As someone who teaches layout online (Contextual Electronics) it really comes down to how much time you want to spend and how willing you are to deal with mista

As someone who teaches layout online (Contextual Electronics) it really comes down to how much time you want to spend and how willing you are to deal with mistakes. Electronics is a complex field and the only way to "recompile" a project in electronics is to spin another board. This is usually a tough transition for people coming from software, which is many of my students. That all said, PCBs have never been cheaper or faster and I think a lot of the software has gotten very good. I teach with the open source CAD software KiCad, which has improved a TON. As for finding people to do the design, usually my layout jobs come via referrals. You can use a site like Upwork, but that is usually a race to the bottom costwise. Quality doesn't necessarily follow that curve but I usually err on the side of hiring experienced folks when I bid out jobs as the overall hours spent will usually be lower, even if it's at a higher rate. Other things to think about is who will do the assembly, the target cost of the boards and what functions you want to include. Usually taking an iterative approach where you start with a pluggable ESP32 Dev board and then have it plug into a simpler daughter board is a good start and lower risk overall. If you have more questions, shoot me an email hackernews@analoglife.co or message me here.