Here let me fictionalize some stories for you. "So we made a very expensive high tech thing. It took two years. We're going to slip schedule by 6 weeks." "Oh hardware problems?" "The packaging doesn't fit." "The what." "The thing didn't fit in the plastic for its box." "What."
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"There was an error at the custom plastic packaging factory. Somebody measured wrong." "Oh no." "Oh yes. So we have to retool." "Oh no." "Oh yes. Customers are at their wits end and I can't tell them 'Sorry it's the 5 cent thing your $200 device sits in.'"
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Or here's a fun variant. "We made a thing that runs software. Wires are involved. Also, plastic." "That is true of a lot of things that run software." "Except this one is not made by Apple it is made by us." "OK." "Physics is a thing." "Oh I do not like where this is going."
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"And when wires carry a current..." "STOP STOP STOP." "... the plastic heats up..." "STOP STOP STOP!" "... and nobody QAed the thing in continuous heavy use for a week because who does that in QA..." "STOP STOP STOP STOP." "... and then when it went to the certification lab..."
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I've worked at three mixed software/hardware companies. I recently attended a talk by a CEO at a pure sw startup with no hw experience who answered the "where will you be in 10 years" question with "making hardware". Wished I had flags to wave him off.
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Some lessons you can only learn face-first
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Epic example series: the
@keyboardio saga. I’ve been following it pretty closely, initially because I really want one, and then in can’t-stop-looking-at-the-train-wreck mode. -
Their blog is definitely worth reading. Great detailed analysis of manufacturing snafus. The end result is a very high quality keyboard though. Kudos to
@keyboardio for sticking to their guns and prevailing.
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I'm a hardware consultant who helps a lot of Kickstartery type projects that are almost always run by software guys who want to 'move fast and iterate' -every iteration to a plastic injection mold is $100k. We're going to do it once, ideally, and take a long time thinking it over
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Here's one : "We made a thing that goes outside." "Ok." "One of our customers is in Calgary" "Great!" "It never gets below 40 at our QA lab." "Oh God." "The motors seize up when it goes below 20." "JUST STOP!"
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The motors did



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