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Essential Resources For Product Design On A Budget

January 15 2013  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Design  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product Development

Essential Open Source (Free) Software For Product Design On A Budget

Running a small business or startup is always difficult but especially challenging in today’s economy where consumers and investors are far more cautious with their money. A successful startup is a master at running lean. If you need to be that team, fear not, others have blazed the path before you and figured out ways to get high quality results without spending the kind of dollars that the 800 lb gorilla in your industry does.

At Leardon, small businesses and startups come to us at all different levels of preparedness, from the back of the napkin drawing to a fully functioning prototype that has been through the product development lifecycle and is ready for manufacturing.

If you are having trouble communicating the product vision to your startup team and the back of the napkin pencil sketch isn’t doing it, try something a little more advanced.

Google Sketchup

Google Sketchup offers the artistically challenged several ways to take basic to advanced designs into a 3D world with a very easy to learn and use interface. You don’t have to be an AutoCAD master to use Google Sketchup. There are a LOT of tutorials and a huge library of shapes to choose from that will help get you started.

If you download the free version and find it frustrating and taking too much of your time, perhaps a better choice is an affordable industrial designer or specialized product designer.

Gimp

If your small business or startup team is not in the position of purchasing expensive software like Adobe Photoshop but you need a solution for image manipulation software, you can download the open-source leader in this category for either Mac or PC. Gimp has been around a longtime and it’s impressive when it comes to it’s abilities. If you have spent any amount of time with photo manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you will find Gimp a great no-cost work around until you land that first big purchase order, raise venture capital or an angel round.

Inkscape

If you are looking for something that is vector based and could be similar to Adobe Illustrator, but open-source and free, Inkscape might be your answer. It is available for both Mac and PC and is great for product logos.

Have questions related to product development or design in particular, contact us here.

 

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Wasdio – A San Diego Prototyping Success Story

December 6 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Crowdfunding, News, Product Design, Prototyping, San Diego  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentAfter two years and two different prototypes, San Diego product entrepreneur Cary Evans has now launched his innovative  PC controller, The Wasdio on Kickstarter in an effort to raise $175,000 in pledges to help build a production version.

Since Evans is a Leardon client and San Diego resident, we thought we would take a moment and ask him about his product development experience and some best tips for prototyping.

Q: Cary, what gave you the inspiration to build a new PC controller?

     Cary: After getting my butt kicked too many times in online games, I realized that I was not a good touch-typer in high stress situations. I knew how I wanted to move, but between the 20+ keys my hand was responsible for, I could not move and switch weapons intuitively. I knew there had to be a better way than the keyboard.

Q: What has been the most challenging part of the journey?

     Cary: Just like video games, each stage of the journey gets more challenging than the last. Right now our project is on Kickstarter and it has been difficult to get press to talk about our project and to help bring awareness to our project.

Q: What has been your biggest lesson with product development?

     A: Our product fits in your hand and ergonomics is a huge factor. With our first prototype, we did not do any 3D print-outs so we could test proportions, button sizes, and how it feels overall in your hand. That being said, we learned to print everything out prior to flushing out a high-fidelity prototype.

Q: How important is it to find the right team that knows the product development life cycle inside and out?

     Cary: Finding the right team that have the skills and personalities that you enjoy working with is always important. Also, working with people that have an understanding of the entire process makes for a better product and easier planning. We have not made it from one end to the other, but so far we have been happy working with an end-to-end provider.

Q: Did you design the prototype to optimize manufacturing efficiency? If so, what were some key areas that needed revising for design for manufacturability?

        Cary: Yes, but ask Murray more about this one :)

  ( Murray Learmonth is VP of engineering at Leardon Solutions ) 

Murray: The parts were designed to minimize the tooling complexity and therefore minimize the tooling investment by the client. Wherever possible standard open/closed part design was adhered to and only using sliding cores where essential. This process is called Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

Q: What changes will you make (if any) to the production version?

      Cary: The purpose of any prototype is to enable you to test it, find improvements and iterate on it. We have a handful of refinements and tweaks that we’ll make before a production version. As an example, our product is essentially a joystick and right now we are refining the amount of tension or force needed to push the stick. These kind of changes are impossible to make without actually feeling it in your hand.

Q: How important do you feel it is to have a real and working prototype to help raise money especially on sites like Kickstarter?

     Cary: I cannot speak to other sites but on Kickstarter, if you have a hardware project, you are required to have a working prototype. You can no longer show just computer renderings. 

Everyone has ideas, but there is a huge difference between having an idea and holding one. Holding an idea demonstrates that it can be done, your commitment to the idea, and allows people to see and use if for themselves.

Q: What is the best tip(s) you could give someone thinking about spending the capital required to prototype a product? 

     Cary: Each stage of the process is about refinement. Before prototyping a product, do a proof of concept of your own. It does not matter how crude it is or what materials are used; paper, cardboard or wood are all a great start. The process of making something with your hands and testing it with friends and family will enable you to refine your idea and put you in a great spot for building a prototype. 

If you have questions about your prototyping process – please feel free to Contact Us for more information.

 

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iFactory Plays Host To The Best Product Development

November 20 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, events, Northern Ireland, Product Design, Product Development, U.K.  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentOn 8 and 9 November 2012 iFactory played host to product development experts, entrepreneurs and small businesses in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Letterkenny, Ireland.

If you are in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, U.K. and looking to further develop a product idea into a business, the team at iFactory can help. Leardon Solutions was invited to speak as part of this two-day iFactory event. Joe Donoghue and Murray Learmonth from Leardon Solutions spoke about entrepreneurial product development and how to be successful even when your resources are limited.

The event was part of the iFactory iLearning series with this particular event titled “Product Design – The blocks for success” and featured keynote speaker Christian Majgaard M.Sc.,B.A. who is known as “The Man Who Recaptured The True Mission Of Lego”. iFactory, part-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg IVA Cross Border Programme, is an innovation support programme helping small businesses grow their companies.

Some of the main topics that were covered during the event included a session about product development in general as well as a motivating presentation by Mr. Majgaard discussing the customer focused product development at Lego. Participants of the events were curious about developing a prototype and what to expect from the process in terms of cost and time involvement. Leardon provided sound advice based on their industrial design, prototyping, manufacturing, and product development life cycle knowledge.

Joe Donoghue, Apt Floe, Leardon Solutions, Northern Ireland

From left to right: Dr. Barney Toal, Jason Paul and Joe Donoghue

Rory Campbell, Anita Murphy, Eunan Cunningham

Also featured were a few success stories such as the Apt Innovations Floe Drain Down System and Rory’s Story Cubes.

For more information feel free to contact us.

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Traits Of The Best Product Development Companies

November 6 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Design, Product Development, Prototyping  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product Development

If you are looking for the best product development companies, consider these traits

Not all product development companies are created equal and when it comes down to spending your hard earned money and valuable time developing your next product, you need every advantage that you can get to avoid cost overruns, missed delivery schedules and quality control issues. All of these risks of product development can be minimized or avoided all together by choosing the best product development company for your needs. Here are a few tips that we can offer based on years of experience developing products with entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses.

#1) Choose an end-to-end solution:

Maybe we’re playing favorites here, but we always suggest a team that offers an end-to-end solution. With so many variables already working against the entrepreneur, choosing an end-to-end solution can eliminate a lot of areas of risk. These include, but are not limited to the common pitfalls of communication issues between engineering / manufacturing groups, cultural differences when doing business overseas and negotiating costs with suppliers.

#2) Choose a company that is passionate about providing the best product development experience.

If you are an entrepreneur reading this article, then you are are probably passionate enough to seriously consider getting a professional prototype or product produced. You’ll want to select a team of product development professionals that eat, sleep and breath product development. A passionate team will go far beyond delivering a baseline product and will have enough vision to build a viable product that can be iterated upon as needs or markets change.

#3) Everyone gets involved

While it can be information overload in the beginning, a key indicator that you have found a great team is when your first or second meeting has more than just a sales guy or gal discussing your product idea with you. Passionate teams like to work together and will often bring electrical / mechanical engineers, industrial designers and project manager to the first few rounds of meetings to help discuss and evaluate options. If you are talking only to a sales guy or gal, this could mean that you are missing out on valuable feedback from key parts of the team.

#4) The Best Product Development Companies follow a time tested and proven product development lifecycle

Each product varies greatly in shape, size and function, but the product development process in which that product becomes a reality should be proven and time tested. Ask the product development company to explain to you their product development process. The best product development companies rarely stray from their product development strategy because it has been developed to be efficient in managing the project management triangle – Cost / Scope / Schedule / Quality.

#5) Great communicators and relationships

One of the most important things that sets apart the best product development companies from others is their relationships with their customers, vendors and suppliers. It’s important that the company you may hire can pull a few strings and call in some favors. Great product development rarely goes without few snags or unexpected hiccups. If the company of your choosing has long standing relationships with their vendors, problems can be resolved quickly and often at a fraction of the cost. These relationships are critical to success especially overseas where greater weight is put on the value of a relationship in regards to business. 

#6) An impressive portfolio

Check out their portfolio. Do the products look impressive? are their some that are in the same or similar market as your idea? If so, this could be a key indicator that you will benefit from working with this company.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Have comments about this article? We’d love to hear them. Just comment below.

 

Leardon Featured On Gettin’ Down To Business

May 8 2012  |   Cliff  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Design, Product Development, Prototyping  |  Comment

Troy HazardWith the downturn in the economy, a lot of people have taken this opportunity to go after that dream of entrepreneurship. At Leardon Solutions, we feel like product development for entrepreneurs / inventors is more popular than it has ever been in last few decades and one of the upsides is the amount of innovation coming through. We’ve been on our toes trying to get critical information out to the market place to help people succeed. Types of information include tips on how to prototype, manufacturing in the USA and overseas, the product development lifecycle and how to avoid pitfalls within the process.

Recently, Joe Donoghue of Leardon Solutions had the opportunity to be a guest on Troy Hazard‘s new show “Gettin’ Down To Business”. The show is about an hour long and they really get into detail about the product development process. If you want to see the entire episode just click here. We’ve put together a quick highlight reel for your enjoyment as well.

Good luck with your product development and please contact us with any questions.

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Best Tips when Designing a Product

April 3 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Design  |  2 Comments

Leardon.com, Prototype, Benchmark, Think Simple, Product Development

Below are a few tips to consider when designing a product. These tips are based on years of experience from the Leardon team and are overall the best high-level tips to take into consideration as you begin your entrepreneurial venture into new product development.

A good product development team consists of individuals from different disciplines with diverse goals, objectives, and perspectives. When at the stage of designing a product, be sure to choose a group of talented individuals that are able to compromise for the success of the project.

The product designers and engineers on a project are key to a successful product design but typically have different objectives for the project outcome. Engineers tend to enjoy the “objective” goals of product development such as product reliability, quality, dimensional details, and manufacturing processes while product designers tend to focus more on the “subjective” aspects of product development such as customer profile, product design features, human factors, and the user interface. When embarking on the initial stages of product design, it is important that all team members work together to achieve the goals of the project. Early in the product development life cycle, consider these three tips when starting the product design phase of the product.

Think Simple
There is no reason to complicate any problem and product design development is no exception. The best product designs are typically those that form a simple connection between function and design. If a designer overcomplicates the design, the customer will be alienated and the resulting product will not do well in the market. The goal of a good product design is to pull in the customers with a nonthreatening design that seems inviting and easy to use.

When initiating the design phase of the product, be sure that the design team thinks “simplicity” so that the design concepts, user interface, and human factors can be easily implemented later down the product development life cycle.

Benchmark
It isn’t necessary to reinvent the wheel and in fact sometimes customers would prefer that you don’t. It is a good idea when starting out on the product design path to review and research all the competitor products on the market and gauge which design features make the product successful and which resulted in failure in the market. Obviously, improve the successful features and avoid the failures.

When benchmarking new products, evaluate how the similar features similar are implemented in product design and then determine how new features and functions can be implemented into the product design. Remember not to change things that are familiar and mainstream for customers. For example, it would be a bad idea to try and reinvent how the automobile gear shifter is designed and integrated into the interior design. Customers are too familiar with the current embodiment and would probably reject any major design changes.

Prototype and Test
Once the first release of a product design is “ready for the world to see”, it is best to prototype and test the design prior to releasing the design to the engineering team for detailed engineering in CAD. There are many ways to prototype the design, including foam models, rapid prototyping, computer simulations, or functional prototypes. When testing the prototype, show it to people unfamiliar but interested in the product. The test can be done through focus groups, informal studies, and on-line surveys. It is best to interview as many people as possible to be sure to get a large amount of feedback from a diverse group. Once this feedback is received, implement this back into the product design to improve the design to meet as many requirements as possible.

If you are interested in showing off your work, learning more, or posting topics for discussion in the industrial and product design community, you should visit Product Design Forums.

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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Seeking Investment To Fund Your Product Idea? Helpful Tips

March 27 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Inventing Profit, Product Design, Prototyping  |  Comment

Crowdfunding, Leardon Solutions, Product DevelopmentA common question asked by start-ups, entrepreneurs, early stage engineering teams, inventors, and innovators early in the product development life cycle typically revolves around how to get early investment to develop their product idea and take it to market. This question is usually asked when the product idea is in the pure concept phase without intellectual property, prototypes, or business plans. In this stage, the product idea isn’t very valuable to an investor so it is necessary to take the idea to the next level to draw in potential investors or individuals on crowdfunding sites. To best prepare for finding money to take the product idea to the next level, it is necessary to pull together a Proof-of-Concept Prototype of the product idea and provide the Proof of Demand for their product idea. With these in hand, the team seeking money will be way ahead of others and will stand out to angel investors, early stage investors, and crowdfunding sites.

A business plan is important if an entrepreneur or start-up company is setting out to find funding for their idea. The work done to pull together the business plan will be summarized in the executive summary which will be handed to the potential investors or shown on the crowdfunding sites. Three absolutely important parts of the executive summary in this early stage are The Problem, The Solution, and The Opportunity. These parts of the executive summary will prove that the team seeking funding has identified the problem that the product is trying to solve, has shown how the product solves the problem, and has proven that customers want to buy the product.

A Proof-of-Concept Prototype is necessary to show that the product solves the identified problem as described and also to help demonstrate the Proof of Demand in the Market. People handing out money are looking to see that the team seeking the money has proven that the product concept functions as expected and that this Proof-of-Concept Prototype has been used by potential customers that would buy the product if it existed. The more data that can be gathered from real people showing that the product is useful to solve their problems, the more convincing the pitch to the investors or crowdfunding sites. Proof-of-Concept Prototype and Proof of Demand are the two key areas that investors are evaluating so that they make a successful investment.

No matter if you are trying to get investment from crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter, angel investors, accredited investors, SBA loans, small business innovation research grants (SBIR), or innovation vouchers in some E.U. countries, here are some tips on preparing for finding investment.

  • Be sure to know how much money is required to take the product to the next level. If a crowdfunding site such as Kickstarter is being used, make sure that the expected project costs match the crowdfunding “ask”. The money received must be enough to deliver.
  • If you are using angel investors for early stage or seed funding, be sure that you communicate the sustainable competitive advantage of your product through the demonstration of the Proof-of-Concept Prototype.
  • In order to find investors for your company, put your network to use. You will probably find that within the list of people you know, somebody will be able to refer you to somebody who funds start-up or early stage companies.
  • If you truly believe in the product idea, you will inevitably put “skin in the game”, meaning that you will invest your own money to get as far as possible until you receive outside investment. Investors need to know you are committed and spending your own money will help convince them of that.

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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Business Tips for Entrepreneurs with Prototypes

February 28 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Business Tips, Product Design, Product Development, Prototyping  |  Comment

Leardon Solutions, Business tips, Product DevelopmentEntrepreneurs who are building a company around a product idea and are following the proper steps of product development typically have a prototype built. Of course, it is a natural part of innovation to build a prototype but sometimes these prototypes are not used to their full potential. Here are five business tips for entrepreneurs on what to do with a functional and professional looking prototype.

1. Develop realistic cost models using the prototype design.
Developing credible financial plans is absolutely necessary for the entrepreneur to properly step out and launch their product into the market. When the entrepreneur has a prototype, enough information exists to develop realistic financial models. The prototype design will allow the team to work with suppliers to determine the expected non-recurring expense (production tooling, set-up costs, engineering expenses, qualification costs, etc.) and the total cost of the product (direct materials cost, direct labor cost, and indirect costs such as support labor, distribution, and shipping). These are important inputs into the financial model that are used to accurately portray the long term financial forecast.

SCORE, a non-profit entity that provides business advice, has many good profit and loss and cash flow templates that can be used to develop these models. If an entrepreneur is seeking investment to take their product into production, a three-year cash flow statement will be important to determine the amount of cash needed to build the company.

2. Demonstrate the intellectual property for potential licensees.
Entrepreneurs typically protect their product idea by filing for intellectual property such as design patents, provisional patents, utility patents, copyrights, or trademarks. Many times, the goal is to “sell” this intellectual property to licensees in return for a small percentage of sales and let the licensee handle all the manufacturing and distribution. This is convenient since these licensees typically already have factories and sales channels in place. The prototype is a great method of demonstrating the intellectual property to these potential licensee.

3. Include the prototype as the centerpiece for investor presentations.
An article in Entrepreneur Magazine confirms that professional prototypes will help an entrepreneur describe their product to investors. When you are up in front of potential investors, a great looking and functional prototype can be the centerpiece of the presentation and can more effectively describe the product than any words on a presentation.

While a prototype is essential in this presentation, remember that it is also necessary to be working with a great product development team. Investors not only invest in the product idea, they also invest in the team. Always be sure to have the right people on your team.

4. Receive feedback from target customers, distributors, buyers, and retailers.
A prototype is a great tool to get valuable feedback from all potential customers. These customers not only include individuals that might purchase the product, but also distributors, retailers, and buyers for retail chains and catalogs. Put your best foot forward with an excellent looking prototype and absorb the feedback received. Try not to go on the defensive when bad feedback is received. One trait of a good entrepreneur is to find, admit, and correct mistakes or issues in your product.

It is also important to show your prototype to industry influencers or thought leaders for feedback. Not only do these individuals have great insight to the trends in the industry, but they can indirectly influence others to purchase your product.

5. Validate the idea on crowd funding sites such as Kickstarter.
On crowd funding sites such as kickstarter.com, creative companies offer unique benefits or pre-ordering opportunities to individuals who pool their money to help support the effort of a company. In essence, these crowd funding sites are not only a good way for an entrepreneur to get the financial resources to manufacture their product, but also a great way of validating their product ideas. When product description, pictures, and videos of the functioning prototype are posted on the crowd funding websites, it allows potential customers to evaluate the idea and determine if it would be worth ordering. If the idea is fully supported, not only does the entrepreneur receive the funds to start manufacturing but also validates that the idea will actually sell once available.

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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Avoid Design Changes When Possible: Tip #1

January 30 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Insider's Perspective TIps, Manufacturing Tips, Product Design, Product Development  |  Comment

Product Development, Leardon Solutions, Manufacturing, San Diego, Southern California

At Leardon Solutions, we are starting a new blog series to help provide more information on the product development process. Our new series is called “The Insider’s Perspective” and will focus on tips and teaching that we have learned along the way that we want to share with you. It is our hope that these tid bits of valuable product development knowledge will help you succeed as you begin your journey into the product development lifecycle. If you have a suggestion for one of these blog posts, please contact us, We would love to hear from you.

Tip #1: Avoid Design Changes When Possible

Product development is a creative team process. Engineers and designers take on the difficult task of creating a product that meets all the customer’s needs and wants. The team typically strives for product perfection but unfortunately perfection can never be achieved due to time and money constraints. Therefore, in order to get the product shipped and into the hands of customers, it is important to prevent unnecessary product design changes so the team can go out and manufacture the product for sale.

Product design change is sometimes seen as the enemy of an efficient and cost effective product development process. Of course, change is inevitable and necessary but minimizing unnecessary product change is important to keep the project on schedule and within budget while continuing to meet all the product specifications. Here is the insider’s perspective on why a product development team should avoid design changes when possible.

  1. The objective of the product development team is to deliver a product to a target customer. If change isn’t managed properly, the team members will each make “required” changes based on their own opinions and needs. This will result in change chaos.

    2.  

  2. In order to validate that the product design meets the customer’s quality requirements, the product must be tested. If changes are continually being made in the background, there will never be a stable design that can be formally qualified.

    3.  

  3. If engineers and designers were allowed to continuously change the product design, it would be almost impossible to know what design was qualified and which to manufacture.

    4.  

  4. Changes should only be made if product defects and issue arise. A defect or issue can be raised by anybody on the product development team and the program manager can determine if it is worthy of making a change based on change management rules. Why change if there isn’t a defect?

    5.  

  5. If the product development team has a rigorous defect review process and change system, then only necessary changes will result from the product change management system.

    6.  

  6. Changes cost money and take time. When a change is made, the product development team must make the modifications to the product and qualify the change. This sometimes requires that fabrication tools are scrapped or test data is retaken. This can take significant time and delay the product sale.

Avoid making unnecessary changes to be part of a successful product development team.

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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8 Product Development Myths to Know…..Part 2

January 17 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Inventing Profit, Manufacturing Tips, Product Design, Product Development, Program Management, Prototyping, San Diego  |  Comment

Product Development MythsPart one of this blog series outlined hardware product development myths, basically it was four misconceptions that many entrepreneurs believe are true and hence prevent them from starting down the product development path. To recap, the myths were (1) Hardware development is prohibitively expensive, (2) Service providers and suppliers do not want to work with small companies or Entrepreneurs, (3) My idea will be stolen by my suppliers, and (4) I need to manufacture in China to be successful.  We know you’re eager to read the last four on our list. Also, if you have some of you’re own, don’t hesitate to include them in our comment section below.

(5) Hardware development takes too long
All types of new product development, including software and hardware, require considerable amounts of time for innovation and invention. Hardware development is different than software development in that tangible tools, fixtures, and automation are required but that doesn’t always mean that hardware development takes longer than software development. To minimize the amount of wasted time in any new product development project, it is best to follow a product development life cycle. With the proper deliverables in each phase and checkpoints prior to exiting and entering phases, the overall process will be streamlined using less time and less money.

(6) I need to buy a large quantity of products from my supplier
The misconception is that all suppliers require that the entrepreneur buy tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of products on their first order. For a custom product, we recommend that the entrepreneur only buy as many products as needed to fulfill the immediate customer demand of the product. There is a high chance that changes will be required as sales begin so keeping the inventory low will minimize the financial pain of any design changes, reworks or repairs.

There are many entrepreneurs who are “up-sold” to higher quantity orders for a lower product price. There are other entrepreneurs who are shocked to learn that a supplier is unwilling to take a low quantity order and will not to work with the customer unless a large order is placed. It is important to know the prices at all order quantities early in the relationship with the supplier. If the supplier is unwilling to fulfill low quantities in the range of 1,000 products, it might be best to switch to another supplier. Chances are high that there are hundreds of other suppliers that are capable of supplying the product and willing to work with entrepreneurs.

(7) I can’t afford to hire all the individuals on a product development team
A hardware product development team consists of development engineers, tool makers, process engineers, software engineers, technicians, fabricators, procurement engineers, buyers, program managers, among others. Many entrepreneurs try to piece together the product development team with service provides or suppliers that perform only one aspect of the product development life cycle. Since these service providers and suppliers do not provide an end-to-end product development solution from product conceptualization to manufacturing, it forces the entrepreneur to take on the burden of managing all the suppliers and the work performed. If the entrepreneur is unfamiliar with the product development life cycle, this creates an inefficient team without accountability or visibility to the tradeoffs between cost, schedule, and scope.

To create an efficient system with full accountability of the work performed, an entrepreneur should minimize the number of hand-offs throughout the cycle by hiring an end-to-end engineering, prototype, and manufacturing firm that internally handles all the hands-offs without dropping or losing any of the knowledge gained throughout phase.

(8) Hardware development isn’t as cool as software development
Without hardware, there would be no use for software. Without software, most hardware would be boring. Both hardware and software development are challenging and fun so go ahead and pursue your product idea!

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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