How did I know how to make a razor? (Market Pull vs Technology Push)

The other day I gave a talk at an Internet of Things (IoT) tech event. The title suggested a big subject for a short talk but in essence I wanted to talk about taking something beyond and idea and making a real product, using Kickstarter along the way.

A big subject for a 15-minute talk?

The first product I launched on Kickstarter (almost a decade ago) was a razor. The premise was that modern razors had become ridiculously overly-designed pieces of crap. My idea was a simple, solid-metal razor handle that would look good, be easy to keep clean, and last for many years.

It's not the most complicated product in the world to make, but not trivial either.

My first Kickstarter

People always ask me – how did you know how to make a razor?

But that really misses the point. I didn't know how to make a razor.

I didn't create a Kickstarter campaign because I knew how to make a razor.

I thought people might want my razor, so I figured out how to make it and then raised money via a Kickstarter campaign.

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

Market pull vs technology push

That concept is sometimes known as market pull rather than technology push. i.e. an innovation will be more successful if there’s a demand from users calling for a solution, rather than trying to push a technology to an unconvinced market.

There are plenty of examples where technology push fails, and within the context of my talk, IoT perhaps has more than its fair share.

Juicero - smart juicer

You may have seen the Juicero juicer when it came out a few years ago. It was a $700 internet-connected home juicer that used proprietary pouches of raw fruit and veg to make fresh, nutritious juice at home.

The company raised over 120 million dollars from big Silicon Valley investors before shipping a single unit.

Ultimately it failed and the business crashed and burned.

Was it a bad product?

Fresh, cold-pressed juice at home is certainly a thing that plenty of people would want. But people weren’t willing to pay that much money for the privilege, and be locked into a closed ecosystem where their veg pouches had to be verified via an internet connection.

In many ways the product was beautifully designed and engineered. But as this article showed, over-engineered would probably be a better term.

As a start-up business they were probably cursed by having too much money, and they were trying to force a subscription revenue model in order to please investors rather than customers. It also didn’t help when a Bloomberg article pointed out that you could just squeeze the juice pouches with your hands and get much the same outcome.

In the end people didn’t want to buy it, and the business found that out too late.

Just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should.

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It’s unfair to pick on IoT. I think it’s just the nature of innovation — there will always be big misses in the early days of new technology. We’ve seen similar with blockchain and a load of AI apps more recently.

It can be a case of throwing the proverbial at the wall and seeing what sticks.

There is a better way

Crowdfunding is a great way to stop you getting ahead of yourself and it helps you avoid many pitfalls associated with technology push.

It forces you to work backwards from what people might actually want. It puts you in front of potential customers early - often earlier than is comfortable.

It's a great way to get market validation before you’ve spent all your money. You get market validation and then if it goes well you get a chunk of money to make something that you know people want.

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One thing I suggest to people with an idea is to start a draft Kickstarter project right now.

That really gets you thinking. It forces you to consider who your product is for and, importantly, how you’ll pitch it to them. It makes you really focus on what you're actually making and why people would care about it.

If you have an idea you think might make a good Kickstarter campaign, create a draft project page right now.

Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do from that point, but if you don’t start you have a 0% chance of succeeding.

If you get as far as that (most people won’t), and if you’d like specific feedback on your project, please feel free to get in touch.