| name | hardware-feasibility |
| description | For ideas that involve a physical product, sketch a bill of materials, identify the hardest engineering risks, propose feasibility tests, and estimate prototyping cost. Only use when the idea has a hardware component — skip for pure-software ideas. |
Hardware Feasibility
Hardware ideas die on three rocks: BOM cost at volume, regulatory / certification, and manufacturing tolerance. Surface them early.
Steps
- Read the idea. Confirm with the user that there's a meaningful hardware component (not just "an app that connects to existing hardware").
- Sketch a bill of materials (BOM) at small volume (1, 100, 1000 units). For each line:
- Component category
- Likely supplier or off-the-shelf module reference
- Approximate unit cost at each volume
- Lead time / supply-chain risk note
- Identify hardest engineering problems — the components or integrations that aren't off-the-shelf and require real R&D. For each, note:
- What's hard about it
- Whether a prior art / open-source design exists
- Estimated engineering effort (weeks of one engineer)
- Feasibility tests — propose a phased prototyping plan:
- Phase 0: bench breadboard / dev kit proving the riskiest function works at all
- Phase 1: integrated prototype, ugly, single unit
- Phase 2: form-factor prototype, externally presentable
- Phase 3: pilot run / DFM iteration
For each phase, estimate cost and duration.
- Regulatory & certification — note any required certifications (FCC, CE, FDA, UL, etc.) given target geography and category. Flag long-lead items.
- Path to manufacturing — contract manufacturer landscape (US, EU, China, Israel/local), ODM vs. CM vs. self-manufacture trade-off.
Output
<workspace_path>/ideas/<slug>/analysis/hardware-feasibility.md with frontmatter:
---
lens: hardware-feasibility
generated: YYYY-MM-DD
bom_estimate_v1_usd: <number>
hardest_risk: <one-line>
---
Notes
- Use WebSearch to verify component price ranges; don't invent.
- A hardware idea where the hardest problem hasn't been built before by anyone is much riskier than one composed of solved sub-problems integrated cleverly.
