Innovative. Creative. Builder.
In my 20ish years my title has changed a few times, but I have always done one thing: shape technology. I have been fortunate to play a part in releasing some amazing products, from household names like Samsung Galaxy Fold to S/W for specialists working in secret labs.
I loved collaborating, storytelling, hearing inspiring ideas, and strategizing how those ideas would come to life. Product building always felt natural, but loving business came late to me. I had always dreamed of my own startup, but I never understood the mechanics of launching a brand, a company, that customers would be curious to try and eventually love using. It came together slowly as I worked closely with sales, marketing, customer success, legal, and leaders across the company. They taught me real-life lessons. High-stakes negotiations, winning pitches with Fortune 100 C-suites, and boiling years of strategy down to 15 minutes for a chance at a contract gave me the right boost of confidence.
Building Chekable, my legal-tech startup, was really hard. I had never worn so many hats. I loved it. I was excited to get out of bed and take on the challenges of running a business while still delivering product. I succeeded on many fronts: raising capital, hiring a great team, building a differentiated product. I failed on even more. 70+ hrs/week for 3 straight years on a five-figure salary, lots of ramen and optimism.
I am naturally excited about AI. There has never been a better time for product builders. Many people now believe AI tools let them build anything, so why buy software when they can build their own? The real value is in what they can't build. The bar is high and rising faster than products can keep up. It's going to be a ride, and what a time to be alive.
Product trail (WIP)
2026
Bazze: Founding PM, Data marketplace (B2G)
Platform (API+MCP): Increase speed of vendor integration from loosely defined time to 1 week, increase ETL reliability to remove 10% data regression, increase 1 new vendor per sprint to 4, extend unified API infrastructure to support images, videos and audio files to layer on top of spatiotemporal data.
Mission Studio - MCP and web app based workflow builder to deliver insights based on data sources (Data analyst as a product). Pivot from platform to outcomes as product using 100’s of data sources that very few people understand and know how to use. Establishing business model and pricing for this offering.
Console: Redesigned and simplified process builder for special use-cases and exploratory investigations.
Shepherd AI: Introduced planner and costing agents, geo-spatial tools added to the AI chat interface. (Evals, model upgrades, LLM ops, CoT and prompting)
Marketplace: Build payment infrastructure to support usage based and fixed price products with reconciliation. Solve 80% of vendors overcharging issue. Move to auto-pay vendor with Net30 terms from email invoice and manual report tally.
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
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2002
Director, Digital Studio, Trianz Inc. CA, USA
Grew the design team to a team of 10 researchers, strategists, visual designers, and interaction designers by matrixing Digital Studio across all technology verticals. Instituted hiring process, service offerings, go-to-market strategy, and business development plan and training to help increase Trianz’s capabilities. Managing project deliveries, providing design direction from strategy and end-end product lifecycle. Pivoted and restructured operations due to the impact of COVID-19 and successfully moved a 100% remote consulting model.
2014 to 2019
Slalom, UX manager/principal, San Francisco CA, USA
Helping Fortune 500 Bay Area companies on a wide range of problems from business intelligence tools, e-commerce sites, enterprise portals to facilitating workshops. Helped Slalom evolve the design practice, mentor direct reports and evangelize design thinking across the organization.
2010 to 2014
Samsung Electronics, Innovation Lab R&D, Seoul, South Korea
Authored more than 60 patents amassing an expertise in IP process and creation. Worked on transparent technology, flexible technology, multi-modal interfaces, 3d-technology, facial recognition and depth sensing.
2008 to 2010
(RISD) Rhode Island School of Design, MFA Digital+Media, Providence RI, USA
Presented a paper at a conference, won a graduate fellowship award and was an honor student. Taught a graduate class and was a TA for photography courses and wood workshop.
2007 to 2010
Architecture and Interior Design, New Delhi, India
A mix of free-lance and full-time work designing offices and residences.
2005
6 month internship, Idiom Designs and Consulting, Bangalore, India
Worked on office furniture design, space planning, retail design and hospitality spaces.
2001 to 2007
Interior Architecture degree, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Designed sets for music concerts, designed tensile structures, his thesis work corrected some facts on history of architecture in New Delhi.
Before 2001 - Early days
Wanted to design flying cars as a boy growing up in that era
You could find sketches behind all my notebooks, my pottery got sold out at school fairs. Visited my fathers construction sites and furniture factory on weekends and during summer. Carpenters at the factory spoiled me with unlimited supply of hand made wooden toys. Eventually, I designed my bedroom for our new house in 8th grade with elevations, plans, and specifications that I gave to my father which he got built.
Trainings
Dale Carnegie leadership training for managers, 2019
NN/g UX Leadership certification, 2018
Certified Scrum Master, 2017
MBA for Designers (2 day course)
NEXT Leadership trainings - Organizational effectiveness, Management and Operations, 2017
Providing and Receiving Feedback - Direct Feedback Framework, 2017
How to Coach - Coaching vs. Mentoring, 2017
Widening the Circle - Inclusion and Diversity classes, 2017
Franklin Covey Sales Training: Qualifying opportunities and the sales funnel, 2016
Competency Based Interviewing training and framework - How to hire, 2016
Managing Direct Reports, 2016
Design Leadership, Cooper U, 2015
Writing and research
Medium Article on uxdesign.cc - The ultimate guide to the American healthcare industry for Product Designers (UX)
Medium Article on uxdesign.cc - Thinking of applying Lean Startup at your enterprise? 10 design lessons.
Trianz Blog - Mobile Applications Ecosystem: Underutilized Portal to the Future
Medium Article - Atmospheric UX: Design Inspiration to Theory to Practice
Human Interface Guidelines for Flexible Display Technology - Samsung Electronics (for internal use only)
Human Interface Guidelines for Transparent Display Technology - Samsung Electronics (for internal use only)
Design Principles for design 3D user interfaces: Virtual & Stereoscopic experiences- Samsung Best Paper entry (for internal use only)
Paper -Intervention or Interference of Digital Technologies in Interior Design: Developing Spatial Digital Experience, 15th Nov 2009, Presenter at MediaModes graduate conference at SVA, New York.
MFA Thesis - The Emergence of “Digital Places”
B.design Research Thesis - Colonial Residences: Delhi - A study of influences during the British Raj (1803-1947)
Etc..
Invision: Design Disruptors - Movie Screening for SF design community - host and organizer, 2017
Monthly Design Talks - Slalom lunch and learn 2016 series organizer and giving talks
AIGA SF Design week Panel- Design doesn't matter - Host, organizer and moderator
Red Dot Design competition participation and entry, 2015