I Am Jane Ni Dhulchaointih, Inventor and CEO of Sugru and This Is How I Work
Give your child a lump of clay and it will be busy for an hour. Nobody needs guidance when you get a pliable environment with which you can express your ideas, and so Sugru just works – you don’t need to know anything about design to use it. You just follow your instincts.
Sugru is a “moldable glue” that can be used to fix or improve a situation. It is a silicone-based material that can be shaped into Play-Doh, but if left for a day, it hardens into flexible rubber. You can use it for a wide variety of purposes , from repairing worn cables to protecting your gadgets and removing old taps .
Jane Ni Dhulchaointih first came up with the idea to create a universal substance that anyone could use when she studied product design. She wanted to ” improve and rethink ” the things she already had, not just buy replacements for the broken things. Over the years, after a lot of experimentation and hard work put into starting a business, this school project has become a popular solution to common household problems around the world. Obviously Sugru is so versatile that a whole business can be done on it. We spoke with Jane to find out where the company is heading, how to brew tea properly, and how it works.
Location: London most of the time, but travel a bit as well. Current place of work: CEO of Sugru Current mobile device: iPhone … I don’t even know which number it is. 5? Current computer: MacBook Air
Interesting – and this isn’t about your day-to-day tools or anything else – are you spending most of your time just trying to release a product and grow your business? Or are you trying to develop new products?
This is a real mix. I think this is probably different from what we do as a business and what I do on a day-to-day basis, because as a business we are very focused on scaling, does that mean our distribution, access to more retailers, and that’s it. systems and everything else. – well, it seems, we also have a factory in London. This is the factory [and] laboratory where all our science and product development [and] all our sales, marketing, finance and all that stuff happens. So this is a truly multidisciplinary team in London.
As for me personally, now I am focusing on how we develop the brand in order to realize its potential. There are all sorts of tensions – in terms of achieving the right balance – because our dream of Sugru is something so massive that it is in every home. But in fact, its mission is to help people see that they have the ability and creativity to solve problems in everyday life.
So, you know, when you talk about working in a mass retail context, they don’t necessarily immediately understand that there are all these possibilities of what you can do with Sugru, instead of just letting it stay hooked. Therefore, we must constantly think about the commercial realities of business development. And at the same time, what makes Sugru special is the people who use it and what they use it for and the spirit of that use.
So the tension is such that you don’t want to be just a bucket of goo at the hardware store – you want to be unique.
Exactly. Well, it doesn’t have to be unique, but it doesn’t have to just stand in a hardware store and catch people’s imaginations. So, one thing we love is when everything works out together. When you have end users who turn to their imaginations and are like, “oh, you know what, I’m going to fix this thing for my kid” or “I’m going to upgrade my refrigerator with a bottle opener [on the front] so I I can open my beer ”and the like. If we do it online, the whole ecosystem works brilliantly because we can just talk directly to our customers. But now the big problem is how we try to find the right retail partners who can get their employees to think the same way. So if it’s in the hardware store, that’s fine as long as the guys at the hardware store can say, “Hey, you know, maybe you’ve thought about this?” with Sugru.
It’s easy, I suppose, if you work with Make Magazine or something like that, they already know what it’s for, unlike a big retailer.
Yes, but we did find that there are now a whole bunch of big retailers out there who really understand this. For example, here in the US, Target is really cool. And another container store – great staff; they receive awards because they have such a motivated staff who can understand all the products and make recommendations to their customers.
Are you keeping up with demand? I can imagine that the demand is greater – I don’t know what your scale is.
Well, this is a challenge. We need to constantly expand production in order to keep up with it, and this is more difficult than just connecting machines. Because, of course, once you start doing business with large retailers, there are tons of supply chain things around you too, so you have to have the right people.
You just won’t believe what details you have to go through in order to conclude all the necessary contracts and all that, when the right people do the right things in your warehouse with their warehouse, and all that. these practical nightmares. But we have really great people who know all about it, so I’m lucky I don’t have to think about it. But yes, we are keeping up with the demand, but this is definitely a problem as we look forward to the next few years. We are also looking forward to a second manufacturing base, hopefully somewhere in North America or Latin America, that can really help serve this market.
So, I know the basic backstory of Sugru, but I was wondering when you first started thinking about this product, was there a point where you realized the potential here? That he will grow up to be a huge thing?
Well I do not know. I think I’m kind of naive – I just thought from the very beginning that it might be something grand. Just because I realized that if I can make it useful enough and good enough that people can rely on it, then I think there are millions and millions of people who have enough desire and ability to solve problems. I just think there are people who really want to solve problems with their own hands, because they are treated like they are not capable of doing these things. And so I guess I always thought there was going to be a mass conversion
But the journey from such an entity of possibility to where it is now, and then in the next ten years, is actually very difficult, because although I could believe it, in fact, I had no reason to believe in it. because I didn’t have the slightest idea about all the things that needed to be installed in order for it to work. I still feel like we are at the very beginning, even though we now have over a million users worldwide, it still feels like we are in a sense just getting started.
So if you could pick one word to describe how you work, what would it be?
I thought about it because of [John Scalzi’s] clever “corny” answer, and I didn’t have any clever answers. But I think people would think that I was right in saying that I work intuitively . It has a lot to do with a sense of things and a sense of direction, which helps guide things that may not always be clear to me as to why I am proposing something. People seem to tolerate me, but after a few days they make sense.
This all seems like an intuitive venture because you are not a chemist or anything like that, but you had an idea that you could do this thing, and it took a leap of faith on your part to figure it out. eventually.
That’s right, and I think it’s kind of a sense of need or desire to get more things in hand. I think that’s basically how I work: I kind of feel my way through things, and then I figure it out a bit.
I’m sure you are very busy managing your time, so what apps or programs do you use to manage your day?
Paper, pen, almost all notebooks. We use all Google apps as a team: Google Cal, Gmail and Google Docs. But in terms of time management, I have one to-do list app that I use called TeuxDeux . This is from blogger friend Miss Switzerland ; she teamed up with some people to do it. It’s very simple, it’s just black and white and you just put things in there and wash them. So I use this on my computer, mostly formalizing some of my notes.
Do you have something specific to save time or automate your work?
I don’t automate anything, but at the beginning of each day I just prioritize. Even if there may be fifteen to-do lists on my list, I’ll just circle three or four that I know I really, really need to do. It just takes time to think about priorities.
What’s your office guys? I assume this is an open space, but you are probably not in an industrial warehouse.
In fact, we are in an old building because we have a factory and a laboratory there. Our office is essentially one huge open-plan space, which I don’t think is the best way to work. It is quite chaotic and can be noisy. To be honest, none of us are happy with the office! It’s just that a lot of people shrank like sardines, trying to get the job done. We have an expansion plan; we are trying to get a new place. I think for our next space, we will definitely try to have more secluded places and more places where people can go – we have a few sofas and everyone always says, “I’m taking a sofa!” Many of us tend to use headphones just to say, “Hi, I’m working.”
Is there any other gadget besides a phone and a computer that you can’t live without?
Maybe my headphones. These are Bose noise canceling headphones, but I don’t know if I would recommend them because I haven’t tried others! I don’t understand things, you know what I mean. Once I find something that works, I just stick with it.
Everyone says Bose headphones are good, so this is probably a good choice! Are you the kind of person who is always working on something? Or when you finish a big project, do you take a step back and let your mind wander?
For me, this does not work in such blocks. We have so many things going on all the time, and they all seem to be parallel, so even if one project ends, another just starts working. Our team is becoming more and more interesting, and there are a lot of really great people in it. [But] I have to work alone quite a lot of the time, so what I find really comfortable is travel. Now, for example, I’m gone for a week, and I can reach people by email or Skype if I want to, but mostly I’m [here in New York], so they respect me not. Which is not bad, because it means I can get clock blocks whether on an airplane, and the time zone is not bad either, because now I wake up very early in the morning, so I have a few hours before I go where I’m not being persecuted for anything. Therefore, I prefer to use travel as a time for reflection.
I kind of miss when there was no internet on the planes.
I don’t have internet on planes! I didn’t know you could.
You may not be able to get it on those international flights, I don’t know!
Not on the flights I fly. Or I’m too stingy.
You mentioned that you get up early in the morning – what is your sleep schedule? Some CEOs have really crazy hours. So you get up early?
Not so much. When I travel, I like to get up early because either I can work or I can find a place where I am. At home, I usually get up at about 7-7: 30, just at the usual time. I guess in the early days I was probably working more chaotic in terms of hours, but we achieved a certain stability in the business when – you know, I realized that as a creative business we can create as much work as we want. Several years pass, and you kind of say, “Well, actually, it’s very important to just leave, take a walk with the dog, sit down, make friends and all that.” So I do not tend to work irregular hours, except in those cases where we have important deadlines and I have a travel schedule, for example, if I need to speak at a large conference or something like that, where a lot of social things, also involved. Then it can get pretty tiresome. But then I really need to catch up, otherwise I’ll just get lost.
Speaking of walking the dog, how do you recover when you leave work?
Usually either by being completely yourself – for example, walking the dog, reading books, cooking, decorating, and the like. Or see friends and family. I return to Ireland every few weeks to see my sisters and my family. This is also very important for me. I find such a basis: you leave your own world in a foreign one. It’s not bad.
Do you listen to music when you work?
I listen to music, and sometimes I don’t listen to it, and people think that I am listening to music, but I just don’t listen to anything.
I also! Is there any kind of music that helps you in your work?
I love everything; I like some kind of folk music, but I’m really surprised – I also like dance music when someone teaches me and says to me: “You will love this!” One of our friends gave us a Danish DJ named Trentemoller . It’s kind of a trance. I like it, although I would not listen to it all the time, but sometimes it helps to get into a certain zone.
Are you reading anything interesting right now that you like?
I’m reading a book by Dave Eggers [ Where Are They Your Fathers? And the prophets, do they live forever? ]. I’m not sure about that yet. But I really liked the last one he did. I liked The Circle , but there was a story about a child soldier from Sudan who came here as a refugee and I thought he was really good.
Are there any everyday things that you are better at than everyone else? Even if it’s not work-related.
Everyday things that I’m better at? It’s complicated.
Yeah, I myself would not know how to answer this question!
It’s cruel! I make good tea. This is important to me because I am addicted to tea.
Do you add milk first?
Not! Oh my God. It just isn’t right. This must be done at the boiling point, and you cannot have water at the boiling point if you have already added milk.
True, but some people pour milk into a cup and then pour tea into milk!
Oh, so it’s already brewed. This is normal, it is forgivable, but it is not so accurate, because you have to base the amount of milk you put in on the thickness of the tea.
If you could ask someone to answer these questions about your job, who would you choose?
I recently read about the Founding Fathers and George Washington. Did you know they are actually inventors? They built their own house, and they invented all these pulley systems and stuff to keep everything in order – and you became president at the same time? I find it amazing when I read about people who have achieved a really diverse set of things in their lives, how they calculate their time and how to move from one completely different activity to another.
And if they had Sugru, they could do so much more! So what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
When I was in art college, I had a mentor who was busy with my head all the time, because he always asked me, “Why?” And what I learned from him was just asking why quite often; it was a really useful skill not to take things at face value and not look into the past. And understanding the motivations of different people, because often there is a story behind the story.
“Why” is good advice. What else do you want to say to our readers?
I just want to say thank you to the Lifehacker community because Lifehacker was one of the most important communities that helped get Sugru off track. Just to thank.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.