Good question. A lot of it really depends on the nature of the product. Is it purely mechanical or does it have electronics? Plastics? Metal? Any optics?
The set of disciplines to be mastered could be daunting. In such cases it is probably best to hire a product designer to help you get from a garage prototype to a manufacturable product or an interim product that is manufactured using an approach that is closest to production.
If you could provide a little more info as to the nature of the product I can certainly take the time to give you some pointers. I don't need to know what it is. What I need is an understanding of the technologies that you might require and if there's anything really critical in the design. For example, if it has lenses it might be critical to have them precisely aligned. Does it produce a lot of heat? What kind of power will it require? Batteries or powered off the wall?
The other important bit of data would be your current skill set (you and your friend).
Tools: For nearly all electro-mechanical products you will need specific industry-standard tools in order to be able to communicate with manufacturers and job shops. For example, I use Solidworks for mechanical design as well as thermal and flow simulation and Altium Designer for schematic and circuit board design. If the design involves programmable electronics you might be into tools such as Xilinx or Altera for FPGA's and Keil or other compilers for embedded stuff.
Lastly. Where are you? The approach might change a bit based on your geographic location and the locally available resources. You might, for example, be able to ping your local university for help.
The set of disciplines to be mastered could be daunting. In such cases it is probably best to hire a product designer to help you get from a garage prototype to a manufacturable product or an interim product that is manufactured using an approach that is closest to production.
If you could provide a little more info as to the nature of the product I can certainly take the time to give you some pointers. I don't need to know what it is. What I need is an understanding of the technologies that you might require and if there's anything really critical in the design. For example, if it has lenses it might be critical to have them precisely aligned. Does it produce a lot of heat? What kind of power will it require? Batteries or powered off the wall?
The other important bit of data would be your current skill set (you and your friend).
Tools: For nearly all electro-mechanical products you will need specific industry-standard tools in order to be able to communicate with manufacturers and job shops. For example, I use Solidworks for mechanical design as well as thermal and flow simulation and Altium Designer for schematic and circuit board design. If the design involves programmable electronics you might be into tools such as Xilinx or Altera for FPGA's and Keil or other compilers for embedded stuff.
Lastly. Where are you? The approach might change a bit based on your geographic location and the locally available resources. You might, for example, be able to ping your local university for help.