Ideas are usually great because they do one of two things, sometimes both:

• • • They focus on a deep and genuine need, obvious or not, to the casual observer.
    • They remove a problem that causes irritation.

Great ideas have a common characteristic: they are focussed.

They do one thing exceptionally well. When you spread the impact, so they do more things less well, the utility of the original idea is diluted.

The ‘Penknife’ is a classic example. It evolved when writing was done with a gooses quill and ink. The quill required constant sharpening, so the small ‘penknife’ evolved. It folded, was small enough to be safely carried in a small pocket and did an admirable job of sharpening the quill.

As a kid, I had a penknife, it had a blade, corkscrew, a bottle opener, and something my dad told me was a tool for removing the stones from a horseshoe. Not all that useful for a kid living in Sydney in the 1960’s. One of my friends had a Swiss army knife that had a cutlery store contained in a body that was several times the size of my modest penknife. As a 10-year-old, I was envious of his Swiss army knife, and lusted after one until I recognised it did nothing well. It was also bulky, and the most used tool, the knife, was difficult to open.

So it is with many products, an innovative idea is ruined by added features that may be ‘sort of’ useful to a few, but just get in the way of the single function for which the tool was developed.

Ask yourself what is it that people are willing to pay for?

We needed that penknife; we do not need the horseshoe cleaner. There is a cost to adding it, which must be recovered in the price, but suddenly the knife is less useful for its primary purpose.

Sometimes, the feature laden penknife can hide the feature that if separated into a specific product might be extremely useful. My penknife had that corkscrew. It was not much value to me as a 10-year-old and did not work very well. My father had much better corkscrews that were designed for the job he wanted done and did it well.

Beware of feature-creep it might destroy your great idea.

Related posts:

9 places to dig for great ideas The APP report, a great idea squandered 8 ingredients for  an idea stew The single key to great success.