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.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    Given we don’t know what your idea is it’s kinda hard to speak in specifics, but just on the software side you’re probably looking at three engineers minimum—app engineer (probably x2, one iOS one android), api/infra engineer & an embedded software guy for the device itself. At least the first two will need to be permanent as those things will need to be maintained over time. Any engineer that says they can do all three roles to a high standard is either lying or going to be very expensive.

    Then you may start to need someone handling project management around those guys to make sure things stay on track and that’s before we get into the hardware side of things.

    Depending where you are, an engineering team like that could easily get quite expensive quickly and some of these will be ongoing costs. So I guess I’m saying make sure you know what all of your costs are going to be and that your finances cover it comfortably before you commit to anything

    • Azzu@lemm.ee
      0·
      2 months ago

      No. Just no. You’re talking about perfectionism basically. Who cares about continuing maintenance? If you get the product out there and working enough to last the 2 years warranty, you’re completely fine. One programmer is perfectly capable of learning the most basic things about the disciplines you mentioned, it doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to do its job mostly.

      You have no clue about the scope of what this guy’s idea is since he gave no info. Maybe it’s so simple not even one programmer would have to work on it for very long.

      Of course, what you say is perfectly possible to be “correct”, but you just have no way of knowing.