Michelle on her internship at Essmart

Meet Michelle Francis, a recent Engineering graduate with a passion for innovation and social impact, who recently completed her 8 month internship at Essmart. Excited by the product development and market research cycle, Michelle joined our Bangalore team as a Market Research intern and spent her time focusing on market testing trials for new products in India as well as building & testing questionnaires, data collection, preliminary data analysis and detailed documentation.

Hailing from Coimbatore, during her college days she served as a Team Lead on KCT’s Platform for Research and Exploration and became deeply invested in bridging the gap between "engineering innovation" and "feasible solutions that can impact communities", something she now believes she has a deeper understanding of through her interactions with Essmart's wide rural network of shops and end customers.

We’ve loved having Michelle as an intern, and asked her 7 questions to sum up her experience at Essmart!

1.   What motivated you did you do an internship at Essmart?

"Coming from an engineering background, I’ve always felt like there was a huge gap between the people building new innovative products and the customers they are aimed for. Customer feedback is very crucial, and I realized that yes you can build anything, but if it doesn’t impact people at the end, there’s no point. I was fascinated by what happens between the building and buying, and as a Market Research Intern, I hoped to understand that gap better and do something meaningful to bridge it."

2.   Looking back, what was the best part of your internship?

"Looking back, I think the best part of my internship is that I was able to work on a diverse set of projects and initiatives. While I came here with an intention to focus on one particular thing, I ended up learning a lot way beyond market research. I was able to not only see the challenges involved in market research, but also learning about logistics, HR, dealing with suppliers and IT. I’m able to understand about the entire ecosystem on how an enterprise operates, especially because Essmart is rapidly expanding. When I joined Essmart, there were about 7 branches and now there are 13 – so there’s a lot happening, so much growth and constant change, which is exciting! I’ve gained an entire new perspective on how a company runs, and that is what I liked best about my experience."

"It was amusing to see many of our assumptions being proven wrong from the responses and really understanding the meaning of making “data-driven” decisions..."

3.   What were some of the tasks and responsibilities that you’ve had and what did you enjoy the most? 

"I have worked on such diverse initiatives during my time here starting from getting feedback from rural communities on a solar TV that was still in beta-phase to meeting over 70 shop dealers to understand their entrepreneurship style! From trying to build a framework to quantify the impact Essmart creates through factors like our sales data, region or environmental effects to overseeing a research project involving over 300 shops to help us tailor our offerings. It’s been a fun ride! Through these experiences, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside professors from top universities like MIT and INSEAD, and I wouldn’t have had that opportunity anywhere else. I think one of the most exciting projects I worked on was our shop segmentation initiative to help us understand our dealers better, especially because it was something we worked on from scratch and iterated through pilot runs. It was amusing to see many of our assumptions being proven wrong from the responses and really understanding the meaning of making “data-driven” decisions."

4.   What was your most challenging experience?

"I think the biggest challenge was underestimating the work that on-field market research demands. Carrying out field research and going out to get feedback is not as fancy and easy as people make it sound! Getting lost in translation, stumbling on technical faults and heavy monsoon rains are just a few examples. Over the last couple of months I've really been able to understand the ground reality of what the entire process entails, which was a really valuable learning opportunity."

5.   What would you say about the team culture about Essmart, and what did you value most about it? 

"During one of my conversations field with a couple of Sales Managers about what they enjoyed most about working at Essmart. I remember them mentioning liking the flexibility and freedom that comes with their job. And I think I agree with them. Having the freedom to do things your own way is something that is unusual at many other companies and is something I really valued as an intern. Beyond that, I’d say the work culture at Essmart is really fun. While we get a lot of work done, it’s still a chilled-out environment. The team is welcoming, and we are almost always debating lunch plans, characterized by a very foodie crowd, which is something I got along with. I’ll miss that."

"For example, for one of the projects, I travelled through rural India to meet over 300 shop owners. Where do you get that kind of opportunity as a fresher?"

6.   What knowledge and skills did you gain as a result of your internship moving forward with your career? 

"Perhaps not core skills, like learning a new coding language or building my own app, but my learning was definitely very experience-led. From smaller skillsets like how to carry out a mail conversation more formally, and how to make a document look good, to being able to gain hands-on experience carrying out research and data analysis. For example, for one of the projects, I was travelled through rural India to meet over 300 shop owners. Where do you get that kind of opportunity as a fresher? That was an amazing experience. To simply go out there and actually get down and work, that was really exciting!"

"Also on a personal level meeting so many faces and interesting stories was special to me – like meeting a shop dealer who had gone to Belgium for work, but ended up going back to a village in Chikmagalur to start his own grocery store. I think I also saw a whole different side of India as a country."

7.   What would you say to other interns interested in an internship at Essmart? 

"I’d definitely say that it’s a great place to start! The exposure you get during your internship is something you won’t get in many other places, particularly in contrast to big companies. Generally speaking, interns tend to do monotonous work that isn’t necessarily meaningful as regular tasks and work gets pushed upon you. However, this internship was nothing like that. At Essmart, I’ve felt like I actually had a voice in all the projects I was a part of. And also, being able to travel to so many different places has been an extra perk. It’s a great learning experience that allows for a diverse exposure at the workplace, freedom and the satisfaction of actually making a difference!".

Enjoyed reading about Michelle's experience and curious to learn more Essmart? Check out the Company Page and follow Essmart on social media!