Week 14 Invention and Innovation

8/11/2019 Week 14 Invention and Innovation

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D r . T a l L a v i a n

h t t p : / / c s . b e r k e l e y . e d u / ~ t l a v i a n

t l a v i a n @ c s . b e r k e l e y . e d u

U C B e r k e l e y E n g i n e e r i n g , C E T

Invention and Innovation1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Many people dream of success.

To me, success can only be achieved throughrepeated 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

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Fail your way to Success


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Who invents?

In a given company, ~1%of employees produce 99%of patents.

Thus, individuals who have mastered the skill ofinventing and patenting are incredibly valuable!

How can we become inventors?

How can we produce inventions as employees? How can we encourage inventions asbusiness

owners?

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Typical Barriers to Innovation

There is no shared understanding of what innovationmeans

Little consensus for roles and responsibilities around

innovation Task versus system orientation

Long term IT contracts often focus on SLAs, notinnovation

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Volume-based revenue streamsview innovation ascounter 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

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Failure to recognize innovation as a discipline,capable of being learned, capable ofbeing practiced: No systematic scanning for changes

No systematic analysis and exploitation of opportunities

No systematic commercialization of innovation

Salespipeline determines portfolio (market has toexist already) Rely on others to create new markets

Lack of investment dollars for innovation Innovators dilemma: new things look too small

compared to existing business

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Cultural Challenges

There are significant cultural challenges:

Between the researchers, inventors

and entrepreneurs

Between all of the above and investorsand owners

And these relationships change overtime

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The Myths of Innovation

By Scott Berkun

Describes the methodology of realizingthe potential of modern ideas.

Ideas never stand alone

Ideaswithoutimplementationare notinventions

The goodness of the invention is always counter-balancedby the ease of its adoption

Inventing and implementing always require hard,consistent work.

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Stages of Innovation Diffusion

We distinguish among:

Early adopters: More educated, innovative individuals whogain from technology.

Followers: The majority of adopters who see its success andwant to join in.

Laggards: Less-advanced individuals who either do not adoptor adopt very late and may lose because of the technology.

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Factors Affecting Invention Diffusion

Heterogeneityof potential adopters(size, location,land quality, and human capital).

The individual decision process aimed at improvingwell-being(profitability, well-being, riskminimization).

Dynamic forces that make technology more attractive(learning by doing, learning by using, network

benefits).

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And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared

By Genrich Altshuller (TRIZ method)

Suggests methods of thinking that can resolvemanytechnical contradictions:

Do it inversely

Change the state or physical property

Do it in advance

If it cannot be done completely, do it partially Fragmentand/or consolidate

TRIZfocuses on physical and chemical solutions

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Elements of Invention

Technical solution to a problem

New

Distinct from known solutions

Produce useful effect

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How to invent?

Consider a problem worth solving

Ex: gooey candy melts at high temperatures. How to dip inwarm melted chocolate to form chocolate covered candy?

Identifyphysical/technical contradiction

Resolvethem without creating new contradictions!

One solution can be to separate conflicting requirements usingtime or space.

Ex: first freeze the candy center. Dip into chocolate. Store atroom temp to defrost center.

Source: And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared,by Gentrich Altshuller

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Discovery Inventions14

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


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How to Identify the Real Problem

Rewritethe problem in 10 different ways

Listcausesof the problem

Look at what is influencingthe product

Redefinethe problem in order to come up withdifferent, innovative solutions

service is too slow vs. customers are too demanding

Set innovationgoalpoststhat have a variety ofsolutions to your problem between them

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Most inventions improve existing systems

How to improve a perfectly functional mechanism?

The 4 periods of technological improvement

1. Selection of parts for the system. (Make it work)

2. Improvements of parts. (Make it work faster/cheaper/smaller)

3. Dynamization of the system. (Make itdynamic/adaptable/mobile and moveable)

4. Self-development of the system. (Make it self-adaptive)

Source: And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared, by Gentrich Altshuller

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Improve without impairing!

Inventors improve a single part or characteristic of the

systemwithout impairing other parts orcharacteristics of the system or adjacent systems

Source: And Suddenly, the Inventor Appeared, by Gentrich Altshuller

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Improvements from organizational perspective

Cost leadership path

Separating the organization from others by providing thelowest cost option

Product/Service differentiation path provide the most unique products/services available

can be achieved by marketing unique products,brandingtheseproducts, or holding a specialized patent

Customer segmentation path Being the only organization to target a unique customer

segmentwithin a market

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Superior process path

Offering the fastest, highest quality, or most desired customerservice in the marketplace

Superior distribution path Offering the customer a preferred distributionand delivery

option

Improvements from organizational perspective19


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How to Decide upon Future Destination

Identify key factors to the success/failure of yourorganization in the marketplace.

Identify how to take advantage of future marketplaces,trends, and key success factors.

Change your view of the customer, product line, servicelevel, etc.

Find new options by asking extreme questions.

What if the customer does not need us anymore?

Determine what you want your organization to befamousfor.

Define the organizations future in a meaningfulway.

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How to Uncover Insights

Customer needs- select the customer group of yourinterest and list their needs/problems and how youwant to solve those needs/problems Emerging technology- figure out how emerging

technology can be advantageous to your customerbase The marketplace- figure out how your industry is

changing/growing

Your organizational needs- find out what yourorganization would need to fill the customer needswith the new technology and changing marketplace

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Successful Business Thought Process

yesterdays problemtodays solutiontomorrows problemnear-future solutionfutureproblemfuture solution

Tomorrows problems can be predicted from thepresent situation.

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Considering Trends

Fad-short term mania for a product/service thatquickly dies off; good for quick cash

Shift- easier to see and predict that Fads. Last

longer. Change in direction (shifting fromtelevision to internet as source of entertainment)

Leap-dramatic change in direction. Giant steptowards future. Hard to predict (like Human

genome product)

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How to See the BIG Picture as an Employee

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

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Where do ideas come from?

Over 60% of inventors get their ideas from:

Brainstorming

CollaborationExperimentation

The study of other fields

Journaling (writing down their thoughts)

Source: The Myth of Innovation, by Scott Berkun

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Seven Sources of Innovation

The unexpectedthe unexpected success, the unexpected failure,

the unexpected outside event;

The incongruitybetween reality as it actually is and reality as it is

perceived to be or as it ought to be; Innovation based onprocess need;

Changes in industry or market structurethat catch everyone

unawares...

Demographics(population changes);

Changes in perception, mood, and meaning;

New knowledge, both scientific and nonscientific.Peter Drucker:Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Deciding Which Ideas to Pursue

Identifying the real problem is important in findingthe real, lasting solution to the problem.

Questions to ask from a business perspective:

Is there a customerneed? Is it feasible?

Can we generate significant revenuesand profits fromthis?

Does it play to our strengths?What technical challengeswould we face to do this in the

real world?

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How to Sell your idea

Understand your audience- there are fourdifferenttype of people1. 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 kidsAdultscare about the products featuresfirst and brand

second

Kidscare aboutbrandingfirst and features second (kidswants whats cool)

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How to Sell your idea Cont.

Understand that everyone goes through multiplephases before buying an idea/product

Prepare a prototype- this will help your ptentialbuyers fully understandyour idea

Presentation-keep it simple Dont overload the buyers with facts Limityour use ofjargon

Create a demand for your idea as a solution to a

problem Sell the problem so that the buyer will WANT the solution

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Assessing Value Influential Factors

Likelihood of third parties using the solution (now orin the future)

Demandfor the solution (cost reduction and/or newfeature)

Whether base invention patented (fundamental v.improvement)

Key enabling/lynchpinsolution

Whether the invention is of general applicability Whether the invention is useful to a key competitor

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Assessing Value Influential Factors (cont)

Breadthof the solution (available alternatives)

Likelihoodof solution being an essentialfeature ofan industry standard

Whether infringementis detectable Whether invention outside core industry

Simplicityof solution

Importanceof innovation to future companyproducts and/or services

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Technical Documentation of Inventions34

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


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Actual Reduction to practice (for Inventorship, Novelty and Non-Obviousness) E.g., build it, clone it, sequence it, express it, test it

For self-enabling inventions, draw it. 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 Test the hypothesis; provide working example: A did B (strong)

Interpret the results 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)


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Constructive Reduction to Practice (Filing date) (For Novelty, Prior Art and Inventorship)

File a patent applicationDescription

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 theinvention later (CIP, Declarations showing actual results)

Teach others to make and use Dont keep the best mode secret

Claims Metes and bounds of the property right


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Technical Advice on Scope37

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


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HOW TO KILL A CREATIVE IDEA38

Adapted from Measurable Performance Systems, Inc.

Our own self-criticism is often so strong that many novel and unusual ideas never evenreach 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 equipmentobsolete.

9. Not practical for operating people.10. Our competitors are not doing it

11. We've never done it before.

12. Lets get back to reality.

13. Thats not our problem.14. Why change it, it's still working okay15. 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?


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Summary

Innovation is a skill that can be learned by practice

Innovation-oriented thinking can help individuals,employees, and business-owners

Realizing an ideas potential requires selling on thepart of all inventors.

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Week 14 Invention and Innovation

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