STARTUP SPECIAL...................... Your Own Thing Works Best Here

Your Own Thing Works Best Here





Product startups are reinventing the approach to work, by allowing engineers to experiment

When the idea of designing a touchscreen dashboard for its electric scooter came up at Ather Energy , it was unlike anything any of them had worked on earlier. A touchscreen which should have high sunlight readability , impact resistant, water resistant ­ it meant relooking at everything the industry had been following till then.Ather allowed its engineers to start on a clean slate .

Product startups are reinventing the approach to work, by allowing engineers to experiment with tech and innovate. In contrast to conventional engineering jobs which are mostly operations-intensive or back-end driven, younger firms allow their engineers to build an entire product on their own.

“In the traditional manufacturing or automotive industry , all technologies and features are so matured after being followed for 30-40 years. There's only so much a fresh engineer can add to it. But here, he gets to do some passionate stuff like building something from absolute scratch and seeing it coming to life in its entirety. Not bearing the baggage of legacy , we can move, pivot and iterate faster.“ said Tarun Mehta, cofounder of Ather.

The startup, backed by Tiger Global and Flipkart founders, unveiled its first product earlier this year. Ather S340 -India's first smart elec tric scooter -had everything from the touchscreen interface to the battery pack to the hybrid aluminium chassis built in-house. This was made possible after team members across departments coming up with ideas on real requirements of the customer and then worked their way backwards.

When experienced people are hired, the company imparts them almost six months of de-education to make them think this way .

Rajaram Swaminathan, who joined the company as director-hardware design and found it a major unlearning experience, notes, “The compa nies I've worked for in the past would drive product decisions and company strategies top down. The culture here allows every opinion to make its impact and every individual in the company has complete freedom to shape the product decisions“.

IIT-Madras incubatee Swadha Energy, which focuses on reducing the power consumption using devices designed indigenously, took two years to develop and pilot its products. But CEO Ankit Poddar is happy about it. “If any changes are required, now we can do it easily because we have total control over it. Had we outsourced it two years back, the time would have reduced by half but we would have been dependant on that company,“ he said.

Shilpa Elizabeth

Chennai

ET13MAY16