system orientation
Long term IT contracts often focus on SLA’s, not
innovation

5. Typical Barriers to Innovation
5
Volume-based revenue streams view innovation as
counter growth
Management incentives depend on current unit
contribution, not long-term
Main street financial metrics (revenue growth and
earnings) make entrepreneurship difficult
Sales-driven market development strategy

6. Typical Barriers to Innovation
6
Failure to recognize innovation “as a discipline,
capable of being learned, capable of being practiced”:



No systematic scanning for changes
No systematic analysis and exploitation of opportunities
No systematic commercialization of innovation
Sales pipeline determines portfolio (market has to
exist already)

Rely on others to create new markets
Lack of investment dollars for innovation
Innovator’s dilemma: new things look too small
compared to existing business

7. Cultural Challenges
7
There are significant cultural challenges:
• Between the researchers, inventors
and entrepreneurs
• Between all of the above and investors
and owners
• And these relationships change over
time

8. The Myths of Innovation
By Scott Berkun
8
Describes the methodology of realizing
the potential of modern ideas.
Ideas never stand alone
Ideas without implementation are not inventions
The goodness of the invention is always counter-balanced
by the ease of its adoption
Inventing and implementing always require hard,
consistent work.

9. Stages of Innovation Diffusion
9
We distinguish among:

Early adopters: More educated, innovative individuals who
gain from technology.

Followers: The majority of adopters who see its success and
want to join in.

Laggards: Less-advanced individuals who either do not adopt
or adopt very late and may lose because of the technology.

10. Factors Affecting Invention Diffusion
10
Heterogeneity of potential adopters (size, location,
land quality, and human capital).
The individual decision process aimed at improving
well-being (profitability, well-being, risk
minimization).
Dynamic forces that make technology more attractive
(learning by doing, learning by using, network
benefits).

11. And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared
11
By Genrich Altshuller (TRIZ method)
Suggests methods of thinking that can resolve many
technical contradictions:





Do it inversely
Change the state or physical property
Do it in advance
If it cannot be done completely, do it partially
Fragment and/or consolidate
TRIZ focuses on physical and chemical solutions

12. Elements of Invention
12
Technical solution to a problem
New
Distinct from known solutions
Produce useful effect

13. How to invent?
13
Consider a problem worth solving

Ex: gooey candy melts at high temperatures. How to dip in
warm melted chocolate to form chocolate covered candy?
Identify physical/technical contradiction
Resolve them without creating new contradictions!

One solution can be to separate conflicting requirements using
time or space.

Ex: first freeze the candy center. Dip into chocolate. Store at
room temp to defrost center.
Source: And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared,
by Gentrich Altshuller

14. Discovery Inventions
14
 Mental Process and Real World Testing
 The Scientific Method









What is the Problem?
Hypothesis
Methods of observation
Experimental methods
Obtain results
Interpret results: hypothesis testing
Revise hypothesis
Modify study design
Reiterate

15. How to Identify the Real Problem
15
Rewrite the problem in 10 different ways
List causes of the problem
Look at what is influencing the product
Redefine the problem in order to come up with
different, innovative solutions

“service is too slow” vs. “customers are too demanding”
Set innovation goalposts that have a variety of
solutions to your problem between them

16. Most inventions improve existing systems
16
How to improve a perfectly functional mechanism?

The 4 “periods” of technological improvement
1.
2.
3.
4.
Selection of parts for the system. (Make it work)
Improvements of parts. (Make it work faster/cheaper/smaller)
Dynamization of the system. (Make it
dynamic/adaptable/mobile and moveable)
Self-development of the system. (Make it self-adaptive)
Source: And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared, by Gentrich Altshuller

17. Improve without impairing!
17
Inventors improve a single part or characteristic of the
system without impairing other parts or
characteristics of the system or adjacent systems
Source: And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared, by Gentrich Altshuller

18. Improvements from organizational perspective
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• Cost leadership path
• Separating the organization from others by providing the
lowest cost option
• Product/Service differentiation path
• provide the most unique products/services available
•
can be achieved by marketing unique products, branding these
products, or holding a specialized patent
• Customer segmentation path
• Being the only organization to target a unique customer
segment within a market

19. Improvements from organizational perspective
19
• Superior process path
• Offering the fastest, highest quality, or most desired customer
service in the marketplace
• Superior distribution path
• Offering the customer a preferred distribution and delivery
option

20. How to Decide upon Future Destination
20
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identify key factors to the success/failure of your
organization in the marketplace.
Identify how to take advantage of future marketplaces,
trends, and key success factors.
Change your view of the customer, product line, service
level, etc.
Find new options by asking extreme questions.
What if the customer does not need us anymore?
Determine what you want your organization to be
famous for.
Define the organization’s future in a meaningful way.

21. How to Uncover Insights
21
Customer needs- select the customer group of your
interest and list their needs/problems and how you
want to solve those needs/problems
Emerging technology- figure out how emerging
technology can be advantageous to your customer
base
The marketplace- figure out how your industry is
changing/growing
Your organizational needs- find out what your
organization would need to fill the customer needs
with the new technology and changing marketplace

22. Successful Business Thought Process
22
yesterday’s problem  today’s solution 
tomorrow’s problem  near-future solution future
problem  future solution…
Tomorrow’s problems can be predicted from the
present situation.

23. Considering Trends
23
Fad- short term mania for a product/service that
quickly dies off; good for quick cash
Shift- easier to see and predict that Fads. Last
longer. Change in direction (shifting from
television to internet as source of entertainment)
Leap- dramatic change in direction. Giant step
towards future. Hard to predict (like Human
genome product)

24. How to See the BIG Picture as an Employee
24
 The BIG idea must be simple

The simpler it is the easier for customers to understand it
 Idea must be “new and better”

Needs to have a quality that is important enough to be a selling point to
clients
 Idea must be proven to manager and potential customers

Even if it is a new idea some parts of it will have existed before in some
industry
 Idea must be quickly and easily implemented to the existing
system

25. How an Individual can Achieve Systems Thinking
25
 Look at how your task is related to part of a bigger process
 Figure out how your project is related to the organization in
which you work
 Look at how your work relates to the market place
How will it affect your company’s other products in the
marketplace?
 How will competitors react?


26. Where do ideas come from?
26
Over 60% of inventors get their ideas from:
Brainstorming
Collaboration
Experimentation
The study of other fields
Journaling (writing down their thoughts)
Source: The Myth of Innovation, by Scott Berkun

27. Seven Sources of Innovation
27
• “The unexpected —the unexpected success, the unexpected failure,
the unexpected outside event;
• The incongruity —between reality as it actually is and reality as it
is perceived to be or as it ‘ought to be’;
• Innovation based on process need;
• Changes in industry or market structure that catch everyone
unawares...
• Demographics (population changes);
• Changes in perception, mood, and meaning;
• New knowledge, both scientific and nonscientific.”
Peter Drucker: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

28. Deciding Which Ideas to Pursue
28
Identifying the real problem is important in finding
the real, lasting solution to the problem.
Questions to ask from a business perspective:
Is there a customer need?
 Is it feasible?
 Can we generate significant revenues and profits from
this?
 Does it play to our strengths?
 What technical challenges would we face to do this in the
real world?


29. How to Sell your idea
29
Understand your audience- there are four different
type of people
1. cares about the numbers
2. cares about the tasks
3. cares about the people
4. cares about the BIG-picture strategy
Distinguish between adults and kids
Adults care about the product’s features first and brand
second
 Kids care about branding first and features second (kids
wants what’s cool)


30. How to Sell your idea Cont.
30
Understand that everyone goes through multiple
phases before buying an idea/product
Prepare a prototype- this will help your ptential
buyers fully understand your idea
Presentation- keep it simple
Don’t overload the buyers with facts
 Limit your use of jargon
Create a demand for your idea as a solution to a

problem

Sell the problem so that the buyer will WANT the solution

31. How to Sell your idea cont.
31
BE passionate
Connect with your potential idea-buyers

32. Assessing Value – Influential Factors
Likelihood of third parties using the solution (now or
in the future)
Demand for the solution (cost reduction and/or new
feature)
Whether “base invention” patented (fundamental v.
improvement)
Key enabling/lynchpin solution
Whether the invention is of general applicability
Whether the invention is useful to a key competitor
32

33. Assessing Value – Influential Factors (cont)
Breadth of the solution (available alternatives)
Likelihood of solution being an essential feature of
an industry standard
Whether infringement is detectable
Whether invention outside core industry
Simplicity of solution
Importance of innovation to future company
products and/or services
33

34. Technical Documentation of Inventions
34

Conception:

“Formation in the mind of an inventor of a permanent embodiment
of an operative invention.”

Invention

Creative Inventions
• E.g., a space ship, computer software design, new pencil, etc.

Discovery Inventions
• Asking questions of the real world and getting answers
• Design an experiment

35. Technical Documentation of Inventions
35

Actual Reduction to practice



For “self-enabling” inventions, draw it.


Test the hypothesis; provide “working example:” “A did B” (strong)
Interpret the results


E.g., a pipettor, a gene chip, a bioinformatics program, new chemical
structure. If you can draw it, you can make it.
Do the Experiment


(for Inventorship, Novelty and Non-Obviousness)
E.g., build it, clone it, sequence it, express it, test it
Eliminate confounders in the experiment (stronger)
• Negative controls
• Positive controls
• Calibrate the study methods, reproduce results
Generalize the discovery to other areas

Provide a variety of working examples (still stronger)

36. Technical Documentation of Inventions
36
Constructive Reduction to Practice (Filing date)



(For Novelty, Prior Art and Inventorship)
File a patent application
Description
State of the filed before the invention
 Contribution embodied by the invention


Prophetic examples
“A does B” If it is not apparent that A does B and there is no
proof, then this is merely a “place holder”. “Prove up” the
invention later (CIP, Declarations showing actual results)
 Teach others to make and use
 Don’t keep the “best mode” secret


Claims

Metes and bounds of the “property right”

37. Technical Advice on Scope
37
Is the invention complete?




Theory may be incorrect or subject to revision
Methods may have problems (reproducibility, accuracy)
Results may be inconclusive (e.g., scattered data)
Conclusions may not be fully justified (wishful thinking?)
 Scope of invention is hard to ascertain in advance

More study is always needed in other/related areas


E.g., breast cancer, prostate cancer, adenocarcinomas, etc.
Revise hypotheses or theories

Broaden based on mechanism?
 “Equivalents” are hard to ascertain

Infringement under the Doctrine of Equivalents:

Function, way, result

38. HOW TO KILL A CREATIVE IDEA
38
Our own self-criticism is often so strong that many novel and unusual ideas never even
reach our conscious awareness.
1. Don't be ridiculous.
2. We tried that before.
3. It costs too much.
4. That's beyond our responsibility.
5. It's too radical a change.
6. We don't have time.
7. We're too small for it.
8. That will make other equipment
obsolete.
9. Not practical for operating people.
10. Our competitors are not doing it
11. We've never done it before.
12. Let’s get back to reality.
13. That’s not our problem.
14. Why change it, it's still working okay
15. You're two years ahead of your time.
16. We're not ready for that.
17. It isn't in the budget.
18. Can't teach an old dog new tricks.
19. Top management will never go for it.
20. We'll be the laughing stock.
21. We did all right without it.
22. Let's form a committee.
23. Has anyone else ever tried it?
Adapted from Measurable Performance Systems, Inc.

39. Summary
39
Innovation is a skill that can be learned by practice
Innovation-oriented thinking can help individuals,
employees, and business-owners
Realizing an idea’s potential requires “selling” on the
part of all inventors.