
Harrison Bralower
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
Miami Beach, FL, United States
Toptal member since March 13, 2023
Harrison is an award-winning innovation commercialization leader who has developed and launched 15+ emerging technologies over 10 years. He has built engineering and product teams at startups and Fortune 10 companies in deep tech, aerospace, biotech, retail, manufacturing, and supply chain, including Walmart International and an MIT-NASA partnership. Harrison drives breakthrough innovation by aligning strategy and technology from R&D through scaleup.
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Expertise
- B2B Product Management
- Commercialization
- Emerging Technologies
- Go-to-market Strategy
- Industry 4.0
- Innovation Strategy
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Startups
Work Experience
Technology Commercialization Consultant
Self-employed
- Developed three IoT products with a Fortune 500 electronics innovation team, supporting a partnership with another Fortune 500 industrial and showcasing a new product at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
- Worked with five startups and research labs to develop early prototypes of new products and apply for government grants.
- Served as a technology advisor to a mid-market private equity firm focused on industrial acquisitions. Evaluated the applicability of emerging technologies to the acquisition targets' operations for five deals.
Workshop Subject Matter Expert | Innovation Strategy
Crocs
- Delivered an innovation management workshop to the operations and product leadership at Crocs.
- Interviewed senior product and manufacturing leadership to understand Crocs' current state of product innovation and capability gaps.
- Collaborated with the leadership team to define the scope and functions of the product innovation council and establish a governance structure for innovation.
Senior Product Manager
Walmart
- Founded and directed the digital facilities program in Walmart's International Emerging Tech to develop IoT and robotics to automate store and distribution operations in 25 countries.
- Piloted a novel case-scanning device in partnership with a Fortune 500 technology supplier and scaled the install base 8x within my first four months in the role.
- Delivered four IoT projects for facilities predictive maintenance to Canada, computer vision projects for automating manual store operations to Mexico and China, and two frictionless checkout projects to Chile.
- Managed a $1 million spend and 60 direct and indirect reports across 10 teams.
Founder and CEO
Taktile
- Founded and led a startup that used computer vision and IoT sensors to measure and optimize industrial productivity.
- Earned external recognitions, including MassChallenge Boston accelerator finalist and PepsiCo Business Services Prize finalist in 2018. Landed an invite-only retail supply chain accelerator run by the largest grocer on the US East Coast in 2019.
- Developed pilots with two B2B design partners, leading all business development, product management, go-to-market strategy, and hardware engineering. Oversaw the hardware integration with AI algorithms to measure manufacturing productivity.
Entrepreneur in Residence
The Engine
- Helped teams build engineering management programs and processes, working with The Engine's 10 portfolio companies as an internal consultant for R&D and technology commercialization strategy.
- Scouted for a new deal flow to the partner team, connecting deep tech startups and academic spinouts to The Engine.
- Collaborated with the fund technical director to implement a CTO curriculum for developing academic leaders into business leaders.
Engineering Manager
SQZ
- Directed all engineering for a microfluidic platform enabling intracellular delivery of molecules into live cells. Hired and managed a team of 10 engineers.
- Raised $1.2 million in non-dilutive funding from the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (NSF SBIR) Phase I/II and received an award from CASIS, an International Space Station NGO operator.
- Led the redesign of a microfluidic bioprocessing platform and designed the manufacturing process to enable this product's production in volume 1,000s.
- Developed processes from scratch for supplier development and quality management.
- Won the grand prize in the 2014 MassChallenge Boston startup competition and was named one of the 2014 Top 10 World Changing Ideas by Scientific American.
Lead Mechanical Engineer
MIT Space Systems Laboratory (NASA Partnership)
- Led the mechanical engineering efforts for the REXIS X-ray spectrometer instrument launched aboard NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return satellite in September 2016.
- Managed a $750,000 spend with a key supplier of custom optical components and led the design and integration of these components into the entire product.
- Prepared and led multiple milestone reviews for NASA project sponsors, including subsystem design reviews and a project-wide preliminary design review.
Education
Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Skills
Finance
Market Research
Industry Expertise
Early-stage Startups, Technology, Retail & Wholesale, Venture Capital, Logistics, Aerospace & Defense
Output Software
SOLIDWORKS, Microsoft Project, Jira
Other
Internet of Things (IoT), Innovation Strategy, B2B Product Management, Product Roadmaps, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Proof of Concept (POC), Hardware Development, Hardware Integration, User Requirements, Agile Product Management, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Supply Chain, Industry 4.0, Startups, Commercialization, Emerging Technologies, Innovation, R&D, New Product Development, Product Management, Systems Engineering, Design Thinking, Product Owner, Stakeholder Management, Product Strategy, Product Launch, Development, Research, Product Development, Machine Learning, Engineering Management, Mechanical Engineering, Waterfall Methodology, Mechanical Design, Startup Consulting, Optical Sensors, Business Cases, Project Management, Go-to-market Strategy, Digital Transformation, Process Design, Digital Facilities Management (DFM), Strategy Development, Business Development, Manufacturing Product Manager, Consumer-facing Product Design, Risk Management, eCommerce, Inventory Management, Business Analysis, SOP Development, Business Services, Strategy, Manufacturing, Altium Designer (PCAD), B2B Lead Generation, B2B Sales Pipeline, Marketplaces, Government Contracting, Agile Product Delivery, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Computer Vision, Internationalization, Operations, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Digital Product Management, Scrum, Process Innovation, Lean Manufacturing, Industrial Design, Electrical Engineering, Waterfall Development, Aerospace Engineering, Biotechnology, Business Strategy, Innovation Workshops, Physics, Chemical Engineering
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