We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. It starts with eChai Startup Demo Day on 26 September, all in person. 11 cities confirmed, 188 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city
Make your product

Should I hire a product designer, or can I figure this out myself?

DIY it for a first version if your product is a formulation, apparel, or simple hardgood, most Indian factories have in-house design teams who'll iterate off references for free once you're a real customer. Hire a designer only when the design itself is your differentiation (a distinctive silhouette, a packaging-led brand, an electronics form factor), because that's where a bad first impression is expensive to undo.

Go deeper

3 resources, 1 India-specific, 3 link-checked.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

The clearest plain-English walk-through of the design-to-CAD-to-prototype pipeline, useful as a checklist even if you outsource every step to a factory.

How to Develop a Product

From design2market.co.uk by Design2Market

  • Start every brief with the target market, not the feature list
  • Research materials and existing patents before styling
  • Move to CAD before physical prototyping to save cost
  • Expect multiple prototype iterations, not one
Open design2market.co.uk
📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

A real Indian D2C founder's account of product decisions from the ground up, grounded in Indian sourcing and category realities, not generic theory.

How to Build a D2C Brand: Lessons from Building Coral Slub

From coralslub.com by Coral Slub

  • Product decisions made with real Indian constraints
  • Lessons on when to compromise on spec vs hold the line
  • India-specific founder voice, not translated global advice
Open coralslub.com
🎓 Course
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Free, structured courses on product development and manufacturing logistics, a good weekend crash course before your first factory call.

Develop and Manufacture Products (Shopify Learn)

From shopify.com by Shopify

  • Free and unlimited access to all Shopify Learn courses
  • Covers design through receiving your first shipment
  • Includes a dedicated product-market-fit module
Open shopify.com

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Also in Starting Up

The same ground, over in Build the product, our Starting Up track.

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