SharkNinja Innovation & Technology Culture

SharkNinja is a place that really, really rewards innovation. It rewards fast-paced thinking, fast-paced development, and one thing that I really love about this place is the ability and the drive to really own whatever it is that you do. Like anything and everything that is in the development process, regardless of whatever level that you're in, whether you are a senior mechanical engineer, a fresh new engineer out of college, or the director of an entire category, if you have an idea, if you have something that will drive or push the product and you share that passion with the rest of the team, the business will go and run with it. And I just love that. It was from the first day that I started here that I saw, even as a senior mechanical engineer, that I had that capability to make any and all changes, which was just not an option in my previous job. So, I love that.

I have been at SharkNinja for 10 years, so I feel like the thing that has kept me here the longest has been endless opportunity and endless chances to run down dreams and chase down goals. I started out in engineering, I pivoted into product development, and it's just been one thing after another of exciting new challenges to tackle.

I think one of the things that makes it so innovative here is that anyone can come to the table with an idea. There's no "you're not at a level that you should really be speaking" or, you know, "you shouldn't talk in this setting." It's very open — open to anyone to have an idea and people love chasing those down and it's really just based on the merit of the idea.

The biggest thing that represents the culture of setting big goals is that the people are always there. The first question that you get asked when you set some audacious goal is, "How can I help? What's the first thing that I can do? What can I do to support you?" That's really helped me not only in my life here at work but even outside of work as well.

I think one of the cool things about being a part of SharkNinja is that you get an opportunity to try so many different things in a short period of time. Often I talk to co-ops and interns who say, "I'm going to be here for three months, six months, what am I going to accomplish? Is it only going to be one small thing?"

And I think here there's opportunity to work on so many different projects, to have that impact, to be able to share different perspectives. You might ideate on something and then move it into three or four different forms during that short period of time.

One of the strengths that we have is that we're a smaller company in terms of the amount of employees that we have, so you get a lot of a hands-on impact here despite the fact that we're doing huge things. And our products are known worldwide in so many different industries.

So, if you are excited about making that impact but you still don't want to be in an organization where you're only a small part of the puzzle — you want to be hands-on in a bunch of different things — I think this is the organization for you.

It was almost immediately that I realized SharkNinja was a place I wanted to be. At SharkNinja, any idea is up for grabs, and it might be a great one and it might be a terrible one, but I think the important thing is to put it all out there and to challenge the norm.

"Outrageously extraordinary" is sort of the umbrella term for how you show up to want to be the best, not just for yourself, but for your team. SharkNinja is the type of place where we're trying to create a group of people who are outrageously extraordinary in both their work and their personal lives. So if you're that type of person, you will not get left behind.

It’s a company where you truly do get out of it what you put into it. To be successful here, you have to have the right mindset. We call it an "outrageously extraordinary" mindset in terms of not thinking "I can’t do something," but "I haven't done that yet."

For us to be able to continue to evolve and be at the forefront of innovation for consumer products, I think it has to permeate throughout the entire organization. You can’t just have that lens when it comes to products or engineering or consumer insights. It has to be the rest of the org as well, whether that be finance or analytics — how do we pull data and not just look at the data, but [figure out] what’s the story behind the data?

Being able to think innovatively throughout the entire organization is something of a superpower for us here. It has to be at the foundation of everything we do here in order for us to continue to grow and continue to be innovative.

SharkNinja is an innovation powerhouse. It helps and motivates you to be a better person every single day and the focus is mainly on improving consumer satisfaction every single day.

Coming from automotive where you don’t really see or get to feel the products that you’re working on... SharkNinja gives you that opportunity where you’re holding a product, you know it’s going to be in a consumer’s hands, and you have full control over how you impact that product from a design and quality standpoint.

The best part about SharkNinja that I have learned is executive leadership doesn’t fear rolling up their sleeves and being on the ground trying to help us and figure out an issue as well. That’s super motivating.

I like a fast-paced environment, I like flexibility, I like pivoting and adapting when necessary. 

Here, you never know — one day you'll be in the kitchen cooking something up; another day, you’ll be doing desk work on your computer, talking to consumers, doing research on social media about an upcoming product. Every single day can be different, and that keeps it fun and interesting for me. So that was my "why SharkNinja."

To me, SharkNinja is super interesting just because of the extreme focus we have on our consumer, and that really being our North Star of who we are. Being able to leverage my previous experience in manufacturing and being able to bring products to market in such a quick cycle.

I was extremely surprised at just how fast that actually was, to be honest, in terms of the cycle at which we operate. When you’re working so fast and innovating at such a fast rate, sometimes you do stumble. And I think one of the most interesting ways that SharkNinja reacts to that is we treat those as learning opportunities. Those are opportunities to understand what caused that point of friction for us — how do we overcome that, and how do we do even better than we did the first time?

If you raise your hand, it's noticed quickly. And it’s really part of the broader culture in general of how we all roll up our sleeves and understand how to get things done together.

My favorite thing about SharkNinja is the opportunities here to really learn and grow are incredible. I started as a co-op, and I tried to be a sponge and soak up every possible thing that I could. I’ve reached out to people that I’ve never met before, and everyone is always willing to help in any way possible that they can to get the job done.

We have a phrase that’s called "obsessed with winning," and so everyone is trying to put the best possible products out on the market. Everyone wants to win and win big.

It’s an unbelievable place in terms of speed and innovation. I think my favorite thing about SharkNinja is in a situation that seems impossible, you just say, "Okay, but how could we get it done?"

There’s no company out there where you have this level of transparency, access and control — like, an ability to have your voice heard in the process of making a product come to market and actually feeling like you can see your fingerprints on it.

The ability to do that with some of the smartest, most outgoing, energetic, optimistic people that you could work with, it’s just — in my opinion — a great place to work.