Ideas for new products are all around us, just waiting for someone to reign them in and turn them into success stories. We've all had a great idea for a product and then later seen our idea for sale in a store or catalog. Someone else had the same idea; however, that person acted on it-and prospered from it!

Quick action is essential when it comes to inventing a new product, but not at the expense of adequate forethought. Here's a checklist for developing your next great product idea.

1. Unique Feature is Patentable and Exciting
There are thousands of products out there competing for the consumer dollar. Your product needs to be unique and exciting. It should elicit the response, "That's really neat, I've got to have one…"

2. Fills a Real Need
Even a whimsical product fills a need-the need to have laughter and fun in our lives. Think carefully about what need you are filling, and make sure you fill it in the best way you know how.

3. Manufacturable-No Major Mysteries to Solve
One of my clients came to me with the idea of a cordless lamp that would light up a room and work by remote control. Well, the remote control part was easy enough, but the cordless part posed a problem. Lamps need quite a bit of electricity, which means you would need a huge rechargeable battery. These are quite costly and made the manufacturing of this product unfeasible to produce at a reasonable price.

4. People Love the Way It Looks
The product should have aesthetic appeal. Your customers should be proud to order it and display it.

5. People Love the Way It Works
The physical use of the product should be safe and easy. People should not be frustrated while using the product.

6. Fills a Psychological Need
There should be a feeling of satisfaction when using the product, and there should be a strong justification factor when the consumer is considering the purchase of your product. There should be a definite way that this product will improve the consumer's life.
7. Easy to Understand
A person should be able to look at the product and, at most, read one short sentence about the product to know exactly what it is and what it does. If it takes 10 minutes to explain how the product performs, you will probably need a huge marketing budget to educate the public on the benefits of your product.

8.Borrow Sophisticated Parts from Already-Existing Technology to Fill a Need
For example, the Piezo Electric Transducer was developed originally to act as a simple signal device or buzzer. There's one in every electric alarm clock and some smoke alarms. Someone took this new piece of technology and applied an ultra-high frequency to the transducer and discovered that it drove away rodents and other unwanted pests. A new product was born-The Ultra Sonic Pest Eliminator.

9. Great Price-to-Value Ratio
The second thing consumers do after they look at a product and say, "Hey, that's neat," is look at the price. The price should be equal to the value that the consumer sees in the product. If the price is higher than the perceived value, they will put the product down. If the price is lower than the perceived value, that person may feel suspicious and think the product was cheaply made and will not last.

10. Great Demonstration Product
More and more products are being sold on television through
1-, 2- and 30-minute spots. It's a plus if your product produces some dramatic results or has an interesting action and, at the same time, can be appealing to a segment of the television-viewing population.

Ken Tarlow is known as the inventor's mentor and has helped entrepreneurs develop more than 300 products worth more than $1 billion in retail sales. Mr. Tarlow is owner of Tarlow Design in Corte Madera, Calif., and author of Mind to Money. He can be reached at 415-945-0135. This article first appeared in the Summer 1996 of Entrepreneurial Edge.