About

Why this site exists

First-time inventors and hardware startups usually learn how product development works by paying for the lessons. The same explanations get given on every first call with an engineering firm: why nobody can quote the whole product up front, why a prototype part costs twenty times the production part, why a written list of requirements matters more than a sketch. People who hear those explanations tend to say they wish they had known sooner.

This site puts the explanations where anyone can find them. It is free, carries no advertising, and sells nothing. The only goal is that someone who reads it makes better decisions with their own money.

The author

Wayne Weber is a mechanical engineer with an MBA, working in product development and prototyping in the Pacific Northwest. His background covers mechanical design, project management, and the business side of getting physical products built. He is affiliated with Ultralight Proof & Prototype, LLC and Mantix Engineering (DBA Mantix Design).

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jwayneweber Email: j.wayne.weber@pm.me

On questions

Email is welcome. Questions about anything on the site, about a specific situation, or about which phase an idea is really in all get a reply as time allows, usually within a week. The replies are informal and personal, not professional advice, and nothing is for sale. Please keep confidential details of an invention out of the first message; see the contact page for why.

Affiliation and independence

The author works with two product development firms, named above. This matters, and it is stated plainly for that reason. The site is written and run independently. It does not recommend those firms or any other, does not take referral fees, and does not carry sponsored content. If a reader's situation needs a firm, the right one depends on the product, the phase, the budget and the location, and the site's job is to help the reader ask good questions of whoever they talk to.

How the content is written

• Everything is written to be read by someone with no engineering background.
• Numbers come with sources or are marked as illustrative. Figures still waiting on a source are visibly marked.
• Pages carry a date and are reviewed periodically. Cost and timeline figures drift, and stale numbers are worse than none.
• Mistakes get fixed. Corrections are welcome by email.

What this site is not

It is not legal, financial, tax, or engineering advice, and reading it creates no professional relationship. It is a description of how the process generally works. Decisions about a specific product, contract, patent or budget belong with qualified professionals who know the details.