Feb 2024 – Oct 2025 · 1 yr 8 mos · Wilson, NC · Remote

• Pioneering the world’s first AI-driven marketing solution at Illuminix.ai, I’ve been at the forefront of integrating advanced AI technologies to disrupt and transform marketing processes for businesses of all sizes. My contributions span product innovation, strategic UX research, and customer experience design, all driven by a deep understanding of cognitive science and human behavior. At the heart of my work is the belief that AI should serve human needs, not replace them. By combining cutting-edge technology with empathetic design, I strive to create products that transform industries while staying deeply connected to human emotions.
• Key Contributions:
• Capital Raise & Strategic Vision: As a key figure in Illuminix.ai’s strategic growth, I secured investments and drove investor confidence through a compelling vision of how AI can revolutionize marketing.
• AI-Driven Innovation: Designed and led the development of an AI-enabled marketing platform that empowers small businesses to compete with industry giants by automating real-time complex marketing tasks.
• User-Centric AI Solutions: Blended AI technology with neuroscience principles to craft seamless, hyper-personalized user experiences, ensuring intuitive and human interactions.
• Cognitive and Behavioral Expertise: Leveraged my expertise in cognitive science and behavioral psychology to design products that anticipate user needs and make interactions effortless, joyful, and scalable.
• Design Leadership & Business Growth: In addition to driving product innovation, I’ve led the design team in crafting intuitive, AI-driven solutions that resonate with users and investors alike. My design leadership extends beyond aesthetics to building systems that deliver measurable business results, enhancing both product-market fit and long-term value for stakeholders.

Sep 2017 – Present · 8 yrs 9 mos · Global

• Speaker on topics ranging from design, innovation, well-being, and joy
• Featured Speaking Engagements:
• Seeing the Unseen: AI, Ecosystems and the Wisdom Within. Invited talk. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Keynote: 'Make Joy Your Design's Source Code.' Web Directions Summit, Sydney, Australia.
• 'Creating joyful experiences.' World Usability Congress, Graz, Austria.
• 'The Power Of Joyful.Design.' thinkfuture: innovation, startups and the future. Podcast.
• 'Frustration to fulfillment.' UCD Gathering. Cambridge, UK.
• 'Rethink Happiness - Insights on Mind, Body, and Consciousness.' The Free Thinkers Institute. New York, NY.
• 'Design and Innovation.' National Cognitive Science Conference, San Diego, CA
• 5 Reasons to invite Himanshu to be a speaker at your next event:
• Proven thought leader: Himanshu has delivered presentations worldwide and has been a keynote speaker to large audiences of over 1000 at top conferences. His presentations have been recognized as creme de la creme at these events.
• Inspirational: Himanshu's unique joyful philosophy on life and work has been lauded as inspirational, practical, provocative, and full of industry insights and takeaways.
• Interactive and Joyful: Himanshu's talks are engaging and memorable, and Your audience will leave smiling. It is perfect for any event or organization that wants to learn and be entertained at the same time.
• Himanshu is very humble, easy, and straightforward to work with. He believes public speaking is an opportunity to help people, share knowledge, and push the industry forward.
• Himanshu will help your event succeed. He has been an event organizer himself on a much smaller scale than yours (meetups) and knows how extremely tough your job is.

Jun 2017 – Oct 2019 · 2 yrs 4 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Founder of a UX agency with 3 partners. RGB Matters was an Experience Design agency based in New York. Role: business development, operations, created joyful design philosophy, and design leadership. At RGB Matters, I led the design and development of UX strategies and execution for clients across FinTech, healthcare, and SaaS, improving user engagement and customer satisfaction with the product or helping them with product marketing.
• Who we are:
• At RGB Matters, we take joy in everything we do, whether it is our ideation process, strategic approach, work delivery or even the way we hire. Our approach is simple. We join the dots between thinking, doing and feeling. We aim to design the human interface instead of the user interface. Because we believe that joyful people create joyful experiences, leading to lasting engagement and higher brand loyalty. Our key clients are Timeless Media, the Advertising Research Foundation, Iris Software, and Alphaserve. No debt nor operating loss in its years of existence.

Oct 2016 – Jun 2017 · 8 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Creative leader for digital experience and Brand development projects. Led the user experience strategy, design & brand development of Kazzam! B2B product, Life Extension, Diamond Resorts etc. Worked on leading the design for Kazzam! a digital product for Party City. It is a complex e-commerce platform driven by artificial intelligence. A great place to work with a unique private equity investment/partnership model with clients unlike the fee-based model of agencies. Conducted 20 minute meditation sessions everyday for employees to help manage stress and improve productivity. Kazzam! by Party City grew from a pilot market to nationwide within three years, booking 10,000+ annual events, grossing $2M in its first two years, and reaching $16M revenue with 88 employees. Achieving 80%+ month-over-month customer sales growth, it has fulfilled over 10,000 parties nationwide.

Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 · 0 mo · Greater New York City Area

• Digital Center of Excellence leadership board member. Design team lead for Traveler’s public-facing Web sites, marketing, and e-learning product. Cross collaboration with multiple departments and external agencies.
• Led digital work that kept everyone secure, one policy at a time.
• Digital design board member in Travelers Digital Center of Excellence leadership team. Work included evolving new digital brand style for the company.
• Collaborated with several internal departments on digital projects: Enterprise Digital Marketing, User Experience, Personal Insurance marketing, Business Insurance Marketing, Corporate Marketing etc
• Creative leadership on designing an online e-learning course for insurance agents.
• UX leadership on evaluating current website experience for Prepare and Prevent section and redesigning it .
• Thought leadership in the area of digital design. Presented new digital trends, technologies and opportunities to Enterprise Digital Marketing department and Advertising & Media department employees.

Jun 2015 – Jun 2015 · 0 mo · Greater New York City Area

• For their 100th anniversary, American Express Travel launched Journeymakers: a new digital campaign and platform that recognizes the special people behind every travel moment.
• I led the concept and creation of an immersive launch event experience to highlight the stories, images, and functionality of the platform.

Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 · 1 yr · Greater New York City Area

• Started this awesome gig with the good guys at a UX design startup —Usable, which was acquired by Synechron. I was tasked with leading the UX/UI function for for the following client teams:
• 1) Deutsche Bank- Building an internal global data management application that provides timely, complete, and accurate responses to data requests to efficiently manage an ocean of data. It is a complex, multimillion-dollar project and I can hear my brain cells being tickled every day since I came onboard. We gathered requirements, created a new architecture, designed and built the solution to ensure the Bank’s data assets are indexed, classified, and cataloged with an associated governance and control model.
• 2) EverBank: My goal was to lead the team to streamline the User Experience of their CRM system and design a ‘better way of doing important things’ through a visual design solution. The design solution saves EverBank's time by creating logical organization, limiting distractions and visual hierarchy of content.

Jun 2014 – May 2015 · 11 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Led the product design and 0-1 innovation for Singlecare insurance product at Leob Labs, NY. Led its Branding, Responsive Web design, Application Design, and Mobile Apps. Created the foundational product that eventually grew @ 0.12% monthly in 5 years to have 8M+ web traffic & 158,000 app downloads, partnering with 35,000 pharmacies since its launch
• In less than a year of launch, SingleCare streamlined and made healthcare more accessible, serving over 7,000 Pennsylvania residents who faced affordability challenges or coverage gaps.
• In less than a year, the company grew its Pennsylvania network to more than 4,400 healthcare providers, including doctors, dentists, chiropractors, mental health specialists, and pharmacies.
• Built the product right from scratch at Leob Labs, NY, by helping SingleCare establish itself as the big brand it is today, resulting in millions of customers & growing to 150 employees
• Digital design for Sage Software Inc.
• iPad application design work for AXA Financial Services. Financial advisors will look no further and will definitely entice their clients into using AXA's variable annuities and retirement plans once the app is out.

May 2014 – May 2014 · 0 mo · Greater New York City Area

• Digital communication projects for Lincoln Car. Almost bought the car at the end of the gig, but fell short on money. Would definitely like to go back here and earn more so buy it soon. Great place. Great people and a wonderful account to work on.

Apr 2014 – May 2014 · 1 mo · Greater New York City Area

• Shingles is serious and super painful. Each year, about 600,000 Americans are diagnosed with it. Thank god there is a vaccine for it and I helped advertise it. So hoping for the number to come down significantly this year because of my advertising effort!

Mar 2014 – Apr 2014 · 1 mo · Greater New York City Area

• Digital marketing for Verizon. Changing the world one banner and one message at a time.

Dec 2013 – Feb 2014 · 2 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Led the design of the world's first loan application on Facebook that got coverage on Wired magazine. http://www.wired.com/2014/05/lenddo-facebook/
• Led UX/UI design for the backend web application for this product, various UX and Visual Design projects. Facebook App, Back end Admin system Interface.

Apr 2013 – Nov 2013 · 7 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Charged with exploring and shaping digital marketing initiatives for IBM with his mighty awesomeness. Design team lead across 4 IBM divisions.
• Digital initiatives for IBM Design Lab projects, IBM Social Business, IBM Midsize Business Solutions, IBM Risk Analytics, IBM Research, IBM Institute for Business Value, IBM Information on Demand and IBM Security Systems divisions.
• Trained in Agile Scrum team environment & Process Improvement.

Jan 2013 – Mar 2013 · 2 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Design team Leadership for Vivus: Qsymia, ( A weight loss medication) consumer and HCP digital efforts that included iPad app, banner ads, email marketing and interactive exhibition panels.

Sep 2012 – Dec 2012 · 3 mos · Greater New York City Area

• iPad apps, Banner ad campaigns, email campaigns,interactive Exhibition Kiosks for Genentech:Metastatic, Novartis Oncology:Gleevec & Tasigna,Santarus: Uceris & Zegerid, Clovis Oncology and Bayer: Aspirin.

Jun 2012 – Aug 2012 · 2 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Responsive Website design, mobile and tablet application design projects for Genentech brands: Avastin, Actemra, Lucentis. Pfizer Brand: Somavert

Oct 2011 – Present · 14 yrs 8 mos · Greater New York City Area · Remote

• I create with heart, think with intention, and lead with optimism. Consultant, Director UX/UI and Creative, Head of Product Design for various agencies & clients like MRM, FCB, Area23, Publicis, Vivaldi, Momentum, Lenddo, Gabardine, Hudson Rouge, Patients & Purpose, Synechron, etc. NY and CT. Led internal teams. Partnered with senior executives & practitioners across business units to drive product strategy, execution, & optimization processes.
• Morgan Stanley: Led Design strategy and implementation with a large cross-functional team of 30+ experts and 20+ global technology team members.
• Lionbridge: Influenced 60% of the new business pipeline within 2 years of launch. Increased unique website pageviews for desktop by more than 3x, from 100,000 to 3,200,000 in two years. Clocked 50,000 valid top-of-the-funnel chat interactions, resulting in massive engagement and millions in new business. Implemented new brand experience globally in 9 languages across 250+ markets.
• Skills: User Experience design and strategy, Digital Product design, User research, User Testing, Design thinking workshops, Design Sprints, Customer Journeys, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Branding, Interaction Design, Mobile, Social, Product, Responsive, Digital design, Advertising, Content Strategy, Information Architecture, Team Building & Management, New Business, Adobe Creative Suite, Advertising Art Direction, UI/UX, CX, creative, digital, Design Director, Design Manager, CD, AD, ACD, ECD, Branding, Marketing, Creative Director, Freelance, Digital Designer, Interactive, social media, IOS, Android, Applications, Copy, Print, TV, Visual Design, Design system, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Prompt Engineering, XD, UX research, UX Strategy, Creative Resource, Talent and so much more.
• Freelancing/Contracting for agencies and startups in New York.
• In summary, Himanshu designs awesome stuff for money. It's that simple.

Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 · 1 yr · New York, NY

• Design team leadership for Nikon and Sara Lee brands: Hillshire Farm and Jimmy Dean, Samsung Mobile.

Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 · 2 yrs · Westport, CT

• Digital projects for Cognizant and [x+1]

Jan 2006 – Jan 2011 · 5 yrs · Hartford, Connecticut Area

• Founded a design studio in Connecticut, with focus on offshore development and production work at an RGB Matter office in India. Set up a production center and trained staff in New Delhi, India.
• Client work for Halifax Health, Chase Bank, Wall Street Journal, GE, Global Air Charters, Fletcher knight and Greenwood publishing Group

Jan 2006 – Jan 2011 · 5 yrs · Phoenix, Arizona Area

• Founding team member, employee 1, Creative Lead. Led a team of 20 designers, PMs, and front-end developers. Built In-house SAAS product AssociationEZ and zero-to-one products for early-stage startups. Scaled a digital agency business from 0 to $1M and 10 employees in less than 2 years.
• Creative direction on digital projects on Thomson Reuters, ASML, AZ.gov, NYC.gov, University of Michigan, AZ State University, FRAM, Birds Eye Voila! Developed and managed the Internet marketing strategy, concept, design, and production of complex applications and websites for over 50 clients. Produced the agency’s corporate identity, marketing program, and materials. Help establish an offshore innovation and execution center in India. Established internal standards and creative development processes. Pitched and won new clients, managed and trained a team of 20 onshore and offshore design staff.

Jan 2001 – Jan 2006 · 5 yrs · Greater New York City Area

• Used to be Modem Media before being acquired by Digitas. Websites and applications for fortune 500 companies
• Worked on interactive projects for General Motors, Kodak, Snickers, GE, Eastern Mountain Sports, Citibank, Heineken, IBM, Kraft, Pfizer, Merrill Lynch, Dice, Revlon, Sirius, Delta, Bunge and AOL. I brought 2 of the world's first successful digital product innovations to life:
• First Social Networking Ad. A chat-enabled social banner for Dice. Winner of 22 industry awards, including 11 Gold, and hundreds of thousands of users ranted wildly inside the ads for 2 years.
• Multi-player gaming banner- Humanaction for Heineken. Played by 1M+ users over 4 months. Average time engaged: 5+ mins. 4.2% CTR – highest in brand history. 38% shared with a friend.

Jan 1998 – Jan 2001 · 3 yrs · Syracuse, New York Area

• Responsible for the design of School of Management SU website and website for Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University.