How to Post Your First Teardown

Our teardown platform has been a huge hit, and we wanted to take a break from reading all the wonderful stories about it to tell you a bit about how it actually works. We realized that although we’ve used the system internally for years (and have gotten to know the ins and outs of using it), it may be a bit daunting the first time you use our tools to write a teardown.

Each teardown starts with an introduction, where you enter basic information about the device: its name, an introductory paragraph discussing what you’re going to do, and tools required for the job (if any). Two additional options allow you to mark a teardown as “In Progress,” which you should uncheck once you’re done with the whole teardown, and “Unpublished,” which essentially hides the teardown from public view until it is complete. Once you’ve written your introduction, save it and start adding steps! You can always go back and change the introduction later.

A teardown step is just a photo and a few text bullets. You can batch upload images and then modify them in our image editor, which allows you to crop the image to 4:3 aspect ratio (if the image is not already the correct ratio) as well as add markers. We use circles and rectangles to highlight certain areas of the image (like a relevant screw or connector). The markers are usually related to a written bullet point. For example, if you circle a Phillips screw with a red circle on the picture, then you should use a red X bullet for your text instructing the user to remove a Phillips screw.

Show off your writing skills by writing concisely and clearly explaining what you find inside the device. Once the step is finished, save it and start writing the next one!

Publishing a teardown on our platform is actually quite easy. The hardest thing is often disassembling the device itself, but we’ll leave that part to you. For more information, we’ve also put online some guidelines for creating a teardown, a teardown FAQ, and a fun look at what writing a teardown entails. If you get stuck, feel free to email us or leave a note!