Asklemmy

I work in engineering, sometimes with startup types that want to develop a "product". I'm also a coinventor on some patent applications. This response will be based on US perspective and economics.

1. First before all, do a patent search. This is to find out if someone already patented your ideas. If so, you either need to pay them royalties to license the patent(s) or rework your product to avoid the patents. Google Patents is highly accessible for this.
2. Then, if you think you have original, patentable ideas, engage a patent attorney to do a "real" search and to work on filings. This will take money (at least 10s of thousands US) for the initial work. All the major legal jurisdictions are "first to file," so it no longer helps to mail your notebooks to yourself for proof of date of invention. You have to at least file a provisional application to get a patent priority date. Keep everything top secret until you have that application. Execute non disclosure agreements (NDAs) with any outside firm or individual you talk with. 2b. As an aside, software is not generally patentable any more, on the grounds that math formulas are also not patentable. There may still be some ability to patent software-oriented ideas as business methods or the like. Just because the patent office issued a software patent doesn't mean it's enforceable. Courts hold patents to be invalid all the time.
3. I want to impress upon you some view of the real costs of prototype design and what is known as "nonrecurring engineering" (NRE) in the biz. You don't say, but it sounds like you want some amount of custom electronics coupled with some backend software. Costs can vary considerably depending on circumstance, but I would typically see 100k-300k USD in design and prototype build costs to get initial prototypes with some limited functionality for these components. It could very well take 1 million USD or more to get a more complete product design. This also depends a lot on how you engage engineering talent: turnkey consultants can be the most expensive, or you could save a bunch of up front labor cost by offering equity to a key designer. 3b. I don't know how complicated this app is, but it's not unusual for software engineering costs to overshadow the hardware engineering costs, and sometimes by a lot. This might be something to keep in mind if you're contemplating app development up front paired with virtual hardware plans.
4. A "virtual design" for hardware that is just drawings could be done for cheaper than the prototype quote I gave. I see common prices for that kind of work at least 10k and up to 50k depending on how much initial design work you want or need done (and how the talent is engaged, etc, etc).
5. Manufacturing. Depends of course on what is going into your gadget and how many units you plan to build.
   5a. Custom PCBs can commonly be run in low volumes for relatively cheap. It's more expensive to solder the components on than just to etch the boards. There are many board houses that let you turn in your design files and get a quote online. 5b. For startup that wants a low volume (~100) of some gadget, you might want to look into contract manufacturers. These will assemble your product per drawings, typically in a non-automated or low-automation fashion. For example, they might have pick and place machines and expensive wave flow solder machines to assemble PCBs, but then the boards are screwed into enclosures by hand. These places might run double or triple the per unit cost of a more automated setup, but it can still be the best option for low numbers of units. 5c. Overseas manufacturing can cut costs through reduced labor bills. The traditional hurdles in the startup environment are long shipping lead times (particularly by sea, 10-12 weeks not uncommon) and the added hassle and complexity of international business dealings. In the US particularly, the recent tariff situation is throwing a monkey wrench right in the middle of this, and I will not attempt to analyze the impact. 5d. A commonly surprising manufacturing cost: if using injection molded plastic for enclosures or the like, the custom molds can cost several 10s of thousands to build and store. This is a fixed cost, so it doesn't impact the per unit for large volumes, but it is often an expensive hurdle in the total manufacturing process for small startups.
6. Regulatory. It's highly likely that any consumer facing gadget will need at least some regulatory testing, probably from a dedicated contract test house For example in the US, Underwriters Laboratory (UL) demands safety testing, and the FCC can require "part 15" testing and separate testing if you have a radio (such as WiFi or Bluetooth). As an exercise you could try looking up all of the various logos on the bottom of your favorite gizmo or in the fine print in the manual.

Well for one thing - document heavily on the idea of the product. This is a must. Figure out your target audience - who or what is this for? Figure out an rough draft of costs and ideas how much you'd like to have sold this for.

And then once you figure all of that out, you're going to need to file a patent.

Wherever and however this idea of yours will come about, these are the kind of things that are important to deal with.

Ideas are incredibly cheap. It's absolutely unlikely that no one ever had your idea. It's even likely that someone had your idea and it failed, and you don't/can't even know about it because no one bothered to record the failure.

Other people have mentioned all kinds of ambitious/proper ways to do this. I've got a different view: if you truly think this will work, do a basic version yourself.

Learn basic blender, design 3D printed parts yourself and let someone print them. Use some app builder and tutorials, or hire a programmer for a very rudimentary prototype work. Buy generic electronics. Just get it working once. Then show it to people, let them use it, ask if they would buy it, preferably let them sign a slip of paper not to talk about this product or compete with it (there are standard NDA/non-compete contract clauses online available) or talk to people you can trust.

If you do all this and get positive feedback, then you can start doing this properly and get more people on it, like the other commenters mentioned.

First you patent your idead, then you share it with devs and engineers

If it has “smart” capabilities please don’t make it dependent on an APP try making it compliant with the Matter Protocol so that people can buy it and integrate it into their household regardless of ecosystem

Thanks for all the advice and responses. Sounds like anything coming to fruition is pretty unlikely, as I don't have $100k to work with. The product was a programmable wall/ceiling mounted laser pointer for cats. Could map your space, design patterns, and maybe have some tracking to keep the laser in front of your pets and avoid it shining in their eyes. The controller app would connect via Bluetooth so it'd be local and no personal data like video or mapping would get stored, as I wanted to emphasize privacy.

Maybe someone more qualified can do something with it. Or Amazon will build it. Idc, it's just something I'd like and thought it was a pretty good idea. One that, admittedly, I probably won't do the work required to actually make.

For some reason, commenters are focusing on patenting your product. But products as a whole are very seldom patentable. More often, one or more features of a product may be patentable, but there’s a fair chance that your product won’t have any patentable features, either. Since you haven’t told us anything at all about your product (a toaster? a time machine?), we couldn’t begin to guess if it’s patentable. In fact, for all we know, your product might violate others’ existing patents.

10+ years experience in product design here. There is nothing about a "simple" product that is cheap or easy. Say you hire a design engineering firm to design it, who is going to make the parts? Have you ever worked with manufacturing in Asia? Who is going to assemble it? Who deals with the inevitable issues?

Then you have to think about selling it. What certifications do you have to get?

That is just hardware, now repeat many of these same questions for firmware and app development.

Now you have a product, what are the customers and who do you need to hire to market and sell to them? Assuming someone is interested in purchasing it how much money do you have to pay for all the product up front and warehouse it?

There is a damn good reason why so many Kickstarter projects never actually ship. Hardware is hard even if you know what you are doing.

Given we don't know what your idea is it's kinda hard to speak in specifics, but just on the software side you're probably looking at three engineers minimum—app engineer (probably x2, one iOS one android), api/infra engineer & an embedded software guy for the device itself. At least the first two will need to be permanent as those things will need to be maintained over time. Any engineer that says they can do all three roles to a high standard is either lying or going to be very expensive.

Then you may start to need someone handling project management around those guys to make sure things stay on track and that's before we get into the hardware side of things.

Depending where you are, an engineering team like that could easily get quite expensive quickly and some of these will be ongoing costs. So I guess I'm saying make sure you know what all of your costs are going to be and that your finances cover it comfortably before you commit to anything

I would first enquire if this idea can be patented. This could ensure your intellectual property remains with you. This should be your first step, I think. Also, are you able to prototype this yourself?

you'll probably need to talk to some people about it before you secure patent protection. whenever this comes up, have people you talk to sign a non disclosure agreement first. talking about your idea outside of an NDA would most likely be considered public disclosure and could limit your ability to get a payment for it.

talk to a patent attorney

You should find a startup incubator of whatever is the equivalent around you.

You have a product idea, it's great but is just the start. I'm sure 10 other people got up this morning with the same idea. What matters is what you do with this idea.

Now you need to learn how to refine this idea and turn it into a business and for that you need help. This is exactly what startup incubators are here for.

This question is really wide. You'll have to narrow down what the challenge really is.

Start by doing a mind map on a piece of paper.

You'll need one for the product, but you'll also need one for the business.

Once our have the entire idea spread out like that, you can start researching the things you don't know or contact people who do know those specifics.

First: make a prototype. If you can not do it, learn how.

No, really, just a basic minimum viable product. As you said, it should be simple. If some things are over your head, find someone to do these things for you.

Prototype manufacturing is cheap these days with services like JLCPCB or JLCNC.

Not to discourage you, but this is an idea, that you have no way of producing yourself? Consider that if it was that great of an idea, someone already made it and failed, or it exists and you simply just don’t know about it. Also if you so much as talked about this with anyone near a good damned smartphone, or googled your idea in anyway whatsoever, if it’s a good idea, it’s already gone.