What happens when we all share our hardware knowledge?

Photo by hpzworkz

Some wise person once said that knowledge grows when it’s shared. It’s one of those statements that’s simultaneously so obvious yet deeply profound. The whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts. So what happens when we all share what we know? What’s more, what happens when the express purpose of sharing said knowledge is just to help our fellow community members not have to reinvent that particular wheel? What knowledge would you share?

Take our hardware collective. When we think about the sheer volume of knowledge held between the 500+ members of the informal hardware collective, we’re seriously in awe. Years and years of expertise in everything from making that first prototype to manufacturing thousands to raising funds, creating packaging, and marketing. Now expand that lens beyond the collective to the hardware community at large, and the breadth is hard to imagine.

Over the years, we’ve been building out a library of freely available resources, tools, and articles, powered by our collective hardware development knowledge. Our core team has penned pieces, as have members of the collective and hardware friends. Our main impetus: our passion for all things hardware. If we all share our expertise, can we elevate hardware development as a whole? We’d love to try.

Do you have a tip, trick, skill, or perspective you’ve learned in your experience creating hardware that the community could benefit from? Reach out! We’d love to hear your ideas.

If you’re hesitant because you don’t consider yourself a writer, we’ve got your back. As the editorial lead for informal, I make sure our library reads well, and I’m happy to lend my two decades of editorial experience to your knowledge share. Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, we have no doubt you’ve got gems of hardware wisdom to share.

Our library

If you haven’t delved into our library of freely available resources, here’s a short list for your browsing pleasure:

• The informal Hardware Handbook is packed with a wide array of knowledge covering the major phases in your product development cycle.
• The CMF Database features a growing number of products you can browse, click on, and view the color, material, and finish specs of.
• The Mechanical Engineering Cheatsheet, created as a collab with Hardware FYI, is a great resource to have at your fingertips when you need quick answers to the most common ME questions.
• The informal Design Puck is a tool for understanding and manufacturing injection-molded parts.
• The informal Manufacturing Database, MFG-DB, an easy way to help you select the best method based on your specific variables, including material, geometry, design confidence, appearance, speed, tooling/setup costs and part costs.
• The Hardware Resource Database, hardware-db, is our centralized, crowdsourced hub of top-tier resources for the hardware world.
• The informal sheet metal design tool, designed and manufactured in partnership with our friends at Send Cut Send, has 16 features designed to showcase cool tips and tricks.

Posts from the field

And if you want to check out what posts from the community look like, here’s a recent sampling:

• Industrial design 101 by Sam Holland
• Product development pitfalls: 3D printing overuse by Edward Laganis
• The Lego Smart Brick teardown by Utsav Gupta
• Common issues with PRDs generated by AI by Ellen Juhlin
• Hardware requires a different approach to investing by Nate Padgett
• When the microscope gets a brain: Real-time AI on a $20 chip by Lisa Voronkova
• My broken waffle maker taught a master class in analog design by Justin Riley
• Manage product development risks using sling-and-stone engineering by Dan Juda
• From sketch to product in days with vibe coding and rapid mechatronics by Pierre-Louis Soulié
• Three ways to build a hardware schedule by Sam Feller
• Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product by Simon Berens

Now it’s your turn. What do you wish you knew before embarking on your latest hardware project? What did you learn long ago that’s helped you a ton? What’s new that you think we should shine a light on? We’re open to ideas and can’t wait to hear from you! Submit your idea using the form below and for budget, just mark n/a.

informal is a freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in hardware and hardtech. Whether you’re looking for a single contractor, a full-time employee, or an entire team of professionals to work on everything from product development to go-to-market, informal has the perfect collection of people for the job.