Perhaps your great idea occurred to you in a dream, came to you in the shower, or sprung up as a result of a persistent problem. Either way, you’ve got a concept worth exploring—so begin your process by defining your problem, brainstorming, researching, and even block diagramming. A concept is defined as the creation of an idea or design to solve a problem. However, before a problem can be solved, you must thoroughly understand it; only after the problem is understood can the problem be effectively addressed and solved. One effective method for solving problems is brainstorming, which is a group problem-solving technique that involves the spontaneous contribution of all ideas from all members of the group. Note the phrase “all ideas”; for brainstorming to be effective, the No. 1 rule of brainstorming must be followed. That rule, which is often overlooked or forgotten, is that there are no bad ideas. This simply means that no one in the group has the power to criticize ideas of other group members. After the brainstorming session has concluded, the list of ideas is vetted, at which point some of the ideas are dismissed. After an idea, or a set of ideas, has been identified to solve the known problem, it is prudent to assess the idea with others, including friends, family, university faculty, online services such as www.meetup.com, investment groups, patent attorneys, or public and/or private questionnaires. Of course, the degree to which an idea should be discussed depends on many factors, including proprietary information, the importance and size of the idea, and its scalability. Only after a valid idea has been identified to solve a well understood problem and is deemed acceptable should the research phase begin. A concept is defined as the creation of an idea or a design to solve a problem.