Looking below the water line

Just screen a few patents and you will quickly start feeling frustrated too. Many patents are written from a defensive point of view. Which means they are basically confined to merely describing the innovations, using a lot of jargon, but without ever touching upon for instance business models. Thus, they seem to be floating instead of being underpinned by a clear business strategy.

I see it happen all the time, both with start-ups and incumbents. Start-ups get really excited about a particular idea. They see a customer need, come up with a fantastic idea to meet that need and start a business to push their idea to the market, skipping quite a few steps along the way. One of those steps is R&D. It almost seems as if R&D has become a dirty word nowadays, and yet classical R&D, researching and testing all aspects of an idea, can yield a wealth of information, including new business opportunities. Opportunities that you may easily miss out on if you don’t take the time to thoroughly research your idea.

Incumbents too, are not always aware of the true value of their ideas. In times of coronavirus for instance, the companies that turned out to be the most resilient are the ones that were fully aware of their strengths and were able to pivot their ideas. Just think of the stand design and construction companies that used their expertise to develop products to implement social distancing in the workplace. Pivoting your ideas is not enough, though. To do so successfully, you need to define your focus in line with your business strategy: will you for instance focus on designing the new product, on adapting the technology or on providing services?

Here’s what I have learned over the years:

On the surface, they may look very exciting or downright boring. But you cannot know the real value of an idea unless you dare to look below the water line. Unless you really take your time to go looking for underlying problems, competitors, scalability, IP background, reverse engineering, etcetera.

That’s why I have developed the Lean Patent Canvas methodology. Based on years of experience, this methodology helps start-ups and incumbents alike to bring out the real assets and valuable knowledge that all too often remain hidden within ideas. The Lean Patent Canvas helps you make your idea at least 10 times stronger. It also helps you map the elements of your innovation that really need protecting and the elements that best remain hidden. In this way, the Lean Patent Canvas presents you as a bonus with the outlines of an IP strategy in line with your innovations and business strategy.