Product Design Engineering at SharkNinja

My Role:

During my six-month co-op at SharkNinja, I worked on the Corded/Cordless Advanced Development team, supporting next-generation cordless vacuum concepts from early ideation through prototyping, testing, validation, and early production builds.

Because much of my work involved early-stage product development and future products, I’m limited in what I can share. Instead, here are some of the biggest skills and lessons I took away from the experience.

Design, Prototyping & Iteration:

  • Used Creo CAD to design and iterate mechanical components and assemblies, considering feasibility, functionality, and overall product performance.

  • Learned to approach development as a continuous cycle of designing, building, testing, learning, and improving rather than expecting the first solution to work.

  • Turned CAD concepts into full-scale functional prototypes that could be physically tested and evaluated.

  • Spent time in the model shop using 3D printing, woodworking, drilling, and hands-on fabrication to quickly build, modify, and troubleshoot concepts.

Testing & Communicating Results:

  • Performed lab testing and validation to understand product performance, reliability, and opportunities for improvement.

  • Developed test methods, analyzed results, and used the findings to make informed design decisions and guide future iterations.

  • Created PowerPoint presentations and technical slides to communicate test findings, design decisions, and recommendations to the broader team.

Claude CoWork Resource Hub:

During SharkNinja’s week-long Jailbreak, I participated in a company initiative focused on using AI to solve everyday problems and improve existing workflows.

I noticed that onboarding information for new co-ops and hires was spread across different documents, links, and resources, making it difficult to quickly find answers. I took the initiative to develop an AI-powered resource hub using Claude CoWork that brought this information together in one place.

The hub included team and product history, vacuum principles, testing procedures, calculators and tools, and useful onboarding links, along with an “Ask Anything” feature that provided quick answers with direct links to the original sources. I designed the concept to be adaptable across SharkNinja, allowing other teams to implement the same framework using their own team-specific documents, procedures, product history, and onboarding resources.