Naturally there is no need to discuss easy-to-get ideas that just come in, sit on the arm of your chair, tweak your ear, and say, “Here I am.” The processes given here are for the elusive, hard-to-get ideas that really do take some brain racking. They are, in effect, aids to racking.
The ideal inventory of important elements, then, must include every discoverable important thing employed or used in connection with the subject; every discoverable important fact concerning that subject and concerning the application of it. It must include every discoverable important event or experience in its history; every important cause affecting it, and, in turn, every important effect produced by it. It should include every important law, principle or method employed in the processes connected with it.
You must know of what the thing is made, and consider of what other materials it might be made. You must know how it is made, and consider whether it can be made a more convenient or better way. You must know who makes it and whether anyone else may make it. Here you safeguard yourself against patent or copyright infringements, and also open up new opportunities, as when the Hershey Chocolate Company discovers it can make a good toilet soap out of a byproduct— cocoa butter.
You must also know who uses it or may use it; what the users need it for; whether another purpose can be found for it; how they use it and how others may use it, and other ways in which it may be used, as gloves worn for indoor housecleaning. You must know how it is sold or may be sold to those who use it; other ways of selling it, as through vending machines which let out one package at a time; and how it may be distributed, as through traveling salespersons or direct advertising.
In addition to having all the relevant facts, it is equally important that you clearly understand your problem. You cannot have a successful result if you do not thoroughly understand your problem. You will only get the right answer to the wrong question. You must know just what the problem is before you can solve it.
The gist of the situation is to apply relevant facts to a specific problem systematically without confusion. You cannot have a successful result if a relevant fact is missing, any more than you can make a successful cake if one required ingredient is left out. The idea you will finally evolve can only be as good as the relevant facts you have utilized to produce it. Vague facts, irrelevant facts, partial information, can only produce results that will be unsatisfactory.
