Hello all,
I have mostly been a lurker on this forum and have been thinking about how I can provide some small amount of value back. For some background, I am in my 30s now, worked my butt off when young. Got married young and now have an awesome, happy little family. A few years after getting married I was diagnosed with cancer and needed massive surgery + chemo for it. Since then, I have been very unwell, with multiple massive surgeries, ICU stints and a lot of pain & nausea even when "well". As painful and crappy as the whole things is, one thing that I get out of it is many hours being alone, either in hospital or awake all night. And how I used that time is the motivation for this post.
I learnt pretty early on that when in a bad situation that you can't necessarily do much about, give your brain a problem to solve that's actually productive. For me, for years I have been interested in a certain line of products, so I started up "designing" this perfect product in my mind. I was obsessed, and thinking about it most the time, designing it perfectly in my mind - all the features, how it would work, who the customer was, how it was going to be manufactured etc etc. I got some Upwork designers to do a rough design, taking what was in my mind and putting it on paper. I got feedback from potential customers, and it wasn't great! If there was no major differentiator, then these products are really price sensitive. So for the next year, all I was thinking about was how to solve this problem with a totally different approach. I tried numerous approaches until I finally came across one that actually works. By combining 2 materials that are easily available on the market, I get this composite material that is better, easier to use, and my cost is 25 times lower than the sale price of what's currently on the market.
My product is still not on the market, currently I am getting a provisional patent. I have positive feedback from potential users, and a company I had worked for in the past is interested in financing the project.
All that to say, most of the time I spent on this project was laying flat on my back. Here are some things to think about:
I have mostly been a lurker on this forum and have been thinking about how I can provide some small amount of value back. For some background, I am in my 30s now, worked my butt off when young. Got married young and now have an awesome, happy little family. A few years after getting married I was diagnosed with cancer and needed massive surgery + chemo for it. Since then, I have been very unwell, with multiple massive surgeries, ICU stints and a lot of pain & nausea even when "well". As painful and crappy as the whole things is, one thing that I get out of it is many hours being alone, either in hospital or awake all night. And how I used that time is the motivation for this post.
I learnt pretty early on that when in a bad situation that you can't necessarily do much about, give your brain a problem to solve that's actually productive. For me, for years I have been interested in a certain line of products, so I started up "designing" this perfect product in my mind. I was obsessed, and thinking about it most the time, designing it perfectly in my mind - all the features, how it would work, who the customer was, how it was going to be manufactured etc etc. I got some Upwork designers to do a rough design, taking what was in my mind and putting it on paper. I got feedback from potential customers, and it wasn't great! If there was no major differentiator, then these products are really price sensitive. So for the next year, all I was thinking about was how to solve this problem with a totally different approach. I tried numerous approaches until I finally came across one that actually works. By combining 2 materials that are easily available on the market, I get this composite material that is better, easier to use, and my cost is 25 times lower than the sale price of what's currently on the market.
My product is still not on the market, currently I am getting a provisional patent. I have positive feedback from potential users, and a company I had worked for in the past is interested in financing the project.
All that to say, most of the time I spent on this project was laying flat on my back. Here are some things to think about:
- Don't discount the power of spending some time just thinking about a current problem you have.
- Keep an updated list of current problems you need solving.
- When you get spare time - in the car, walking, awake at night - just pick one of the problems on the list, and think totally outside the box. What obstacle needs removing? What solutions from other unrelated areas can I get inspiration from?
- Learn to unplug from distractions such as music and podcasts from time to time.
- Ask Chatgpt to give 50 solutions to a problem. They probably will all be useless, but some may prompt you look at the problem from a different angle.
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