How We Built the Rocketbook Orbit

Learn about the journey of a Rocketbook product.

Published in

The Launch Pad

2 min readMar 5, 2020

Ask any company or entrepreneur that’s been tasked with building a new product and they’ll tell you: it’s easy.

They’re lying, of course, because going from nothing to a finished product is a long arduous process. That process, though arduous, is also incredibly interesting (we hope). We know the difficulties associated with building a new product because we’ve done it before. Most recently, we built and launched the Rocketbook Orbit, our new reusable legal pad.

To let you enjoy the fascinating journey a Rocketbook product goes on, we convinced the members of our product team to divulge the details on how they built the Orbit.

Note that since our Kickstarter, the Orbit has gone through some changes based on user feedback.

How a Rocketbook Product Gets Made

1. First Steps

Before even a single nail is hammered into place, a product starts as an unassuming idea (please note: none of our notebooks require nails or hammers). In this case, Rocketbook co-founders decided that legal pads’ wasteful and unattractive design had been accepted for too long. Additionally, they saw this as the perfect opportunity to make good on our users’ requests for a more modular note-taking experience. As a side note: at this point, the Orbit was simply named the Rocketbook legal pad…not the best demonstration of our creativity.

2. Sketch → Model → Prototype

Once the concept of the Orbit was in place, it was time to craft a design. With the recent addition of an industrial engineer, we now had the capabilities to create detailed sketches, construct digital renderings, and even 3D print our own prototypes of the Orbit. We had also planned to 3D print a life-size model of the Moon, but had nowhere to store it. Once the prototypes had been created, we tested the Orbit experience with real users to determine what worked well and what didn’t.

3. Future Challenges

Any worthwhile task has roadblocks, and building a new product is no exception. A notepad with the modularity of the Orbit simply doesn’t exist (at least in this galaxy). This means we’re forced to learn how to perfect all the components, including the magnets, Page Packs, and backing plate, from the ground up. Like meteors hurling toward a rocket ship headed for space, these challenges make the product journey difficult, but not impossible. Admittedly, though, our challenges are far less scary than actual meteors.

Now you know our secrets; that’s how a Rocketbook product gets made. If you have any questions about the Orbit’s journey to launch, let us know in the comments below.

If you’re very confused and don’t know what the Rocketbook Orbit is, why did you read this far down? Just kidding, you can learn more about the Orbit right here.