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Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

simonberens.com

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Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#31

Post by technothrasher »

sberens wrote: post #2

Author here, happy to answer any questions about the journey!

I definitely feel your pain. I own a company that makes custom process controls for industrial and commercial clients, and while we work from a large library of hardware and software designs from past jobs, every job has a lot of the same "start from the beginning" feel as what you went through. Especially, the one thing you didn't check is always the thing that is somehow screwed up, and the sleepless nights wondering halfway into the project if you're in deep trouble.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#32

Post by egypturnash »

nicoburns wrote: post #17

Oh boy, I want one of these. This would absolutely perfect for winter depression (I suspect much better than the "SAD lamps" marketed for this purpose which are bright not even close to this bright). But £889 is a lot of money for a lamp!

Find a garden shop, a 2' square full-spectrum light from "The Indoor Sun Shop" was very important to my mental health when I lived in Seattle and cost a lot less than this. Especially after I added a mechanical timer so I could never be too depressed to turn it on in the morning.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#34

Post by waerhert »

Great read, thanks for sharing this. I'm also coming from software and have recently started making some hardware for personal use in my free time. The idea of selling it as an actual product has occurred to me, but the thought of dealing with all the logistics quickly makes me reconsider. Congrats on your launch!

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#35

Post by sberens »

OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #28

Super glad you found (and made!) a product that everyone wants. Hopefully you have brighter nights than this .. > That was the worst period of my life; I would go to bed literally shaking with stress. In my opinion, Not Cool!

Thanks! The ups and downs of startups are very real (maybe doubly so for hardware)

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#38

Post by niobe »

sberens wrote: post #2

Author here, happy to answer any questions about the journey!

Hello, nice write up. I'm curious about your deal with the factory and downstream suppliers.. did all these iterations and fixes cost more every time? Or it was a fixed contract? How does that all work

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#39

Post by sberens »

srtw wrote: post #37
sberens wrote: post #2

Author here, happy to answer any questions about the journey!

Just curious about the frequency of the diodes and do they pulse simultaneously? Quite often I can perceive flicker in moving objects indoors.

We use constant current reduction dimming so there's zero flicker!

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#40

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

> It was at this point I truly began to appreciate Murphy’s law. In my case, anything not precisely specified and tested would without fail go wrong

After 20 years of system engineering, I just expected this to always be the case. Until my most recent job with a bunch of startups, where people fly by the seat of their pants, there's no communication, documentation, protection or testing, for anything. I am pissed off daily that things don't go wrong, because people now think this is normal, and it goes against everything I've learned from experience. It seems I stumbled onto the corollary of Murphy's Law: when you expect everything to go wrong, nothing does.

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