Garrett Smith is a free spirited, passionate professional with unrivaled enthusiasm about the work we do at Envision. An engineering graduate of Rowan University, Garrett did a short stint at Pratt and Whitney as a test engineer before joining the Envision team. Garrett has always enjoyed working with his hands, and the thought of spending years at a job without this opportunity did not sit well with him. After leaving Pratt and Whitney, Garrett had planned to start his own engineering consulting company but then came across David Carson at Envision and made a spur of the moment decision to apply. He has been with Envision since February 2017.
You might be surprised to learn that Garrett, while in high school, wasn’t the most academically inclined teenager. However, that changed quickly in college when he developed a great interest in mechanical engineering. Not only did Garrett receive academic honors in college, but he also co-founded Rowan’s American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) student club. Garrett’s vision was to promote and support aerospace engineering at Rowan, a discipline not offered at the school until he co-founded AIAA. When the club was founded, the aim was to undertake 3 major projects: AIAA’s Design/Build/Fly competition (a national remote-controlled airplane contest), a remote-controlled blimp for releasing promotional materials at football games and a monthly rocket launch. Garrett would go on to serve as the club’s president for most of his college career.
Garrett Smith working with a 3D printer.
Garrett developed a deep love for traveling and flying while using the airline pass benefits he received from his mother, a retired flight attendant. Garrett credits his success in life to his parents who encouraged him to push his boundaries and never give up. It is that same dedication and parental encouragement that allowed him to earn his pilot’s license. After receiving his private pilot license in 2014, Garrett had the opportunity to fly his family around his favorite town, Hood River, Oregon, which he believes to be one of the most picturesque towns in the world.
Garrett believes there’s always an efficient way to get a job done. He puts this same philosophy to work for him as COO of Envision. The goal at Envision is to help innovators, entrepreneurs and corporations create market ready products by taking a scientific approach, evaluating all of the assumptions around the idea. Unlike other product development companies, we focus on all aspects of introducing a new product into the market such as marketing, design, engineering, sales, and business planning. For each client we work with, we go through a number of stages. The first and most important step is to create a minimum viable product. This involves designing a product with the minimum characteristics necessary to still achieve its function. The next stage is to take a prototype or the product concept to members of the target market and quantifiably gather feedback on the product. Each step from there onwards is to validate all of the client’s assumptions and ensure the product and its characteristics are driven with the consumer in mind.
Garrett enjoys the flexibility and challenges that come with using his creative compass to help entrepreneurs realize their dream products. With extensive experience in advanced manufacturing methods and process improvement, Garrett oversees and leads projects from napkin sketch through production. He continually strives to improve and streamline the product development process, while also considering the importance of marketing, testing and validation, and quality control. If you’ve got a product you think the market needs, then reach out to Garrett to help you take it from mind to market.
