[ad_1] By March 2022, Starship robots had played more than 108,000 songs over the past seven months, meaning our customers put around 500 songs into their basket every day when ordering from Starship. That’s an awesome outcome considering that it wasn’t was possible until recently. How did we achieve this? People order songs, add to […]
https://i0.wp.com/suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1OSyv78GDP3eYEktxmojOmg.png?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=16271200Manish Roshanhttps://suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Main-Logo-340-×-156-px.pngManish Roshan2022-03-29 10:45:032022-03-29 10:45:03How many engineers does it take to make a robot sing? | by Daniel Carrillo | Starship Technologies
[ad_1] A brave leap from big corporate to pioneering start-up — Timo Lehto’s journey at Starship began 2.5 years ago and continues to provide him that extra something in life. As Product Manager, he thrives at the opportunity to build products in-house that do not yet exist in the world. Together with his team he […]
https://i0.wp.com/suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/13dLBXy-dSimdDCDmTtEVJg.png?fit=800%2C464&ssl=1464800Manish Roshanhttps://suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Main-Logo-340-×-156-px.pngManish Roshan2022-03-16 13:29:312022-03-16 13:29:31Exploring the unknown. A brave leap from big corporate to… | by Daniel Carrillo | Starship Technologies
[ad_1] By March 2022, Starship robots had played more than 108,000 songs over the past seven months, meaning our customers put around 500 songs into their basket every day when ordering from Starship. That’s an awesome outcome considering that it wasn’t was possible until recently. How did we achieve this? People order songs, add to […]
https://i0.wp.com/suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1OSyv78GDP3eYEktxmojOmg.png?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=16271200Manish Roshanhttps://suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Main-Logo-340-×-156-px.pngManish Roshan2022-03-29 10:45:032022-03-29 10:45:03How many engineers does it take to make a robot sing? | by Daniel Carrillo | Starship Technologies
[ad_1] A brave leap from big corporate to pioneering start-up — Timo Lehto’s journey at Starship began 2.5 years ago and continues to provide him that extra something in life. As Product Manager, he thrives at the opportunity to build products in-house that do not yet exist in the world. Together with his team he […]
https://i0.wp.com/suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/13dLBXy-dSimdDCDmTtEVJg.png?fit=800%2C464&ssl=1464800Manish Roshanhttps://suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Main-Logo-340-×-156-px.pngManish Roshan2022-03-16 13:29:312022-03-16 13:29:31Exploring the unknown. A brave leap from big corporate to… | by Daniel Carrillo | Starship Technologies
By March 2022, Starship robots had played more than 108,000 songs over the past seven months, meaning our customers put around 500 songs into their basket every day when ordering from Starship. That’s an awesome outcome considering that it wasn’t was possible until recently. How did we achieve this?
People order songs, add to their basket along with milk and bread, like a regular grocery item. After that, the items are collected and loaded into a Starship robot. When the robot arrives at the customer and the customer opens the lid, the robot starts playing the selected song. What a lovely and entertaining surprise! But it has not always been like that.
Seven months ago, all our robots said was “Good afternoon!” or “Bon appetit!” and no one could even imagine robots playing more than 100 000 songs throughout the next half a year!
Starship’s Senior Backend Developer, Misha Stepanov recalls that when he joined the company in Spring 2021, robots could only dance. “For that, we were supported by a choreographer who helped us to put several robots to move around in sync. They danced beautifully and it was fun to watch,” comments Misha and admits that this inspired him to also come up and create something new and unique himself.
For that, Misha started testing his ideas with Anti Veeranna, Starship’s Senior Product Design Technologist who has worked in the company from near the very beginning. Thanks to that, Anti knows everything and everyone, has a hand in many endeavors and was happy to bounce around all crazy ideas.
In the COVID pandemic, people were already getting used to self-isolation and working or studying from home. At the same time, this new situation had also increased stress levels, since many often felt rather lonely.
On the positive side, we received feedback that Starship robots and deliveries tend to cheer people up during these difficult times. The idea was catchy and inspiring — if something like that can brighten up someone’s day a bit, then it is worth the effort and time to think about how to boost it more. That resulted in Misha and Anti focusing solely on bringing robot interaction to another level.
They wondered whether it would be possible to get a Starship robot to play “Happy Birthday”, when it’s the customer’s birthday for example. “We knew that if we could pull this off and make it happen, then any other scenario would not be difficult either. Therefore, we focused on its implementation,” Misha explained.
Therefore, the first idea was to redevelop Starship’s current mobile application, so that together with ordering a grocery basket, one could also choose a song as a separate add-on. However, creating this solution seemed like it would take a bit too many development hours, long releases, another team’s input and coordination between different departments.
Anti then suggested that what if a song could be added into the basket as a regular product, meaning that no interface development is needed, including no additional programming or a long coordination process. Sounded perfect and a lot easier!
It seemed that the only development effort needed was:
To add an additional item (songs) to the menu, and;
To remove a song after the order is placed in order not to pass it to the restaurant, as the song cannot be cooked, and;
When the customer opens up a robot’s lid, the system should check if any song was ordered and if yes, then it should be played.
By the way, it has to be brought out that Starship robots already knew how to play mp3 files, since they were able to say “Good afternoon!”, “Have a nice day!” and “Bon appetit!”. Therefore, from the technical point of view, it was not difficult to get robots to sing.
Misha and Anti understood that if their idea was technically as feasible as it was, then their next goal was to also convince others that this is exactly what Starship needed.
They were lucky to find the right people from the marketing department who were delighted and fascinated by the idea. For marketing, adding a song to Starship deliveries would also add a new unique selling proposition to the service.
Therefore, the marketing team took over the entire organizational side of the process, meaning that they bought songs from song owners, had a discussion with the menu department, introduced new virtual goods to our system, covered all agreements with partners and provided full marketing support.
The first three purchased songs that Starship robots were able to play, were:
Everything else went according to plan: PR, marketing messaging, layout for the first clients, deploying the first city (Milton Keynes), then the first country (England), and then came the global rollout.
“Seeing this finally happen was amazing and a delight to witness for both of us,” Misha commented.
Today, customers can choose between 3–5 songs, which change frequently, depending on time and location. Our service is constantly evolving.
Hence, to make a robot sing, you just need one cool idea, two colleagues to brainstorm at lunch, a couple of days for development … and then the whole company to support it.
The result was warmly welcomed by everyone — the team, the company, and most importantly — our Starship customers! 100 000+ orders only confirms that.
https://i0.wp.com/suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1OSyv78GDP3eYEktxmojOmg.png?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=16271200Manish Roshanhttps://suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Main-Logo-340-×-156-px.pngManish Roshan2022-03-29 10:45:032022-03-29 10:45:03How many engineers does it take to make a robot sing? | by Daniel Carrillo | Starship Technologies
A brave leap from big corporate to pioneering start-up — Timo Lehto’s journey at Starship began 2.5 years ago and continues to provide him that extra something in life. As Product Manager, he thrives at the opportunity to build products in-house that do not yet exist in the world. Together with his team he builds the future of Starship by exploring the unknown. Every day.
After spending more than a decade working in a big corporation within maritime logistics, Timo Lehto decided to join Starship and help us make low cost, convenient and sustainable delivery available to all. As our Product Manager in Helsinki, Timo is driving the software development of autonomous equipment fleets and related products and solutions.
In winter, he gladly steers north to the mountains for some downhill skiing, a common interest of all members of the Lehto family, as well as the sauna, open fireplace and evening board games.
What’s the best part about your job?
“It’s the part where I need to look ahead. To identify what we need to do in this very moment, or a year or two from now, to reach our long-term goal. I’m intrigued by the constant adaption where we provide a human element to a system where the role of the human changes. As the system evolves we start to expect different things. That exploration of the unknown is very exciting.”
Tell us about the culture at Starship. How is it different from other companies?
“For me, it’s quite unique in the way that we all share the same goal: there’s no extra politics or debate. I have never worked in a company before where it is so clear where we are going. And everybody tries to do their best to get us there.”
Of the projects you’ve been involved in so far, which do you consider the most important?
“I’m very interested in Situational Awareness. We are setting up remote locations, and we need to provide an efficient way to know what is going on with our robots and operations, everywhere and always. We need to be able to take action if something is going wrong. It’s an ongoing and fun challenge.”
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Do you think there is life on other planets?
Life probably exists on other planets, maybe even at this exact time. Although intelligence is harder and more unlikely to find. There’s been life on Earth for a few billion years, and it is only in the last 100 years that we have been able to communicate beyond this planet. So, the risk is that civilisations will miss each other in time.
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Tell us something about the Helsinki team!
“Like most teams at Starship, the Helsinki team is international. My teammates are from all over the world, and there are very few of us who can actually speak Finnish. For me, it was new to be part of such an international team, and now after being here for 2.5 years, I can say that it’s incredibly valuable to have multiple cultures represented. Our very different backgrounds provide fresh perspectives and a wider angle to solve problems. Oh yeah, and we meet for breakfast every Wednesday. That’s fun!”
Speaking of the Helsinki team, we are actually looking to expand our fleet, creating a new cross-functional team with software engineers, product designers, data analysts and product managers. Be part of Timo’s team and join our extraordinary journey here.
https://i0.wp.com/suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/13dLBXy-dSimdDCDmTtEVJg.png?fit=800%2C464&ssl=1464800Manish Roshanhttps://suvastika.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Main-Logo-340-×-156-px.pngManish Roshan2022-03-16 13:29:312022-03-16 13:29:31Exploring the unknown. A brave leap from big corporate to… | by Daniel Carrillo | Starship Technologies
