Apr 2023 – Mar 2024 · 11 mos · Remote

May 2021 – Mar 2023 · 1 yr 10 mos · Remote

Oct 2020 – May 2021 · 7 mos

Nov 2017 – Oct 2020 · 2 yrs 11 mos

• Cleartrip is India's #2 and MENA's #1 online travel aggregator. The brand has been considered, arguably, *the* benchmark for good design in the Indian e-commerce space.
• As Senior Director, Design, I'm responsible for all product, research and communication design across 3 geographies (India, UAE & Saudi Arabia), 2 brands (Cleartrip and Flyin) and 2 languages (English and Arabic).
• Tenure highlights-
• Scaled the design org from 6 to 20+ over two years and restructured to a centralised partnership model
• Helped restructure and absorb the visual/ brand communication function into the design organisation (VisComm previously reported into marketing). Scaled function from 1 to 4 people
• Led the effort to design and launch 3 new-to-Cleartrip products (Packaged holidays, E-Visa and Flights Plus Hotels) for the MENA market from scratch- research to production
• Owned the design, development, operationalisation and cross-functional adoption of Bento, Cleartrip's design system and white-labeling platform
• Helped integrate acquired brand (Flyin.com) into Cleartrip- people, processes and product
• Proposed and owned the design, development and deployment of TravelSafe, Cleartrip's online resource to safe, post-Covid travel, in 3 different countries through chaotic times

Sep 2016 – Sep 2017 · 1 yr · Bengaluru Area, India

• redBus is India's first, and largest, online bus ticketing platform.
• As Senior Director, Design, I owned product, research and communication design across all customer touch points. This included global design ownership of the entire product portfolio (fleet operator products, the consumer websites and apps across 6 countries in the Indian Subcontinent, South East Asia and Latin America) and communication design for marketing (digital, ATL, BTL).
• Tenure highlights-
• Restructured the design organisation to a centralised partnership model with called out owners for each of redBus' revenue lines- bus tickets, hotel accommodation, pilgrimage holidays and buses for hire (charters)
• Led the effort to design and launch consumer products (desktop & mobile websites, mobile apps) in 3 new countries (Indonesia, Peru, Colombia) from scratch- research to production
• Owned the grounds-up redesign of seller side products (fleet & inventory management, business intelligence) for 4 countries- research to production

Aug 2015 – Sep 2016 · 1 yr 1 mo · Bengaluru Area, India

• Ezetap is a FinTech early-stage start-up that aims to disrupt the merchant-side payments industry in India.
• As Director, Design & Creative Services I owned design as a horizontal within the organisation along with directly managing external creative services partner relationships.
• Tenure highlights-
• Chartered with leading the Series-A funded design thrust across brand, product and communication
• Hired and led a cross-functional design team (included design research, UX design and industrial design capabilities)
• Set up and fine tuned processes across all 3 capabilities
• Led the design effort for the Series-A funded version of the app (first design-led version) along with the launch communication strategy
• Redesigned the brand identity and visual communication strategy with the help of external creative partners
• Led the design and engineering effort of 3 variants of the merchant point-of-sale terminal hardware & interface

Mar 2014 – Aug 2015 · 1 yr 5 mos · Bengaluru Area, India

• I took on ownership of the India Service Delivery Organisation which included product development and packaging design & development capabilities, in addition to research & design. The India SDO was chartered with delivering business critical innovation solutions to Fortune 500 customers in markets like India, South Asia, Latin America, North America & Europe.
• I was responsible for all people & processes that delivered this charter.
• Tenure highlights-
• The entire Service Delivery org (70+ people) reported in to me
• Restructured the SDO around flexible, cross-functional project pods rather than siloed capabilities
• Set up and fine tuned the collaborative framework that ensured multi-country/ multi-time zone project delivery to globally dispersed customers
• Responsible for bringing in other operational efficiencies in the delivery workflow (common tools, handover procedures, file formats)

Nov 2010 – Aug 2015 · 4 yrs 9 mos · Bengaluru Area, India

• My primary focus was to build & lead the research & design capability at Axiom. This included hiring, mentoring & driving talent evolution for an integrated capability spanning research, UX design, visual communication design and industrial design.
• I also fronted pre-sales and strategic research & design conversations with customers
• Tenure highlights-
• Scaled from a design team of 3 to a multi-capability design organisation of 20+ people in just under 18 months
• Built design-led research and UX design as core capabilities, from scratch- created business cases for hiring, negotiated budgets, set hiring objectives, established review mechanisms and evangelised the new capabilities to non-design stakeholders within the company
• Trained researchers and designers to collaborate remotely with our Fortune 500 customer teams in North America, Europe and Japan
• Owned and fronted multiple deep-rural research initiatives for our customer teams at P&G
• Owned and fronted multiple urban-India research initiatives for our customer teams at Johnson & Johnson
• Owned and fronted multiple pan-India research initiatives for our customer teams at Airbus

Jan 2009 – Nov 2010 · 1 yr 10 mos · New Delhi Area, India

• I taught modules in design history, visual representation techniques & computer aided design to post-graduate students of design

Dec 2008 – Nov 2010 · 1 yr 11 mos · Noida Area, India

• designdaku offered strategy, retail, UX and industrial design services to small and medium enterprises. Our work spanned categories as diverse as Automotive ancillaries and Entertainment.
• As a co-founder my responsibilities included creative leadership, mentoring, sales and accounts.

Oct 2006 – Nov 2008 · 2 yrs 1 mo · Ahmedabad Area, India

• Co-led a multi-disciplinary team that included industrial designers, interaction & visual designers, CAD engineers, plastics and materials engineers, multimedia specialists and market research analysts in a design consultancy/ services environment.
• Tenure highlights-
• Defined work scope (including costing) and planned project flows (including task priorities, budget utilisation and resource planning)
• Helped develop processes and work flows for multi-disciplinary teams to collaborate better
• Developed products in a wide range of product categories including consumer electronics, medical & healthcare (diagnostics, surgical, rehabilitation, etc.), lifestyle accessories, lawn & garden products, bathroom products, outdoor sports & recreation, toys, etc.

Apr 2005 – Sep 2006 · 1 yr 5 mos · Ahmedabad Area, India

• Self initiated projects in consumer electronics, wearable computing, lifestyle products, community waste management, etc. Work profile included problem identification, design, modeling and prototyping.

Apr 2003 – Mar 2005 · 1 yr 11 mos · Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

• Design & Branding for Oval-ONGC**
• Was part of a two member core design team that led the design and branding initiative for the newly formed fuel retail arm of ONGC, India's largest public sector oil company.
• Corporate Identity, Branding Strategy & Brand Management Manual
• Layout & Design of Retail System and Retail Space
• Signage System
• Design of Coinage Policy and Circulation Coins for India Govt. Mint, Reserve
• Bank of India and the Dept. of Coins and Currency, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of
• India**
• Was part of a two member core design team that designed a coinage policy and a series of coins for circulation.
• Designed and implemented a comprehensive research strategy examining various usability issues
• Designed and proposed a new set of circulation coins based on the research incorporating new materials, lower production time & cost, and a completely new aesthetic

Aug 2001 – Mar 2003 · 1 yr 7 mos · Mumbai Area, India

• I started my career designing websites and corporate print collateral. As a freelancer I was my own one man army, dealing with everything from sales to creatives to production.