Consulting
I take on a small number of hardware projects a year.
What I do
Getting a design ready to build in volume. Changing a design so a factory can build thousands of it the same way every time. Checking that the small errors in every part still add up to something that fits. Picking a factory and holding it to the drawing. I have run builds through Shenzhen and Taiwan and stood on the line while they ran.
The first working object. How the parts fit together inside the product. Prototypes.
Worn on the head or the body. Wearables and the optics inside them. Waveguides. Small displays. Flex circuits. Plus the heat all of it gives off.
Standing in as head of hardware. For a software team that now has to ship an object. A longer engagement.
The whole thing
I can take a product the whole way. The mechanical design, the manufacturing and the optics are my own work. For electrical design and firmware I either do the work or bring in people I have shipped with, and I stay responsible for how all of it fits together.
If something is outside what I do well, I will say so early and tell you who is better at it.
On secrets
I cannot tell you who I have worked for beyond what is on this site, or what they are building now. I worked on an unannounced product at Apple for nearly five years and said nothing about it. I will do the same for you.
The first email
Tell me what you are making, how many, and when you need it. If I already know the answer you will have it in two days. If it needs real work, I will say so.