Available this week only. Offer ends Friday at 5pm ET.
Lifetime Design Reviews For Your Hardware Project
Get unlimited expert reviews from first design through production including components, schematic, BOM, PCB layout, and enclosure.
Get your design reviewed by expert engineers before you waste money building it!
Why catching hardware mistakes late hurts so much
A mistake caught in the design is usually cheap to fix, but the same mistake discovered after you've ordered boards, cut tooling, scheduled certification testing, or committed to production can get very expensive and push your timeline way off track.
Sometimes those early choices can't be corrected without a full redesign.
They also tend to show up right when the schedule's tight and the money's already committed.
Why design reviews matter
When I was first hired as a microchip design engineer at TI, presenting a design review in front of experienced engineers was intimidating.
Pretty quickly I realized something important though. Design reviews help you find problems before they turn into expensive setbacks.
That lesson is exactly why we offer structured design reviews today.
The issues that cause real damage usually aren’t obvious
These reviews focus on problems that don't just break a prototype. They're the problems that show up later and cost real money.
Boards that fail EMI testing because layout choices can't be patched.
Products that work fine on the bench, then become unreliable in real-world conditions because of grounding, power integrity, thermal headroom, or ESD paths.
Prototypes that assemble smoothly in low volume, then turn into yield problems and rework headaches once production ramps.
Components that look fine until you try to source them at volume, when end-of-life flags, single-source risks, and obsolete parts force a redesign you didn't budget for.
Enclosures that can be 3D printed but not injection molded without tooling changes that cost weeks and thousands of dollars.
This is the trap with hardware. A first version can be fully functional and still be wrong in ways that aren't obvious until it's really expensive to fix.
EMI compliance, manufacturability, and long-term reliability aren't things you test your way into. They're designed in or they're not, and the time to catch their absence is during the design review.
Most teams don't find out until they're staring at failed test results or shelves of product that can't ship.
What a structured review really does
A structured design review helps you spot problems early in development, when fixes are still fast and inexpensive.
It gives you objective feedback on choices that affect certification, reliability, manufacturability, and long-term support.
The reviews don't just identify what needs to change. They explain why it's a problem and what the recommended fix is, so you have everything you need to make the changes yourself.
Why one review usually isn't enough
Hardware development is a loop, not a line.
You design the first version. We review it and catch the problems that are visible in the design itself, which are often the most expensive ones to discover later.
You then order prototypes and test them, which surfaces the issues that only show up in physical hardware. You revise the design to address both.
Those revisions are where things go wrong. Moving a trace, swapping a component, or rerouting power can undermine EMI compliance, long-term reliability, or manufacturability.
None of it is obvious looking at the board. All of it is expensive to discover after certification testing or a production run.
Your enclosure goes through the same loop. Each revision of the housing, the fit, and the mounting can introduce new manufacturability problems, and it needs the same review before you commit to tooling.
You end up needing reviews on multiple revisions. Buying them one at a time forces you to ration. Lifetime Design Reviews remove that decision. Every revision gets reviewed, from first design through production.
Who this is for
Two kinds of people get the most out of Lifetime Design Reviews.
The first is the designer who doesn't need help fixing problems, just help finding them. You handle your own development and debugging, but you want expert eyes on every revision before you commit money to a new prototype run.
The second is the entrepreneur or company that has hired a contractor or design firm to do the engineering, and wants independent review of what that contractor delivers. It works as a quality check and as protection against an expensive miss before you pay for boards or tooling.
If what you want is hands-on help fixing the problems the reviews uncover, this isn't the right offer, and the Premium Lifetime Hardware Academy plan (also available this week) is the better fit.
What's Included In Our Design Reviews?
Click below to see all the design checks we do:
Featured In
What counts as one project?
One project means one product you intend to sell. That covers two common situations.
The first is a single device built from more than one board, for example a microcontroller board and a separate power board that together make up the product.
A single device built from multiple boards is one project.
The second situation is two or more devices that each have their own boards and enclosures but are bundled and sold together as a single product, for example a control unit and a sensor unit, a transmitter and a receiver, or a main device and a custom wireless charger.
A product made up of separate devices sold together is still one project.
In both cases every board and enclosure is covered, and every revision is covered, from the first design through the version that goes to production. That's the entire point of the offer.
What it doesn't cover is a genuinely separate product. If you start a second product with its own purpose and its own bill of materials, sold on its own, that's a new project and needs its own pass.
Available this week only!
LIFETIME DESIGN REVIEWS
• Unlimited design reviews for one project: components, schematic, BOM, PCB, and enclosure
• Every revision is covered, from the first design through production
• Identifies issues in your design and explains the recommended fixes in clear, actionable terms
• No expiration, your reviews stay active for the life of the project
Pay only
$2,495
one-time fee per project
Not ready for the lifetime offer? You can get a single review (components, schematic, BOM, PCB, and enclosure) for $995.
Buy Now, Use Anytime
Your design doesn't have to be ready for review when you buy. This is a limited-time lifetime offer, so you can purchase now and submit your first review when you're ready.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Does "lifetime" really mean no expiration?
Yes. There's no time limit and no expiration. If you come back to your project a year or two from now, your Lifetime Design Reviews are still active and every revision is still covered.
Is there a limit on how many revisions I can submit?
No. That's the entire point of the offer. Every revision of your product gets reviewed, from the first design through the version that goes to production, however many rounds that takes.
How quickly are reviews returned?
Reviews typically take 3-4 days, and up to a week maximum.
How is this different from Premium Lifetime in the Hardware Academy?
Lifetime Design Reviews are review-only and focused on a single product. Premium Lifetime in the Hardware Academy includes the design reviews plus direct engineering support, the full course library, workshops, and the member community.
Do you review firmware, or just hardware?
Our reviews focus on hardware: components, schematic, BOM, PCB layout, and enclosure design. Firmware review isn't included.
How do I submit my design for review?
You'll email your design files directly to John. Our engineering team handles the review, and John personally reviews their findings before the report is sent back to you. Each revision goes back to the same email thread so everything for your project stays in one place.
What design file formats do you accept?
We can review designs from most EDA tools. KiCad, EasyEDA, and Altium project files are preferred for the electronics since we can open them natively. For any other tool, send a PDF of the schematic and Gerber files for the PCB layout.
For enclosure designs we accept Fusion 360 or STEP files, and for BOMs any spreadsheet. If you're not sure your format will work, send us a message before you buy and we'll confirm.
Need help fixing the problems, not just finding them?
Lifetime Design Reviews are focused on the reviews themselves. We review every revision of your product, tell you what needs to change, and explain how to make the fixes. You handle the actual implementation, debugging, and testing yourself.
If you want hands-on help working through the problems we find, that's our Premium Lifetime plan. It includes lifetime design reviews on all of your projects, not just one, plus direct engineering support, the full course library, workshops, and the member community. Premium Lifetime is also available this week.
