Tools for Building Better Solutions
We take a structured, evidence-based approach to helping entrepreneurs bring hardware solutions to market.
Industry Insight
ASME’s Expert Cohort brings together professionals from around the world who guide ventures through five core pillars of product development. The Hardware Innovation Pillars ensure innovators receive well-rounded, targeted support from early concept to market readiness.
-
It all starts with understanding the people you’re designing for. This pillar helps ventures learn from their users, uncover real needs, and make sure their ideas solve the right problems.
-
Turning ideas into working prototypes takes iteration and testing. This pillar focuses on designing, building, and refining solutions so they’re functional, reliable, and ready for real-world use.
-
From choosing materials to planning production, this pillar helps ventures figure out how to make their products efficiently, affordably, and at scale.
-
Getting a great product into people’s hands takes more than design—it’s about delivery. This pillar looks at how solutions will be launched, supported, and sustained in their target markets.
-
At the end of the day, success is about making a difference. This pillar focuses on measuring and maximizing social and environmental impact.
International Alignment
Tackling the climate crisis requires a cohesive approach that embraces the SDGs as a guiding framework. This approach enables the creation of comprehensive solutions that not only aim to reduce the impacts of climate change but also enhance social equity, bolster economic stability, and ensure environmental protection.
Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals will take global collaboration. With a mission to advance engineering for the benefit of humanity, ASME is uniquely positioned to help turn ideas into scalable impact.
A Global Network for Global Challenges
Developing hardware that tackles complex social and environmental challenges takes more than a good idea—it takes a global community. ASME’s network of experts, support organizations, and entrepreneurs spans continents and disciplines, ensuring innovators can find the right help at the right time. Whether it’s guidance on design, manufacturing, or distribution, our community connects ventures with the people and resources they need to turn impact-driven ideas into scalable, sustainable products.
A Comprehensive Framework
We use Product Development Milestones to understand where each entrepreneur is on their journey from idea to market.
This framework guides how we tailor support, whether through the Idea Lab incubator for early-stage concept and prototype development or the ISHOW accelerator for ventures refining and scaling ready-to-market products.
By mapping progress and aligning expert guidance, we ensure innovators receive the right support at the right time to bring impactful hardware solutions to life.
-
You have identified a problem and have an idea for a potential solution, but it’s not yet developed or tested.
-
You’re exploring the idea further — sketching, researching, and framing possible approaches, but you don’t yet have a model or prototype.
-
You can show how your solution might work, perhaps through mock-ups, early models, or visual demonstrations, but it’s not yet functional.
-
You’ve built a rough version of your product — often simple and inexpensive — that allows you to test core assumptions with users.
-
Your prototype works and has been tested in a controlled setting, but it hasn’t yet been validated in the real-world context it’s designed for.
-
You’ve taken your prototype into the environment it’s meant to be used in and gathered feedback from real users.
-
You’ve refined your design for manufacturing, tested usability and durability, and are preparing for limited production runs.
-
Your product is ready for larger-scale production, with supply chains, materials, and processes in place.
-
Your solution has entered the market and is reaching the communities or customers it was designed for.