[.ca] Inventing Small Products (ISBN 1560524367)

Well...:
This was an interesting book to read but, not very helpful.

Not much work was put in this book:
This hastily written, not particularly cogent or well articulated brochure (I've read it in about two hours) can be, very generally, divided in three parts. The first section is biographical -- rememberances of the author's childhood and youth, recalled with warmth and good-natured humor. It is short, curious, and entertaining, but wholly irrelevant to the overall idea the book purports to convey; the only justification for its inclusion in the book I can think of is adding volume. Second part, the bulk -- if this word can be applied to a 100-page brochure -- of the book is a compendium of disconnected, very cursory and superficial stories of different inventions the author made. Though they are entertaining, a total lack of necessary detail makes this collection of anecdotes damn close to worthless in practical terms. Here's a model of a typical story: I've noticed once a trash can, then I thought a plastic grip could be added to it, then I contacted a PhD in plastic handles, then we brainstormed, then we made a clay model, then I've contacted a manufacturer who was eager to license our invention. The End, on to the next story. I'm exaggerating, but not by much. Every story begs questions that are never addressed or even acknowleged: "Once a manufacturer A contacted me about Trinket Z; blah-blah-blah; they signed a $300,000 contract; that was my first project" -- end of story, moving on. How it just so happened that a guy was contacted by someone before he had done anything in the industry is not addressed. In my experience, manufacturers don't contact me out of the blue; the rest of the story is touching, but since important nuances of the above kind are never addressed, the story is useless. The last section (appendix) is the reason I gave the book two rather than one star: it's a random collection of creativity heuristics, that I've found somewhat meaningful and potentially useful. There's nothing unique or terribly original about them, but still this extended checklist of mind-expanding points and questions is worth something. Again, overall book severely lack in cogency, the author's thought jumps; at times it's hard to figure why he goes from there to there and not somewhere else, and why he's talking about what he's talking about, and why here and not someplace else, and why under this rubric and not some other one. The writing is childish, abrupt and inexpressive, inexact. Is this a worthy book? Well, there's something in it (part 3), and it's very, very short, so at least you won't waste too much time. Therefore perhaps it's not wholly worthless. Do distrust five-star reviews here, they're disingenuous, imo. -- just think of it, what relevance to a book quality is the fact that the author was selected for this or that prize for his work, rather than writing; and to say that this book is full of detail is simply deceptive. I'm sure Mr Mason is an accomplished and justly honored inventor, but the book is still a hack job overall. Check it out before buying, or at least learn the store's return policy.

Lots of practical advice from someone who's done it:
I agree with much of what the other reviews have said so far: on the plusses and minuses. But watch out, it contains some real important advice not found in other books. This was particularly true in the area of finding the areas and products that need to be improved first, not inventing for your own ego and the creative process he uses for inventing. The author teaches entrepreneurship and has a company that invents new products. He's been at it for quite some time and has a string of successes. So, he's qualified to speak. His book is organized in thirds. First, there is the overall introduction and summary of his process. This was excellent. Then he goes through a series of his inventions and uses them to illustrate the various ways that products can be invented. This was great too, but a fair number, maybe a third, of the examples didn't seem to prove a point. Also, this is where other reviewers fell out of interest with the book and claimed the author was tooting his horn. I didn't get that feeling, but did feel that some of the stories didn't add value to the book. Third, there is some really great information on creativity that he summarized from his classes and there is some great biases of his that he presents as practical advice. The creativity information was a little cryptic. But if you have read other invention books, the information really came to life. For example, here's a partial quote that I underlined: "In creative problem solving, begin by assessing the problem before labeling it. Use a system - a series of proven steps. Here's a five-step system: 1) Assess the situation. Ask questions. Ask them endlessly. Answers will sugest new questions. Be intelligently ignorant. Gather facts relentlessly. But consider 'facts' opinions, until rigorously tested. Search for the key factor. In almost every situation one particular fact will turn out to be more important than any other... 2)," etc. Notice that he lays out 5 steps for you to follow; I only quoted one of them. These are not the only five. He has lots of steps, some of them on the same subject... but following different paths. Also notice that some of the information appear as platitudes ("Be intelligently ignorant."), but these often summarize previously material in the book. And finally, considering facts to be opinions is an important point that I did not properly recognize. On this he also said: "What 'everybody knows to be true' probably isn't." This led me to ponder that maybe I should search for what is falsely held to be true about a product area, and try to develop products/services resulting from it. As an example, Compaq falsely held that selling through retail stores was better than selling direct through the phone and internet. Dell proved them wrong. At Compaq this was an opinion parading as a fact and it was sitting there for over 2 years, waiting for someone to exploit it. As a Connecticutt Yankee inventor, the author is parsimonious with his words. He has taken a vacuum sweeper to his writings taking out all extraneous words and sentences. I found this format to be quite acceptable. But this small book (93 pages) should be used as an important adjunct to another more complete book. But his strategy is probably better than most and so is more valuable than a lot of detailed wrong-headed, or theoretical, books. You get enough information to go and do it. His plan is not a repetition of others. He has a unique approach to it. The author is a practical inventor in that he works from lots of drawings, builds lots of prototypes, and most importantly, he focuses only on products that people want and that companies want (or currently do) manufacture. You will get a step by step plan on how to work backwards from the market. I think this is most important. One negative: there is a little bit of repetition in this small book, and this detracted a little. But overall, this book is packed with useable, practical, important and valuable information. My book is heavily underlined. This small book makes a great book to take on a 2 hour airplane trip. Then you should implement his suggestions and review the book periodically. Highly recommended. John Dunbar Sugar Land, TX

Invaluable Nuggets of Wisdom Hidden Within:
Stan's book is really a superb example of how he has used his life experiences in creating, marketing and licensing successful products. I believe this book has invaluable nuggets of wisdom hidden within. It's true that maybe one of Stan's advantages is that he came from a corporate background and knew the corporate protocol and lingo. But the truth that Stan's experience shows in this book, is that in addition to having a good marketable idea, it still took persistence, tenacity, and knocking on a lot of doors to achieve his phenomenal success. My personal experience with Stan, knowing him for many years as our Keynote Speaker at the annual Invention Convention®, is of his popular seminar with packed audiences, and having to postpone the next speaker so he could finish answering questions. Stanley has been in the big leagues of inventing for more than 20 years, but what most people don't know is that Stan's successful inventing career started at an age when most people are thinking about retiring \o55\c, and also after experiencing what most people would consider a devastating circumstance, especially at that age...he was fired. He showed up for work one day and learned that there was no more job. Literally overnight, he went from working in a large corporation to being a professional inventor. A remarkable accomplishment. It's no wonder Inc. Magazine honored him as "Entrepreneur of the Year" on its cover and he's known as the "Wizard of Inventing" throughout the world. I have to give this book about Stan's success methodologies a well-deserved 5-star rating. I highly recommend it. P.S. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the cover - that's not Stan!

A good place to start.:
For those who are considering inventing for a living, this is a nice book to have. It is also useful for individuals in organizations who need to or would like to innovate. The book is a quick read and does not go into any subject area deeply, although it does provide a nice overview of inventing. For the most part, the author illustrates concepts by presenting anecdotes from his distinguished career as an inventor. Changes are you will learn some things, but will probably look to additional sources for more information.