For almost 5 years, James Olander worked as Senior Systems Engineer for Lockheed Martin, a large aerospace company, leveraging his degrees in Aerospace and Space Systems Engineering to develop innovative satellite technology and launch vehicles.

But to be a small piece of a massive organization like Lockheed Martin, no matter how great the company or the work, has certain limitations. So eventually, James found himself working at TechShop in the Bay Area, surrounded by people who were quite literally building their own dreams.

After years working hunched over a laptop computer, James was inspired to start building a product he’d been envisioning and knew could solve a widespread problem: an innovative and ergonomic laptop stand called Roost.

The moment that shifted Roost from hobby to career? Showing a prototype to Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky with Eric’s response, “You’ve got to put this thing on Kickstarter.”

A few months later Roost was up on Kickstarter, with $189,983 pledged by 2,448 backers and since then he’s sold over 10,000 units.

Now James is working on V2 of Roost. The biggest change in the development of the second version is the introduction of injection molds to increase production volume. With the first Roost stand, both the prototypes and production units were machined with laser cutters and the same materials, so there was no difference between the two; if the prototype broke, then the production unit would break.

With injection molding, it’s an entirely different process. You need to understand the structural elements of your prototype, done with different materials and tools and then through testing and analysis predict the structural features of your final injection molded part.

This is where James’ aerospace background goes to work. Using very intentional and detailed analysis, he’s able to assess the structural elements of his prototypes created with plastics, and then extrapolate those results to understand how an injection molded part will perform.

In this Hardware Spotlight, James shares the elements of his process that leverages his aerospace engineering background, allowing him to design a product with high durability and without guess work.