Depends on how complex your idea is. You could do something like arduino for the POC and then hire a real hardware engineer for the post prototype. You will nee

Depends on how complex your idea is. You could do something like arduino for the POC and then hire a real hardware engineer for the post prototype. You will need some basic soldering skills and electronics knowledge for the POC. There are a lot of dev kits available for more advanced processors, if you need something more powerful than an arduino. Using them is pretty much the same as an arduino, a lot of the time. You’ll likely have trouble with fabrication of whatever it is you are making. Hardware is very difficult and you’ll probably end up with low yields on the first things that you make, even with an experienced HW engineer. So make sure you account for that extra cost.