When John Lyddon moved to the Santa Cruz mountains, he was worried that his young children might be in danger from wildcats that prowled his heavily forested 67 acre ranch. Using a tractor with a bucket and chain, he began to laboriously remove brush, trees and boulders to discourage the wildcats from coming close to his house. He believed that there had to be a better method than dismounting his tractor and struggling with a grapple, chain and bucket whenever he needed to remove a bush, tree, boulder or fence post.

Lyddon had envisioned a vice-like tool that operated in a horizontal plane that could grab and lift objects then move or replace them with precision. He traveled to the World Ag Expo (the world’s largest equipment trade show) in search of such a device. When he found no such tool, he began to discuss his idea with equipment makers who were attending the show. One of them agreed to make a prototype of Lyddon’s concept.

After testing his prototype and refining his design, Lyddon hired a patent attorney and now holds a U.S. patent plus patents in 15 other countries. “I knew I was not the only person who need this tool,” says Lyddon. Lyddon’s Jawz is the only product on the market that operates on a horizontal plane. Many end users currently use specialty or specific function tools, which Lyddon is trying to change. The Jawz can replace many tools being used on the market which translates into big savings in money and time switching from one tool to another.

Perhaps the most important contributor to his success is that in 1998, Bobcat’s patent on quick release technology expired, allowing an army of new light construction vehicles to be introduced to market. Jawz’s compatibility and utility with these new vehicles has given it quite a large market and a huge potential for success.

Like Lyddon’s Jawz, many inventions are often born from a great frustration or dissatisfaction. But can these inventions turn into winning products? That depends on many things, like market size and openness, pricing, distribution options, just to name a few. But beyond all of that, inventors often get stuck when they focus so much on solving the problem that originally gave them all that frustration. Inventors need to focus on what customers want. For instance, Lyddon did not just focus on making a product to remove trees and move boulders, instead he focused on creating a highly compatible tool that performs many functions, because this is what customers wanted. This increases your target market and makes your product more valuable, which translates into better sales. What do your potential customers want?

Yesterday, we posted a story about Carroll Bassett who found lots of great uses for his product that he didn’t originally intend. Bubble Wrap, which recently turned 50 years old, is another great story about unintended uses.

In 1957, Alfred W. Fielding and Marc Chavannes were working out of a garage trying to develop a new type of plastic wallpaper with paper backing. They were successful, but it turned out it didn’t make very good wallpaper.

While on a plane trip, they realize a truly great use for their product: packaging. In 1959, they started Sealed Air Corporation and began marketing Bubble Wrap.

Does your success lay in an unintended use for your product?

While on a caving expedition, Carroll Bassett reached what seemed to be a dead end, but he then discovered a small hole in the rock with air rushing out of it, which indicates a large cavity on the other side. He had to turn back, but started pondering how he could reach the other side. He developed a cartridge that produced a fast-burning proprietary gas that created an explosion big enough to crack the rock wall. The explosives were small enough that no blasting permit was required.

At first, he had no intention of producing his invention, but soon all his neighbors were asking for his help to break up big rocks in their fields. He soon started selling to National Parks, gravediggers, contractors and mining companies. But his true innovation was recognizing the potential for the developing world.

Without an infrastructure of roadways, it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to move goods throughout a country. Most often, developing countries just don’t have the resources to create roads. One major obstacle is clearing large rocks. If you can’t afford machinery to break up the rocks, which can cost over $60,000, the rocks need to be broken up by hand. But Bassett’s invention, the Micro-Blaster, costs only $375 and does the same work that $60,000 machines do.

With hopes of marketing to the developing world, Bassett has the chance to make a large impact on its ability to industrialize, and a chance to make quite a considerable profit while doing it.

Bassett created a solution for a very specific problem, but then realized the huge market potential his solution had. We all have had some unconventional solutions to specific problems, but often we only see one application for our idea. The key to success is recognizing all the different uses our ideas can have.