Somya Hastekar

Head of Design

India16 yrs experience

Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

Led design for digital transformation across industries.
Mentored design students and built design practices.
Designed for social impact with humanitarian organizations.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Product Design Leader with expertise in digital transformation across diverse industries.

Contact

Skills

Other Skills

Creative DirectionData VisualizationExperience DesignHeuristic EvaluationHuman Computer InteractionInformation ArchitectureRapid PrototypingUsabilityUsability TestingUser ExperienceUser Experience DesignUser Interface DesignUser ResearchUser-centered DesignWire Framing

About

I am a Product Design Leader working at the intersection of people, business & technology. I have led design for the digital transformation of local & global organizations. I bring versatile design experience spanning business design strategy, product visioning, consumer product design, strategic facilitation, design team management, design research & interaction design. Over the last 15 yrs, I have designed products & services in retail, healthcare, and fin-tech, led design teams, built practices & mentored design students. I have also worked with humanitarian organizations & activists to design for social impact at scale. As an architect & industrial designer by education, I continue to draw inspiration from the poetics of form & spaces. I occasionally share my journey on my design journal at https://somyahastekar.com/journal

Experience

Microsoft

3 roles

Principal Group Design & Research Manager

Promoted

Aug 2024 – Present · 1 yr 7 mos

Building AI experiences for the future of productivity

Principal Design & Research Manager

Sep 2022 – Aug 2024 · 1 yr 11 mos

Built experiences for collaboration at Microsoft Loop

Senior Design Manager

Jan 2020 – Sep 2022 · 2 yrs 8 mos

Designed new-age collaborative experiences to redefine productivity in the hybrid world
Kickstarted product research and design incubation team for Edge in Global Markets

Ixda

Community lead for Delhi NCR

Oct 2016 – Jul 2021 · 4 yrs 9 mos · New Delhi Area, India

Thoughtworks

2 roles

Design Lead

Apr 2016 – Dec 2019 · 3 yrs 8 mos · New Delhi Area, India

Drove design for digital transformation, product discovery engagements & design delivery.
Designed user experiences for products & services across industries, scale & mediums.
Led design research, product thinking & design strategy for global & local enterprises.

Sr. Experience Designer

Jan 2015 – Apr 2016 · 1 yr 3 mos · New Delhi Area, India

Designed ticketing experience for India's premium film exhibition company.
Reimagined customer experience for a leading insurance provider.
Designed a knowledge system for a leading retail group at the intersection of user research, retail insights & data.

Design for use

Lead Interaction Designer

Feb 2013 – Jan 2015 · 1 yr 11 mos · Gurgaon, India

Deeply set in the fabric of Indian startups, I led interaction design practice for the studio.
Designed products from ground up for small & large enterprises.
Delivered end-to-end projects including product thinking, user research, design conceptualization & hi-fi prototyping.
Guided team of interaction & visual designers across projects.
Facilitated design thinking workshops for clients.
Few clients were Make My Trip, Qikwell, Getit Infomedia, Boomerang Commerce, TimesJobs.

School of planning and architecture, new delhi

Visiting Faculty, Product Design

Jul 2012 – Jun 2018 · 5 yrs 11 mos · New Delhi Area, India

Facilitated multiple courses in Culture Studies, Product Form & Aesthetics, Design History and introduction to Interaction Design for Industrial Design students.