Nice work!  Asking thoughtful questions is the first step along the path to a great solution, and it’s where Japanese inventor Momofuku Ando started when his country was struggling with food shortages in the years after World War II.  The United States sent shipments of flour and encouraged the Japanese to make bread.  Bread was not part of the food culture in Japan, so Ando asked what would work better for the Japanese people and hit upon the idea of non-perishable ramen noodles.  Getting the texture and flavor just right proved challenging, but once he discovered a way to achieve his goal, packaged ramen—and later, Cup Noodles—took off, securing Ando’s place in culinary history.

That’s how to get the ball rolling!  The perfect idea doesn’t always spring from your mind fully formed, but “aha” moments abound during prototyping.  The inventors of Silly String set out to develop a spray-on cast to help heal broken bones, but in testing different prototypes for the nozzle they tried one that sent the product flying and realized they had the makings of a fun toy.  After adjusting the formula, Leonard Fish and Robert Cox pitched the product to toy company Wham-O, which patented the idea and started selling the colorful, foamy spray.  The history of Silly String hasn’t been all fun and games, though…in another creative twist, military personnel have used the product to locate trip wires while on patrol.