# S6E20 John Martell | Mechanisms, Drones, and Excel Macros

- Show: [Being an Engineer](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer)
- Published: 2025-05-16
- Length: 43m
- Episode: 20
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-05-16-s6e20-john-martell-mechanisms-drones-and-excel-macros

## Summary

John Martell, Director of Data Management at Aero Velocity and former Lead Mechanical Engineer at Pipeline Design & Engineering, discusses his transition from designing mechanisms for medical devices and aerospace to managing geospatial drone data. He details his specific process for mechanism design, emphasizing the use of pen-and-paper sketching, reference sites like 507movements.com, and movable sketches in SolidWorks to validate motion before finalizing CAD models. Martell also shares insights on overcoming imposter syndrome in leadership, the importance of company culture in preventing engineering team failure, and how he accelerated productivity by building Excel macros and Python scripts to automate mundane tasks like drawing exports.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-05-16-s6e20-john-martell-mechanisms-drones-and-excel-macros#t=0) Introduction and Career Origins
- [7:09](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-05-16-s6e20-john-martell-mechanisms-drones-and-excel-macros#t=429) Mechanism Design Process and Tools
- [17:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-05-16-s6e20-john-martell-mechanisms-drones-and-excel-macros#t=1021) Transition to Geospatial Drone Services
- [22:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-05-16-s6e20-john-martell-mechanisms-drones-and-excel-macros#t=1336) Engineering Leadership and Imposter Syndrome
- [25:25](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-05-16-s6e20-john-martell-mechanisms-drones-and-excel-macros#t=1525) Automation, Macros, and Engineering Culture

## Topics

- [Mechanical engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/mechanical-engineering)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [EDA & CAD tools](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/eda-and-cad-tools)
- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Pipeline Design & Engineering (company)
- Aero Velocity (company)
- Workhorse Aero (company)
- SolidWorks (tool)
- 507movements.com (other)
- QGIS (tool)
- LP360 (tool)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [An Interview with Matt Berggren](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-12-16-an-interview-with-matt-berggren) (The Amp Hour)
- [How Soft Skills Drive High-Impact Engineering Teams w/ Aaron Moncur](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2025-08-26-how-soft-skills-drive-high-impact-engineering-teams-w-aaron-moncur) (The Manufacturing Executive)
- [#440.2 - Interviews with Greg Davill and Michael Ossmann](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-05-01-440-2-interviews-with-greg-davill-and-michael-ossmann) (The Amp Hour)
- [034 - Mechanical RE](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2020-06-23-034-mechanical-re) (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast)
- [082: Smooth Product Flow from Visual Design to Engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-06-30-082-smooth-product-flow-from-visual-design-to-engineering) (Product Startup)

## Citing this page

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