Saturday, September 29, 2012

The driving force behind my work at Embrace

How often do you get to experience something magical? Magic for me is something which is unbelievable but its true. There are lot of phases in life and we change a lot as a person as we become a part of new experience. We grow. We learn new things and we forget few things. Experiences are unique, what I make out of same experience would be completely different from you would. Life to me  is all about these experiences.

About six months back when I graduated from my design school, little I knew about what my life is going to be like. All I knew was I will be working with Embrace, a medical device company which makes low cost infant warmers. Being fresh out of college I did not know what job is, Internships are different. I didn't even know what I will be working on. I did not know what I have learnt in past 4 years, how will it help me do what I am going to do. Then I came to bangalore and joined Embrace knowing only one thing, save those babies.

I have completed 5 months at Embrace and what I see now is what I mentioned earlier, Magical. I was a part of development team of Embrace Care, a "lower" cost infant warmer than Nest which works on hot water. This product which has been in development for 3 years have gone through multiple changes and is very much different from the initial concepts. I joined in 4 months before the product launch but I have seen different versions of this product. Making tens of prototypes in single day, after building 50+ prototypes I have seen this product take shape as it stands today and is used in market. What used to be just prototypes in college were now actual steps to save a baby's life in future. What seemed to be boring parts specs are now assuring that there is a quality product which is out there and which will make sure that a baby is sleeping in warmth which it's parents can provide for it.

When I visited the user of this product in a village in Tamil Nadu. I could recognize the product packaging from a tiny wrinkle on it's box. The bubble wrap used for packaging seem to communicate with me saying "hey, remember how you put this tape on me so I hold the heater better?" The print on funnel, the print on the product, the instruction pamphlet all of it, even the serial number stamped on the product comes alive and talks to you. What is even more important and amazing is they all seem to be happy. They are happy that they are there with that family and they all play a part in keeping the tiny 1.6KG baby warm. When I see 4 months of work talking to me and communicating with me, I can just imagine how people who have been working on this for years would feel like. But I am glad I can at least feel a part of they are feeling when they see the product out there as I can say now I know what it feels like. It feels MAGICAL.

After a day's work when you go back and see a video about the place you work for and how it is impacting the lives of so many around the globe you feel privileged and also you feel proud to be associated with them




Embrace 2012 from Embrace on Vimeo.