Have you got an idea for a product or service but don’t know how to get it from mind to market?

According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, it is estimated that 30,000 new products go from concept to commercialization every year. Your idea may just be one of those 30,000.

Your idea may spawn from an event. It may appear as a plausible solution to a problem while working in the office. Or it could come from conversations with peers and associates. Or it may crawl out of your superior temporal gyrus at 3 a.m. and sound like this:
“Yeah, I’ve got a really awesome idea for a really cool product that will change the ______________________ (fill in the blank according to your revelation) industry forever and I‘m going to create it and save the world! Oh…and get really rich, too!”

Your idea may spawn from an event. It may appear as a plausible solution to a problem while working in the office. Or it could come from conversations with peers and associates.

You may have a number of questions that keep you from getting started:

• How do I know someone isn’t already secretly working on this and will beat me to the market?
• I know my idea is worth billions of dollars. How do I convince investors?
• Where do I find an investor who will recognize the genius of it all?
• Do I need a strategic partner to help market my product and where do I find one? For that matter, how do you define “strategic”?
• How do I get endorsements? I just figured out that rejection can make or break the success of my product. If my product or service is difficult to use, or if professionals don’t believe in the efficacy of the product or device, it won’t get used, and ultimately, they will stop purchasing it. What do I do?
• My idea is so awesome that a company will want to buy my company right now. What is it worth? How do I do this so I can get on with my life on the beaches of Costa Rica?

And on and on and on.

No matter the product or service, no matter how brilliant you know your idea may be, the chain of events that brings that idea to market usually follows a well-thought-out course of action.

When you’re bootstrapping it and working on getting a company up via the DIY method, nothing matters more than creating action steps to reach your milestones.
Our next post will cover why you want to create a roadmap and how this will help you get your idea from mind to market.