Jun 2022 – Aug 2022 · 2 mos · Bangalore Urban, Karnataka, India · Hybrid

• A very short stint as Head of Design reporting to the CEO at the time of the pandemic(remote) and at the start of what you know... Led a fantastic team of over 100 designers for all of the Byju's products including, Byju's classes, Tuition centres, Byju's mobile apps, web, games & learnstation

Sep 2020 – Jan 2025 · 4 yrs 4 mos · Bangalore Urban, Karnataka, India

• Helping startups & enterprises to productise and design awesome customer experiences with great business value. Working on complex enterprise applications, developer tools, e-commerce, Consumer social apps, IoT, Wearables, Analytics & data visualisation.
• Drive customer acquisition, retention, growth and scale. Design magic around customer delight. Helping companies define their [product - engineering - design] collaboration process that includes Org structure, competencies, UX process, design tools, hiring, etc. Conduct Design & Product Thinking workshops.
• Some of the clients include Hornbach(Germany), Rangam(USA), Pratiti Tech, Helios IoT(Pune), Wenger(USA),etc

Jun 2019 – Sep 2020 · 1 yr 3 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

• Leading an awesome +150 multi-designer team of Voice designers(chatbot and conversation design), Product designers, User Researchers, Content Strategists, Creative Designers & Copywriters.
• Owning end to end consumer-facing experience that includes but not limited to- category designs, Shopping, Fintech, Payments, Grocery, Hyperlocal, Travel, Ads platform, Merchandizing, etc and the last-mile experience for delivery (Ekart.)
• Designing new engagement initiatives like Videos, Games, Coins & Plus program.
• Working on new Growth initiatives for the next 200mn user which includes Voice, Vernacular and new app experiences for NBU(next billion users).
• Driving multimodal user experiences with includes Voice (VUI) and gestural interactions
• Building Design Language System (DLS), UX processes and defining competiences, org structure, hiring process, JDs, research methods, etc.
• Filed UX patents. Conducted Design Thinking training for PMs & Devs across the company.

Sep 2018 – Jun 2019 · 9 mos

• Lead a team of UX designer working on Athena's Collector & Clinical products. Conducting design reviews, managing stakeholder relations, responsible for delivery and quality of design. Conducted customer site visits at multiple US states to frame the problem statement. Conducted product visioning exercise. Working on research data and synthesis.

Mar 2017 – Mar 2018 · 1 yr · Bengaluru Area, India

• Setup Product Management and User Experience design teams. Define product strategy, market segmentation & positioning, product features & pricing, Sales demos, mentor and lead PM/UX teams. Built awesome talent supply chain management products using AI and ML-based contextual search & matching. These products make organizations autonomous & intelligent with insightful analytics.

Feb 2016 – Mar 2017 · 1 yr 1 mo · Bengaluru Area, India

• Setup India UX team, build UX community, improve design quality, conduct ‘Design Thinking’ workshops, manage budgets & stakeholders relations. Headed design teams for - Quickbooks Desktop(US), Quickbooks Online(India), TurboTax, Lacerte, Mint, etc.
• Built an awesome team of Interaction Designers, Visual Designers and Content Writers. Conducted extensive user research & customer visits in India and US. Participated in focus groups for resellers & VOC analysis.

Jul 2014 – Jan 2016 · 1 yr 6 mos

• Drive UX strategy and Digital Experience for India. Worked with design consulting firms, UX vendors, and academia. Lead UX initiatives to research & design next generation innovative mobile apps & context-aware platforms. Worked on upcoming technologies like wearables, mobiles, tablets and SaaS products(Google Apps). Focused on improving the UX for Intel's internal Enterprise apps like BI, SAP, Microsoft productivity and collaboration apps, social sites, etc.
• Working on strategic UX initiatives for Enterprise apps by defining UI standards(Touch, Gesture & voice), Brand guidelines, metrics & governance. Reviewing UX Patents, technical papers, etc

Jun 2013 – Jul 2014 · 1 yr 1 mo

• Worked at Intel's Folsom office to connect directly with customers and key stakeholders. Participated in both Strategic and Tactical UX activities. Conducted user research and customer feedback sessions for touch screen devices.

May 2011 – Jun 2013 · 2 yrs 1 mo

• Leading UX initiatives for Intel India. Setup strategic state-holder relations for UX engagements. Hiring UI designers, mentoring & training PMs and developers on UX, built Usability lab for Intel India. Acting as India SME for UX. Leading UX innovation and research.

Aug 2009 – Aug 2010 · 1 yr · Seoul

• Worked as Chief researcher & lead a team of researchers to build insights on Future Mobile design at LG R&D labs, Seocho-gu, Seoul.
• Focus on Multi-modal interactions, touch screens, 3D Gestures, Speech and face recognitions. Conducted Trend analysis, Benchmarking and Expert interviews in London and Korea. Worked on unified search, innovative mobile navigation and architecture, new TV UX ideations. Pending US patent on Smart TV

Jun 2007 – Dec 2008 · 1 yr 6 mos · Noida Area, India

• Headed a team of 40 Interaction Designer, Web Designers, Graphic Designers & Usability Engineers.
• Responsible for strategic design directions & creative marketing for all Info Edge properties- Naukri.com, Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com, Brijj.com, Shiksha.com and Mobile devices.
• Worked with sales and marketing to define digital experience that differentiate Info Edge products and provide higher sales revenue.
• Introduced UI Standards & Patterns, Graphic Design assets, Usability Testing & User research methods. Formed UI Developers team and built that as a new function.
• Conducted UX training for new employees, coached & built UX team. Worked with Product Managers to define user requirements, product features & monetising strategies.
• Drafted competency metrics, job roles & responsibilities and career path for UX professionals in the company.

Sep 2004 – Jan 2007 · 2 yrs 4 mos · Hyderabad Area, India

• Worked as User Experience site head for more than a dozen Industry Vertical applications like financial services, Telecommunications, Higher education, Pharmaceutical and Clinical Trials.
• Worked on the Oracle Clinical Data Repository(CDR) product to redesign to make it easy for users. Conducted remote usability test with US users and iterated design for CDR. The usability study method is published in the ACM digital library. Co-authored a paper with Dr. Lene Neilson from Denmark.
• Responsible for setting up the Usability lab, recruiting designers, building UI team, and coordinating with US Headquarters. Managed a team of people from India and US.
• Coached and mentored the team by guiding them on Interaction design, UI Standards and Patterns, Usability Lab testing and Remote testing.
• Interact with Development, Product management and Strategy teams to define deliverables, and timelines and validate designs.

Oct 2001 – Sep 2004 · 2 yrs 11 mos · Pune Area, India

• Worked for Siemens PLM through Geometric Software's offshore delivery centre for 2yrs. Then became part of UGS solutions which is now Siemens PLM. I was the first person for Siemens in India for user experience. Also the first person in Geometric software. I built the design team. Worked for Siemens as UI lead managing UI designers and coordinating offshore delivery. Worked on Usability tests at US, Contextual Enquiry at UK. Designed user interactions for Team Center Engineering Products.
• Worked as Project Leader & UX Designer for Team Center Enterprise products.
• Worked for Web interface Design & Rich Java Interface design for Teamcenter Engineering (IMAN) – Rich Java client & Teamcenter Enterprise – Web client.
• Involved in contextual inquiry, user interviews, requirement gathering, User/Task analysis, user profiles, conceptual wireframes creation, UI development, usability Testing develop and document UI guidelines, patterns and standards & review documents as Project Leader for PLM products at UGS, acquired by Siemens.
• Also handled recruitments, team mentoring and training for junior team members
• 1. UGS -Contextual Enquiry & User interview: Deftly handled the responsibility of testing our Product interface and interactions by visiting two clients- Siemens and Lucy Switchgear in United Kingdom.
• Activities involved- Usability test planning & Design, Recruiting participants, Contextual enquiry and user interviews, Analysis of findings, Publishing report for improvements
• 2. UGS - Usability Lab Testing- Represented the company at PLM World Conference at Anaheim California, US to conduct full-fledge Usability Testing using Portable Lab equipment like a video camera.
• Activities involved- U test planning & Design, Recruiting participants at Conference, executing tests, Analysis of findings, Publishing report for improvements, Coordinating and follow up with Development managers

Jan 2001 – Oct 2001 · 9 mos · Pune Area, India

• Founding member of MBT's first UX team. Involved in institutionalizing UX across company. Drafted UX methods and UI guidelines. Took design trainings for developers and business analysts.
• Worked as Interaction designer, handling assignments for Telecom and e-Commerce projects involving - web applications, B2B web sites, Mobile devices & Web Portals.
• Worked on voice user interface/ Speech UI design for Nokia projects involving location based service
• Closely coordinated with Developers for bringing the Layout Consistent in all Phases.
• Developed UI designs through an iterative process which employs task analysis, functional specifications, flow charts, paper prototypes, wire frames, realistic Flash prototypes and working prototypes.
• Effectively interacted with the clients, involved in usability evaluations with internal users/ to identify issues and presented creative ideas

Jul 1999 – Dec 2000 · 1 yr 5 mos · Pune Area, India

• Worked as Industrial Designer & Ergonomist at Styling Studio(R&D).
• Received Design / Problem brief from marketing and engineering department.
• Did competitor study, market trend analysis and came out with concepts and different product user interfaces in terms of form and function.
• Also worked on ergonomics of human posture and control system.
• Involved in Computer Aided Design of vehicle parts.
• Worked on scooter instrument panel design, 3-wheeler front redesign, bike graphics.
• I also worked on Auto-Portal. This was bajaj Autos online automobile portal. I did graphic designs for vehicles too

Jun 1999 – Jul 1999 · 1 mo · Pontedera, Italy

• Worked as Industrial Designer creating concepts of scooter design for Indian market. Worked with Piaggio designers and engineers.

Jul 1995 – Jul 1997 · 2 yrs · Nasik Area, India

• Worked on computer aided designing for Bus, Jeep(Balero) & concept SUV ( Scorpio). Involved in prototyping, body layout, Gear box designing. Worked on SGI UNIX machines on Alias & Catia softwares.
• Worked as Computer Aided Design engineer in the R&D Design Dept.
• Worked on IDEAS & CATIA Solid modeling, Surfacing, Drafting , FEM analysis of Body design for Jeep, mini bus and car.
• Interacted with Design heads, VP R&D, CAD Engineers and Sheet metal craftsman. Managed a team of 14 Sheet metal craftsman to build custom prototypes.