Ultimate Guide: How to Develop a New Electronic Hardware Product (Updated 2022)
This step-by-step guide will teach you the development process for a new electronic product. It’s written for entrepreneurs, startups, and small companies building their first hardware product.
Source xekera.com
You won’t need any prior knowledge of electronics design to understand this article.
However, it will be easier to comprehend if you already have a technical background in computers, engineering or another field of science.
I won’t lie to you, though. It’s a long, difficult journey to launch a new physical product.
Although hardware is known for being hard, it’s easier than ever for individuals and small teams to develop amazing new electronic devices.
However, if you are looking for an easy, quick way to make money then I suggest you stop reading right now because bringing a new product to market is far from easy or quick.
Although I present each step in a linear fashion, product development is never a smooth linear progression and at times you will find yourself taking two steps back for every step forward.
Don’t get too frustrated though when this happens because it’s just part of the process.
Part 1 — Upfront Work
Before we get into the actual product development steps I feel that it’s important to quickly cover some of the upfront work that needs to be done before full product development begins.
Unfortunately, too many people skip past these critical early steps, since most entrepreneurs want to get right into developing their product.
Skip these initial steps at your own peril.
Market research, patents and product validation
You need to first research the competition and confirm that a market exists for your product.
When entrepreneurs do competitive research a common misconception is to think that finding any competition is bad.
In fact, most entrepreneurs panic and think it’s the end of their project when they find a competing solution.
In reality though, having some competition is actually good because it proves there is a market for your product idea.
Once you’ve determined that a market exists for your product, then the next step is to validate that people will actually buy your product.
For example, one way to validate your new product idea is to make a sales flyer to share with potential customers or retailers that carry similar products.
Request their feedback on your tech product.
You can also setup an online sales page to test your idea. Crowdfunding is another great form of validation.
The key is you have to share your product idea with lots of unbiased people who will give you honest feedback.
But, what about a patent? Don’t you need one before you can safely tell others about your product?
Being overly secretive is probably the most common mistake made by new entrepreneurs. In reality, I’ve never seen a hardware startup fail because their idea was stolen.
That just does not happen. Instead, entrepreneurs usually fail because they’ve been unsuccessful at marketing their product.
However, I do understand concerns over privacy and why most people want to start with a patent.
But patents are really expensive and take a long time to get.
They are simply not the best use of your limited time or money when you are first starting out.
Instead, I recommend what is called a Provisional Patent Application (PPA) in the United States. Other regions likely have something similar available.
For only a couple hundred dollars, a PPA will give your product protection for one year. And you won’t need to hire an expensive patent attorney at this stage.
Simplify your product
I spent years developing my own consumer product, and have helped other entrepreneurs develop their products for much longer.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that you need to simplify your device as much as possible.
You must embrace simplification in order to have a realistic shot at getting your product to market in a timely fashion and without going bankrupt.
Product complexity can be a death trap for new entrepreneurs and startups!
Most entrepreneurs, and even most engineers, don’t understand all the consequences of various product features.
The addition of what seems like a minor feature can often drastically increase your development cost and the time it takes to get to market.
For example, something as simple as the position of a button could waste thousands of dollars, if it creates the need for more expensive injection molds.
Another example comes from an entrepreneur who recently asked me for feedback on his product concept.
He is very technically minded and had spent a lot of time specifying his product in great detail. But he didn’t understand all the future implications of these features.
I quickly explained to him why one feature of his product was going to drastically drive up all of his costs including: development, prototyping, electrical certifications, and mold costs.
I proposed several alternative solutions, and he was off to a much better start.
These changes made his product about 3 times easier to bring to market. Overall, he easily saved at least $50,000 with this one change!
The catch is that unless you understand the entire development and manufacturing process it’s difficult to know the future implications of every product decision.
If you outsource product development be aware that asking your primary developer(s) to help simplify your product may create a conflict of interest.
This is because the more complex your product the more money they get paid.
Instead, work with independent experts to help you simplify your product and better understand the long-term impacts of your early product decisions.
Proof-of-Concept (POC) prototypes
At this point you have proven that there is a market for your product and you’ve simplified the product concept as much as possible.
Now the question you must answer is whether your concept really solves the intended problem as expected.
This is the goal of a Proof-of-Concept (POC) prototype which is an early prototype created using off-the-shelf components.
A POC prototype doesn’t have any custom electronics design, and is typically based on development kits such as an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.
I’ve already stressed the importance of not starting right way with full development, but a POC prototype is different because it’s not usually very expensive to build.
Unfortunately, a POC prototype is rarely something that can be brought to market. The production cost will be too much, the physical size too large, and the appearance far from ideal.
Part 2 — Product Development Strategies
There are essentially five options for entrepreneurs and startups to develop a new hardware product.
However, many times the best overall strategy is a combination of these five development strategies.
If you don’t have the technical knowledge to properly manage product development and to judge the quality of work being done, then having a technical advisor is a must regardless of which of these development strategies you follow.
This technical advisor can help you make key technical decisions and provide oversight of your primary developers.
Even if you are an experienced engineer it’s highly beneficial to have an advisor who understands the entire process from idea to market.
1) Develop the Product Yourself
This is rarely a viable strategy completely by itself. Very few people have all of the skills needed to develop a market-ready electronic product completely on their own.
Even if you happen to be an engineer, are you an expert in electronics design, programming, 3D modeling, injection molding, and manufacturing?
Probably not.
Also most of these specialties are made up of numerous sub-specialties.
That being said, if you have the necessary skills, the farther you take the development of your product yourself the more money you will save.
For example, years ago I brought my own hardware product to market.
The product was more complex mechanically than it was electrically. I’m an electronics engineer by training and not a mechanical engineer, so I initially hired a couple freelance mechanical engineers.
However, I quickly became frustrated with how slow things progressed.
After all, I was thinking about my product almost every waking hour. I was obsessed with getting my product developed and on the market as fast as possible. Sound familiar?
But the engineers I hired were juggling it with lots of other projects and not giving my project the attention I felt it deserved.
So I decided to learn everything needed to do the mechanical design myself. No one was more motivated than myself to get my product developed and on the market.
Ultimately, I was able to complete the mechanical design much faster (and for much less money).
The moral of the story is to do as much of the development as your skills allow, but also don’t take that too far. If your sub-expert skills cause you to develop a less than optimal product then that is a big mistake.
Also, any new skills you must learn will take time and that may ultimately lengthen the time to market.
Always bring in experts to fill in any gaps in your expertise, but be sure to remain involved in all key decisions.
2) Bring on Technical Co-Founder(s)
If you are a non-technical founder then you would definitely be wise to bring on a technical co-founder.
One of the founders on your startup team needs to at the very least understand enough about product development to manage the process.
If you plan to eventually seek outside funding from professional investors then you definitely need a team of founders. Professional startup investors know that a team of founders is much more likely to succeed than a solo founder.
The ideal co-founder team for most hardware startups is a hardware engineer, a programmer, and a marketer.
Bringing on co-founders may sound like the perfect solution to your problems, but there are some serious downsides as well.
First of all, finding co-founders is difficult and will likely take a tremendous amount of time. That is valuable time that isn’t being spent developing your product.
Finding co-founders is not something you should rush and you need to take time to find the right match.
Not only do they need to compliment your skills, but you also really need to like them personally. You are essentially going to be married to them for at least a few years so be sure you get along well.
The major downside of bringing on co-founders is they reduce your equity in the company. All founders of a company should really have equal equity in the company.
So if you are going solo right now, be prepared to give any co-founder half of your company.
3) Outsource to Freelance Engineers
One of the best ways to fill in any gaps in your teams technical ability is by outsourcing to freelance engineers.
Just keep in mind that most products will require multiple engineers of different specialties so you will need to manage the various engineers yourself.
Ultimately, someone on the founding team will need to serve as the project manager.
Source xekera.com
Make sure you find an electrical engineer that has experience designing the type of electronics required by your product.
Electrical engineering is a huge field of study and many engineers lack any experience with circuit design.
For the 3D designer make sure you find someone that has experience with injection molding technology, otherwise you’re likely to end up with a product that can be prototyped but not mass manufactured.
4) Outsource to a Development Firm
The best known product design firms such as Frog, IDEO, Fuse Project, etc. can generate fantastic product designs, but they’re insanely expensive.
Startups should avoid big design firms at all costs. Top design firms can charge $500k+ to fully develop your new product.
Even if you can afford to hire an expensive product development firm, don’t do it!
However, there are many smaller, less known design firms that I’ve worked with that can develop your product at a much more reasonable price.
The cost for these smaller firms usually falls closer to the cost of hiring freelancers yet with more oversight and better quality procedures in place.
One final comment on working with product design firms. You must discard the false belief that you can just have someone else handle all of the development while you just wait on the sidelines.
Those that attempt that path almost always get burned and lose a lot of money and time.
You absolutely need to be involved in development and understand at least the basics of the development process as well as the various design tradeoffs being made.
5) Partner with a Manufacturer
One avenue to pursue is partnering with an overseas manufacturer that already makes products that are similar to your product.
Large manufacturers will have their own engineering and development departments to work on their own products.
If you can find a manufacturer already making something similar to your own product, they may be able to do everything for you — development, engineering, prototyping, mold production and manufacturing.
This strategy can lower your upfront development costs.
Manufacturers will, however, amortize these costs, which means adding an additional cost per product for the first production runs. This essentially works like an interest free loan, allowing you to slowly pay back your development costs to the manufacturer.
Sounds great and easy, so what’s the catch? The main risk to consider with this strategy is you are putting everything related to your product into a single company.
They will surely want an exclusive manufacturing agreement, at least until their costs have been recovered. This means you can’t migrate to a cheaper manufacturing option when your production volume increases.
Also be warned that many manufacturers may want part, or all, of the intellectual rights to your product.
FCC (Federal Communications Commission)
FCC certification is necessary for all electronic products sold in the United States.
All electronic products emit some amount of electromagnetic radiation (i.e. radio waves) so the FCC wants to make sure that products don’t interfere with wireless communication.
There are two categories of FCC certification. Which type is required for your product depends on whether your product features wireless communication capabilities such as Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee, or other wireless protocols.
The FCC classifies products with wireless communication functionality as intentional radiators. Products that don’t intentionally emit radio waves are classified as non-intentional radiators.
Intentional radiator certification will cost you roughly 10 times as much as non-intentional radiator certification.
Consider initially using electronic modules for any of your product’s wireless functions. This allows you to get by with only non-intentional radiator certification, which will save you at least $10k.
UL (Underwriters Laboratories) / CSA (Canadian Standards Association)
UL or CSA certification is necessary for all electrical products sold in the United States or Canada that plug into an AC outlet.
Battery-only products that don’t plug into an AC outlet do not require UL/CSA certification. However, most major retailers and/or product liability insurance companies will require that your product be UL or CSA certified.
CE (Conformité Européene)
CE certification is needed for the majority of electronic products sold in the European Union (EU). It is similar to the FCC and UL certifications required in the United States.
RoHS
RoHS certification ensures that a product is lead-free. RoHS certification is required for electrical products sold in the European Union (EU) or the state of California.
Since California’s economy is so significant, the majority of products sold in the U.S. are RoHS certified.
Lithium Battery Certifications (UL1642, IEC62133, and UN38.3)
Rechargeable lithium-ion/polymer batteries have some serious safety concerns. If short-circuited or overcharged they can even burst into flames.
Do you remember the double recall on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 because of this issue? Or the stories about various hoverboards bursting into flames?
Because of these safety concerns rechargeable lithium batteries must be certified.
For most products I recommend initially using off-the-shelf batteries that already have these certifications. However, this will limit your choices and most lithium batteries have not been certified.
This is primarily due to the fact that most hardware companies choose to have a battery custom designed to take advantage of all of the space available in a product.
For this reason most battery manufacturers don’t bother with getting their off-the-shelf batteries certified.
Conclusion
This article has given you a basic overview of the process of developing a new electronic hardware product, regardless of your technical level.
This process includes selecting the best development strategy, and developing the electronics and enclosure for your product.
There is much for you to learn in order to develop a new product. I try to cover all these topics on the Predictable Designs blog, podcast, and courses.
My goal is to help you fully understand how to develop your product in a more predictable fashion.
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