The idea & the customer
Clarify the problem, intended user, alternatives, and what would make the product worth buying. Separate what you know from what you still need to test.
Practical AI. Real product development, engineering, and manufacturing experience.
AN CREATION
An idea is the start.
Let’s build the path.
A largely free resource for inventors and entrepreneurs, using AI to organize the work, explore the questions, and help an idea move forward.
IDEAS. DIRECTION. FORWARD PROGRESS.ADVANCE NOW / MIKE MAIER
SHARING THE APPROACH
A resource to use.
A person you can hire.
I’m building AN Creation to share practical knowledge and make early product exploration more accessible.
The toolkit is intended to be largely free. It lets you explore the approach and build a better understanding of your project without starting with a consulting engagement.
My personal attention, judgment, and hands-on help are available separately as premium consulting. If money is tight, use the toolkit—that is what it is here for. You do not need to hire me to benefit from it.
Work directly with MikeYOUR IDEA, ORGANIZED
A place to think it through.
A way to keep it moving.
AN Creation is an office for the work around your idea.
Explain what you want to make in your own words. Work through conversations with named AI assistants, develop shared project documents, and keep questions and next steps connected to the same project.
The aim is to help you prepare for the next decision: what you need to learn, what work is worth doing, and when someone with a specific specialty should be involved.
You make the decisions. AN Creation helps you organize the information and the work behind them.
THE QUESTIONS CONNECT
Explore more than
the product itself.
The business around it
Explore questions about forming a company, ownership, roles, and liability. Prepare the facts and questions to take to an appropriate business or legal professional.
Patents & intellectual property
Research the landscape, organize the idea, and prepare questions for a patent professional. Understand what needs a qualified opinion before relying on a conclusion.
Funding & the next milestone
Explore possible funding routes and the evidence a potential funder may want. Organize the story, assumptions, and project needs so a funding conversation is better prepared.
Design, prototypes & production
Work through requirements, concept choices, prototype purposes, testing, tooling, and manufacturing questions. Decide what the next build needs to prove.
Selling & getting to market
Explore direct sales, retail, licensing, and other possible routes. Identify questions about customers, pricing, packaging, suppliers, and how the product will reach a buyer.
USE AI WITH DIRECTION
The first answer
is rarely the whole answer.
Useful AI work takes context, follow-up, comparison, and judgment.
We use a structured project to help drill into a topic instead of stopping at a general answer. Research needs to distinguish current sources, assumptions, open questions, and the conclusions that still need checking.
AN Creation is designed to help you prepare the work and identify the kinds of people you may need: patent counsel, business advisers, designers, prototype shops, manufacturers, or potential funding contacts.
A research lead is a starting point for investigation. It is not a promised introduction, funding commitment, legal opinion, or completed professional service.
START SMALL. LEARN. DECIDE.
Make the next investment
a better-informed one.
- 01
Understand the idea
Who is it for? What problem does it solve? Capture the idea, assumptions, and questions before committing to a design.
- 02
Explore the path
Research alternatives, product requirements, business questions, intellectual property, funding possibilities, and routes to market.
- 03
Plan the next proof
Decide what needs to be learned next. A concept review, customer conversation, calculation, or simple prototype can answer different questions.
- 04
Move forward deliberately
Keep decisions, documents, responsibilities, and next steps together. Bring in the right specialist when the work calls for one.
WHAT YOU CAN USE TODAY
Conversations, documents,
and a working plan.
A workspace for your project
AN Creation brings together named AI assistants, project conversations, files, shared concept revisions, and to-dos. It gives your idea a place to develop and keeps the discussion connected to the project.
Replies are currently processed with human involvement. Research and outside services are work to arrange and review, rather than an automatic funding, filing, or supplier-matching service.
Start with a conversation
Talk with Mike about your idea and whether AN Creation is a useful fit. If you already have an account, you can sign in below.
AI IS THE TOOL / YOUR IDEA IS THE FOCUS
A deeper conversation.
A more useful project.
AN Creation is an office that gives AI more context and give your questions a direction.
Start with the idea, then build on what you learn. Keep requirements, alternatives, open questions, and decisions connected so each conversation can contribute to the same project.
The aim is to help you get beyond general advice: prepare a better brief, investigate an assumption, compare a route forward, or identify what to ask a qualified professional.
Learning to do that is useful even if you never hire me. It is part of why I want this resource to be accessible.
More on using AI wellTHE THINKING BEHIND AN CREATION
A defined role.
A useful next step.
AN Creation grows out of my work organizing AI around real product-development projects.
The aim is to keep the idea, the evidence, and the decisions connected while dividing the work into manageable tasks. Defined responsibilities and written instructions help keep each conversation focused.
My broader approach includes continuing specialist roles and temporary “intern” agents for bounded work. The method explains the direction; it does not imply that every part is already automated in AN Creation.
Read the AI journey behind AN Creation