By: Colleen Costello

“It’s a numbers game.” Rookie salesmen hear this from bosses when told what their weekly sales call volumes should be. Persistent basketball players hear this from their coaches while practicing their foul shots. Aspiring musicians hear this from experienced performers when booking their calendars with gigs. Without exception, the same principle applies across all these examples. The more you do something, the more likely you are to have success at it. Not surprisingly, the conventional wisdom for inventors who seek to license their product ideas to companies for financial gain is the same. The more inventions submitted, the greater your chances of success at obtaining licensing agreements. Additionally, in order to make the greatest gains possible, having multiple streams of licensing income from multiple products is the ultimate goal. Once inventors get on a roll of looking for solutions to everyday problems, they begin to freely see potential remedies all around them almost as naturally as one breathes. The inventor mind-set may take some years to develop but inventors can easily hit a threshold where ideas begin to come fast and furiously (another article topic). So having multiple ideas to work on is not the issue for the enthused yet bewildered inventor. Suddenly, the issue at hand is which idea to work on first and which ones could present the biggest pay-off. The answer to this dilemma is in the application of the weighted decision matrix. Here’s how it works!

Background Checks:

First, when an idea pops into your head while taking a shower or browsing the aisles, it should pass some rudimentary tests before being moved to the matrix. In order to not carelessly waste time and resources, the idea should be put to the test much like a person who potentially could be hired is given a background check. Is the idea truly novel? Has someone else already done this? How is your idea addressing the problem differently? Research and dig around on the internet and in local stores. What about the patent literature? Is your idea clearly already outlined in someone else’s patent or claims? Research Google Patents or USPTO. Can it be made for a profit? Research Alibaba. At this stage, if your idea gets past “Go”, it can be added to the matrix.

Developing the Matrix:

When developing your decision matrix, you are developing a tool that helps you see which project ideas when worked on first will have the largest potential pay-off for you. You are trying to let the potential winners float to the top of your project list. First, describe the five most important factors you believe are involved in influencing your selection of the project. Think about describing the ideal. A fantasy world is temporarily created. Limits need not apply. What would make any invention the easiest, fastest success you ever imagined? For instance, you develop a product for a very large mass market that makes a unique selling proposition versus all the competition, can be easily prototyped, easily protected with patents and you already have a relationship with the company that would love to license this baby! The closer your idea is to your ideal, the more that it is the kind of idea you want to be working on.

Some potential Project Selection Criteria are:
• Presents a Unique Selling Proposition
• Has a Large Potential Market
• A Prototype Can be Easily Made
• Has Intellectual Property Potential
• Licensee Contacts are Established in This Market.

No doubt, there are others that you might brainstorm and decide upon. Once the factors are selected, they need to be weighted in importance using a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = not very important, 10 = very important). The best results are yielded when each selection criterion is given a weight different than the others.

The Fun Begins:

Next, rate your project ideas on how well they meet each Project Selection Criteria using a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = does not meet, 10 = meets). This is the Rating.

Now determine the Value by multiplying the Weight X Rating. Add up the Values for each Project Selection Criteria to get the total score for each of your invention ideas. The Total Values will allow you to clearly see a score for each idea you have.

Powerful Example:

Here is how your Weighted Decision Matrix could look:

Looking at the data from the matrix, it is apparent that Project 3 would be the best project to get started on and that Project 4 is the one that quickly falls to the bottom of your list. The weighting and rating scores that you give each criterion are subjective but this method is an improvement over the dart-board approach to decision making or the “I feel like working on this today” approach for the inventor. Used judiciously, the weighted decision matrix is a powerful tool.

Decisions are Made, Goals Achieved:

Independent inventors are typically squeezing time into their week to work on their invention ideas, perhaps while working a full-time job or running a family’s schedule. Time is precious and not to be wasted. With the weighted decision matrix, inventors can more easily set priorities for their allotted project time. Inventors may find that their matrix needs some re-working over time as they change or add Project Selection Criteria. That’s ok. This tool is meant to focus and give the serial inventor an alternative to a dazed, frenzied approach when attempting to valiantly reach their goals for licensing their inventions.