Ten years on from my first Kickstarter, it's with sadness that I've made the decision to close down Ockham Razor Co.

There are billions of LEGO bricks covered in the brand name. How the company is able to do that is a great example of manufacturing techniques and economies of scale.

How do you define the success of a product? How could I possibly call out the most perfectly designed product ever? The Fender Telecaster is a contemporary of both a 1950s Telefunken valve radio and an Apple Vision Pro.

Wanting something better than a crap product that’s destined to end up in landfill after a short and shallow life.

Many years ago I noticed that some categories of product have a much greater tendency to be ugly than others. (Apologies to all the brands I mention by name in the piece.)

Making is actually the easy bit. That isn't to say that the whole process is easy, otherwise everyone would do it. What I really meant is that it's not difficult in the way that most people think.

Here are my key considerations when kicking off a new product development project.

Re-inventing the coat hanger. Turning constructive discontent into something real.

A good design process is about working backwards from what people need, not throwing an idea at them and hoping they like it.

Turning your ideas into products isn't as difficult as you think. Ever since I ran my first Kickstarter campaign, which was for a razor, people often say to me "how on earth did you know how to make a razor?"

Having a good idea is not enough. These five factors are a great way to frame your strategic thinking around the adoption of your product or service.

It’s easy to mistake that initial spark of an idea for something meaningful. At this stage your idea is worthless. If you want your idea to become something, the real work is ahead of you.

So you’ve got an idea you think could be a Kickstarter. It could be a game, a book, a product, a short film. How do you know when the concept is well enough developed to launch it on Kickstarter?

If you think you have an idea that could be a good fit for Kickstarter, create a draft project right now.

Almost a decade ago I wrote a blog post about products being crap. Six Kickstarter projects and over $200k later I’ve set up Roast my Kickstarter to help others crowdfund their ideas. Here’s how I got here…