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Inspired by International Women’s Day, Starship celebrates powerful women in the global community. Did you know that out of Starship’s nearly 1000 employees, only ¼ are women? It is increasing steadily.

If Karoliina’s story inspires you, or if you’re interested in working for Starship, check out our career page.

Happy Women’s Day, Karolina! Please tell us a little bit about your career so far.

During the last year of my bachelor’s degree in IT and biology, I was taking a robotics class. The course coincided with Robotex, the world’s largest robotics competition, which happened to be held in Tallinn. I volunteered as a contest judge, accompanying a friend who is an avid robot fan. From that day on, my world changed forever.

During that time, I joined the Robotics Club at Tallinn University of Technology and built my own robot. In addition, he started teaching robotics to children at the Tallinn Secondary Science School. And when all the other stars lined up too, I joined the coolest kids on the block: Starship Technologies.

I joined the company as a robot operator when I was a student, and with enthusiasm I started working as a robot engineer less than a year later. Currently I am the leader of his service team in Tallinn/Helsinki.

Today, I love robots as much as I did when I walked through Starship’s door for the first time in 2018. Since that day, the world of technology and her journey of growth and discovery on Starship has been amazing and I love every moment of it. .

Oops, you and the robot really went hand in hand from the beginning. What is his typical day like at his current position?

In addition to my robots in Tallinn, where Starship’s development offices are located, I have also traveled as an engineer to the UK, Washington, California, and Wisconsin. In short, we are contributing globally by reaching out to our robotic friends wherever they need us. My dedication has paid off as I was recently offered a new and exciting position as team leader in Estonia and Finland.

My day-to-day work at Starship is very diverse. In the morning, our team usually has a to-do list review meeting. Our number one priority is to maintain the health of our robot fleet. Being a roboticist is very similar to being a doctor. We have a certain number of patients who memorize names and problems. Our job is to provide the best possible care for patients who come to us with complaints or monthly health checkups. We keep detailed documentation on each robot and closely monitor all necessary upgrades and fixes.

In addition to repairing robots, we also build electronics testers, test, diagnose and repair printed circuit boards (PCBs). One of the things I fell in love with as a novice tech enthusiast was PCBs. The functionality of small but powerful electronic boards has just opened up a whole new world for me. Electrons traveling through miniature cities to perform program tasks still seem magical.

Plus, at Starship, it’s an honor to work with some of the brightest minds in the field.

I love your insight! Tell us about Starship culture.

Starship’s culture is like no other. I wake up every day looking forward to going to work and often don’t even know when I’ll be home at night. People at Starship come together to share a common passion. The company has grown rapidly (and is still growing!).

we love it! Finally, what advice would you give to women who want to enter the world of technology and robotics?

Growing up with my brother and always being with his friends taught me early on that how you present yourself is more important than your gender. I mean, I’ve never felt like an outsider in a tech field that is often dominated by men. More important than your gender is the passion and love you bring to the table and team every day.

At Starship, employees are evaluated based on their abilities and passion for robotics, regardless of gender. I have always felt appreciated and cared for by each team member.

It is not his job to repeat and manage what has already been proven. Instead, he’s dedicated to revolutionizing the world of transportation. Starship senior mobile his developer Joakim Kronqvist wants to create a better automated world. With the help of robotics and smart tech platforms, he thrives when the future is in his hands.

Joakim has a wide range of roles where developing, planning and discussing mobile solutions with various stakeholders is part of his daily life. His work focuses on the apps that Starship customers download and use to order food and drinks. He explains that others are similar to his e-commerce platform, but he has one big difference. — Robots make deliveries instead of humans.

In his spare time, he leads an active life and likes many things. For example, he is training for a marathon and puts in time and effort. Photography is another passion. Joakim loves spending his days in the woods drawing birds. preferably at odd angles.

What motivates and inspires you on Starship?

“The fact that we want to revolutionize not just our local market but the whole world is exciting. Our service can make a big difference.

But I also have the motivation to do things that no one else has done before. We are the first and largest company to automate home delivery. This means that we are facing challenges that no one has seen before. Copying someone else’s proven solution is a whole other ball game. ”

What was the most unexpected thing about your job?

“Starship is a fairly large company, but many teams are small, with a wide range of responsibilities and a lot of self-leadership.

How is Starship culture unique?

“Other companies call themselves international, but we are real. For example, my team includes employees from Colombia, Iran, India, Australia and Denmark.What we have in common is not heritage or background, but global Our willingness to start a revolution.”

What do you think is the secret to a successful career?

“Personally, I think life should have clear goals and perhaps high ambitions. I often say that if you are the smartest person in the room, you should probably change rooms immediately. Anyway, I think so.I want to date someone who is smarter than me.”

What do you think the future holds for robot development, transportation solutions, and AI?

“Looking back at industrialization at the end of the 19th century, I think we are currently seeing a similar shift towards an automated society. Some jobs will disappear and new ones will be created. It’s easy to see the benefits on both the face and the development side, and I’m driven to steer society in the right direction.”

Describe your work as if I were from another planet.

“I assume that you are an individual, just like a human being. Perhaps you also need certain objects. And perhaps you also find geographic conditions on your planet. Then you need these objects may be in a different physical location than you are currently in. You could say that you are creating a system that shows you where objects are and brings them to you.”

Does Starship make deliveries on the Metaverse?

“It’s so close to the physical dimension of the Starship that it’s hard to imagine, but perhaps from a different perspective. What people want from the virtual world should probably be offered and paid for in virtual currency.” There may be a future there too. Do you know?”

Would you like to join us on our special journey? Great, we are always looking for exceptionally talented people.find your next career here.

Well written about how to build highly effective product teams. You may have read Marty Cagan’s book (which we read) and dozens of other articles. Even following his industry best practices when setting up product teams, he cannot build two teams in exactly the same way. Teams are made up of individuals, and the sum of these individuals makes each team unique. We at Starship are no exception.

Our product team has multiple product groups focused on key pillars of our business, such as consumer experience and autonomous systems. Each team has the competencies and skills needed to bring products from idea to customer acceptance to business impact, including product management, product design, data science, and engineering.

Teams function better when clear roles and responsibilities are established across the team and each role is filled by someone who is proficient in that role. This is the basic concept of teamwork, collective groups can accomplish more than each person working individually. Because the work has to be divided up to make that possible, it is better to assign the work to someone who has the skills to do it, or assign it to someone who doesn’t have the necessary skills. is more efficient than

When hiring for product teams, look for required skills, plus cultural add and value fit. Every new person who joins us adds something or celebrates our culture.It makes the team unique and one of a kind. If you’re thinking of jumping on board (pun intended!) and joining the Starship product team, here are some things you might want to know about how we work.

Ultimate Ownership and Trust

As a team and as individuals, we take full responsibility for our work and what happens. This means that everyone takes action to get the information they need to do their job and actively try to solve the problems they are given. We ask, seek, and find, rather than waiting for someone to hand us everything. Yes, sometimes it fails too. In such situations, we do not blame others for our failures, but ourselves. One of our values ​​is that we learn along the way.

professional maturity

Professional maturity is the ability to respect diverse cultural backgrounds and workplace experiences. Our team consists of 12 different nationalities from 4 continents, working in teams spread across Helsinki, Tallinn and London. We respect each other and accept that we are different. That’s what makes us special. Having so many different cultures on one team can create conflicting situations. We approach these situations with a compassionate rather than a judgmental attitude as a source of true team values.

fit for purpose

Being a group of experienced people who are really good at what they do means we want to do what we do really well. We want our customers and partners to have the best possible experience. would like to provide We want to make our products as good as possible — make them perfect.

But the problem with perfectionism is that it can slow us down and miss opportunities for our teams to bring value in new ways. You can’t quickly learn how to make things better by just releasing them in perfect condition. Therefore, we try not to make perfection better. So we aim for perfection, but don’t let that get in the way of releasing something great.

Commit if you disagree

We believe that good ideas come from everyone. And we want the best ideas to flourish, regardless of where they come from. This means working constructively with people with diverse skills and perspectives and maintaining inclusive and rigorous decision-making.

Once the options are exhausted, a decision will be made. We embrace the concept of constructive debate and questioning, but when decisions are made we all rally on our chosen path. We embody the principles of disagreement and commitment .

believe in making a difference

Many of us joined Starship because we thought it would be cool to work with robots. And it really is. But the common value we all share is that we truly believe we can make a difference. Tomorrow, we believe we can make a positive impact by solving the last mile problem by developing today’s delivery services. We all want Starship to be successful and make the last mile the greenest mile.

Building tomorrow’s delivery service is no small feat. The challenges we face are complex and multifaceted. This complexity increases when you work at the intersection of physical and digital products and systems. As a product team, we aim to take extraordinary technological achievements and transform them into services people cannot live without. We aim to inspire merchants with local sales channels. In parallel, we are working to enable operations teams to deliver high quality, efficiency, and everyday magic with self-driving robots.

Do these challenges sound your way? Great, we’re looking for very talented people. Find your next career here.