Today our class got the privilege of getting a personal tour of the Sparkfun facility! Our tour guides were Sean & Melissa, two creative technologists for Sparkfun, and Bob, the Director of Operations. From the start, there was an air of creativity and by the end I really understand how they put the “fun” in Sparkfun. One thing that particularly impressed me about Sparkfun was how they created an atmosphere that fostered creativity and collaboration. Everything from interactive artwork created by Sparkfun team members to open work areas created a space for innovation to breathe.

 

After seeing the more design-oriented side of Sparkfun, we went downstairs to the production-focused area. That consisted of the big warehouse where the products get manufactured, tested, and packaged, a gym for employees, and still a lively and welcoming environment! Again I was impressed by how approachable everything seemed, and the dog friendly atmosphere is a perfect representation of how Sparkfun operates without getting too caught up in an inaccessible electronic jargon-heavy work environment.

 

Our last stop of the tour was SparkX, a department at Sparkfun that creates new products in limited quantities to test their success in the market. SparkX is Sparkfun’s version of SkunkWorks (working on advanced or secret projects). One interesting note about SparkX is that the creator of Sparkfun, Nate, actually stepped down from his positional leadership role to be a part of SparkX. Again that shows the passion that drives Sparkfun’s team members.

Before we had to head back to campus, we got to play around with some of the interactive art featured in the lobby. As a budding student in physical computing, I really appreciated some tangible examples of what people can create. Getting to see a facility like that was really inspiring for me! It shows the potential of the bridge between engineering and art, while still being very notable in the professional world.