More constructive discontent - the birth and evolution of an idea

I wrote last week about how my disappointment with the state of modern cartridge razors gave birth to an idea that became my first ever Kickstarter project - the Ockham Razor.

The premise was simple: all easily-available cartridge razors were crap. I thought I could do better.

I like to have a moan about things on Reddit as much as the next person, but what I did was an example of constructive discontent. I took my discontent and didn’t just moan about it - I did something about it.

Disappointing razors

My main complaint was that razors were ugly and over-engineered. And getting worse with every ridiculous new iteration.

Take the Gillette Fusion shown below. That is an unnecessary amount of separate parts to make up a razor handle. Not only do I think the result is aesthetically offensive, the product is destined to end up in landfill after a short and shallow life.

Disassembled Gillette Fusion razor

How could I do better?

Some people may think that the look of a razor is not really an important consideration. I will respectfully disagree with that opinion, but that wasn’t the only improvement I wanted to make.

One problem with razor handles made of multiple bits of metal, plastic and rubber is that they collect grime and limescale and are difficult to keep clean. The cynical view might be that that’s a deliberate part of their planned obsolescence, but either way, I wanted a razor that was easy to keep clean and lasted for a long time.

All my considerations, superficial or otherwise, lead to the conclusion that the razor handle needed to be simple.

Incidentally, another valid solution to this problem could’ve been to use a double edge razor, or even a cut throat razor, but I liked the convenience and ease of use of cartridges.

What I did about it

Ideas are cheap - it’s what you do with them that counts.

So I thought I could actually make a better razor. At the time I didn’t think it would become a company that’s still going today, or that I would successfully raise money on Kickstarter for it, but I had to give is a go.

I’m a big advocate of getting stuck in and doing things rather than just talking about them. After research into the state of the razor market and product landscape at the time, I very early on made my own razor handle for real.

The first hacky prototype was made by cutting the end off a Gillette Mach3 razor handle and epoxying it to a piece of aluminium rod. I wanted to test roughly what it would look like and how it would function as a razor.

Ockham Razor prototype v0.1

After using that v0.1 razor handle for a while, I was pretty happy with the first experiment.

Partly due to luck, but also sticking to my core idea to keep things simple, I realised I was already very close to what I was aiming for.

One thing I realised is that a slightly longer handle made the razor better to use. This fortuitous discovery only happened because I’d ordered the piece of aluminium in a 100 mm length and didn’t bother to cut it shorter for that first prototype.

Slightly refined Ockham Razor prototype v0.2

The concept still appeared to be heading in the right direction, so the next stage was to finesse the shape by creating a series of 3D-printed prototypes.

First 3D printed Ockham Razor prototype

How I went from that to getting a metal razor manufactured at scale is a story for another time, but I had turned my discontent with an existing product into what I considered to be a better razor.

Did I succeed?

Yes, I think so.

It’s subjective whether or not you think it’s a nice-looking razor, but I think it’s beautiful and other people seem to like it too.

Happy customers

The Ockham Razor is also a joy to use, is easy to keep clean, and will last for many many years. I’m still personally using a razor handle that was manufactured almost a decade ago. An occasional wash with lemon juice gets rid of the build-up of limescale from my hard London water and leaves it looking as good as new.

If you’d like one, you can buy one for yourself here:

www.ockhamrazorcompany.com

The Ockham Razor

Ideas for new products or services come from all sorts of places, and most of them never turn into anything.

I’m always coming up with different ideas, but it’s only when I decide to focus on a particular one that something real might come from it.

Picking the right idea isn’t always easy, but if you don’t even try, you definitely won’t create something worthwhile.

There’s something extremely satisfying about taking an idea all the way through to fruition. If you have an idea that you think could turn into a real product, and if you’d like some help in realising it, please feel free to get in touch.