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How do I make a product? (lemm.ee)

submitted 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have an idea for a product that I think it is remarkable it's not already a thing. It would be easy to make and produce, and I imagine manufacturing would be cheap, but could be sold at a decent price.

I know I'll need a designer or engineer to help me with a virtual design. I'll also need a programmer as the product is a "smart" product and would link back to an app. So I'd need an app dev and someone to program the functionality of the device.

So assuming I get all that, then what? How does one get something like this manufactured, assuming it gets that far? I have a potential source from which I could get a business loan, but would at least need a virtual mockup and a plan.

I would love to see this become a reality but it feels daunting and I have no idea how to make it all come together. Any insight from the lemmings is much appreciated.

Edit: I've seen some prototyping and invention help companies, but they feel skeevy and Id have no doubt the terms end up with most of the profit going to them.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago

10+ years experience in product design here. There is nothing about a "simple" product that is cheap or easy. Say you hire a design engineering firm to design it, who is going to make the parts? Have you ever worked with manufacturing in Asia? Who is going to assemble it? Who deals with the inevitable issues?

Then you have to think about selling it. What certifications do you have to get?

That is just hardware, now repeat many of these same questions for firmware and app development.

Now you have a product, what are the customers and who do you need to hire to market and sell to them? Assuming someone is interested in purchasing it how much money do you have to pay for all the product up front and warehouse it?

There is a damn good reason why so many Kickstarter projects never actually ship. Hardware is hard even if you know what you are doing.