Design Internship at Cure.fit 2018
In Summers 2018 I worked with Cure.fit as a product design intern. After four interviews and about a month-long procedure, I finally got the offer. I was more than happy to visit Bangalore and explore the work culture over there. I had already researched about people at cure.fit and knew that Ranganath Krishnamani works there, getting a chance to meet and work with him was more like a dream come true for me.
First few days
I joined Cure.fit HQ in HSR on 14th May 2018. Akshay Rajwade, my mentor for the next two months introduced me to the rest of the team and also walked me through the office on the first day. I attended a few meetings with him to get a better idea of how people collaborate and work here.
I also got to know about the overall work structure and other policies Cure.fit follow for a better work environment in the induction talk, how they believe in actions rather than hierarchical positions and how everyone is free to pick up any project they want to contribute to.
I was really surprised that I was not given any project on my second day as well and every time I asked Akshay about this, he had the same answer that I should explore, get to know people and that he’ll meet me soon. Feels like I was too young back then to realize it was for my own good and that a good understanding of the overall product would help me contribute better.
People Matter the most
“People matter the most” is something I believe in for life and apparently, it’s true for startups as well.
Before joining Cure.fit I’d never imagined that I’d get to work with such amazing professionals. Everyone in the team has immense experience of work with many good companies, and for a bunch of them the experience was only a bit less than my age- it was intimidating. With the open desk culture and no hierarchy, I was open to approach anyone anytime. Ah! But me being an introvert, it still took me quite some time to mingle up.
In a few days only I had realized that I have got a chance to work with some of the best people in the field. But there was one question that was stuck in my mind — “Why are they all here after working with some of the best companies in the world?”.
Getting started with work
Finally, after waiting for a week, I had a project kickoff meeting with Akshay where he walked me through the idea and the overall objective of the project. I started with all my process from the very next day, I did some qualitative as well as quantitative research around it and presented my insights to Askhay next week.
I was really enjoying my work, participating in those intense product discussions, working according to feedback. Working with a startup expanding at this pace was a completely new experience for me, I loved it so much that I started spending all my time in the office, sometimes on weekends and full nights as well and I was never alone, people used to stay at the office late at night. My project took me two whole months and after so many iterations and discussions, the result was really satisfying.
With all those iterations and discussion there was always something new that came across me, I learned not only about the design process and methods but also around the overall startup culture, the importance of micro text and information architecture, about cannibalization and the fact that every project is different and as a designer, it’s our job to find and evolve the best process to solve a problem.
Two months passed…
The question was still unanswered “Why do people work at startups when they can actually go anywhere?”. Before joining Cure.fit I was quite sure what I had to target for the next internship namely the big corporates, but the culture and work here forced me to reconsider my plans. I spoke to a bunch of people about this and everyone had almost the same answer — they were not able to grow much or didn’t have any ownership of their work before so they moved to startups.
I went back to college still not sure what to do or what to target next, for the next few months I focused on building my website, structuring all my work, writing articles and talking to several people on social media, trying to find the answer or to get some direction. Meanwhile, I got freelance work from West Agile Labs a product studio based in SF, I worked with them for around 7 months and actually got a good taste of corporate work, I continued with it only for the good pay. Fortunately, I made several friends there who did connect me to other entrepreneurs in the UK, SF, and Stockholm. Those people and the way they approach problems really amused me.
February was already here, the internship period was on its peak, I made a list of places, applied there half-heartedly, got a few offers but was still not sure what to do or what was the best for ME.
Last year was a hunt and I did find out what’s best for me, at the end “People matter the most” and I joined Cure.fit as a Summer Intern for 2019.
