Journey from Balance Sheet to a Balanced Product Design

It all began in late 2001, around the time when I was finishing my bachelor’s degree in business administration and trying to figure out what to do next. A daunting task at the time, given the fact that I picked commerce over science in a family where the last three generations had just seen Engineers and Doctors. Moving to the User Experience Design field, I must add, was a pretty big and bold step, especially in the 2000s. At the time when the Design itself was not a well-known field, at least in the Indian IT sector, leave aside it being a mainstream function. The world especially India, would have taken a few additional years to warm up to it, after Don Norman would have formally coined the term User experience, in 1993. And approx. nine years for me to get formally inducted into the field. During these nine years, I would have taken some risky unorthodox decisions to get to it, which now when I look back, it kind of all makes sense.

The journey…

1998, joined a management institute to purse my bachelors in business administration with specialization in finance. The only non-science field that had an acceptance in the Indian society, we millennials were growing up in.

2000, interned at Bharat Electronics. My final year submission “a hard-bound maroon leather-jacketed with gold color screen printing”. Well, I was always interested in the aesthetics and the design of the report than the numbers it carried. In fact, I remember digitizing the logo of the company, using MS Paint, and even designed the cover page for a bunch of my friend’s final report. They fell into the trap of judging the book by its cover ;). First design work and realization of the design field.

2001, chose a temp web design job in HSS (now Aricent), over a high-paying Financial Analyst job in McKinsey. Kicking it off in Sep 2001, when the dot-com bubble burst was well underway and IT sector was going through a period of recession. Start of the design career and long road ahead.

2008, moved south to Bangalore silicon valley of India to join HFI at the time when the IT was going through its great 2007 -09 recession. A risky proposition, especially when one is moving with family from hometown to the other far end of the country. Formal introduction to ‘user-centered design’.

2012, left an established and publicly owned company to join a startup ‘Qyuki Digital Media’, as Sr. UX Designer to eventually Heading the Design Studio. First venture into the Design Leadership role.

2015, stepped away from leading a team in design consultancy space to join Amazon as an IC, Sr. UX Designer. Learnt how to use data to inform design.

2018, moved to The United States, during the Trump-era, a risky proposition for visa-based workers. Opportunity to lead a global multi-disciplinary design team.

It seems like, I am the master of bad timing ;). At least it felt like that, at the time when I had taken these steps. Now, when I look back it all seems to fall in place. My path to the current role of Heading an Amazon Devices Developer Experience team, that works on flagship products, like Fire TV and Echo device. Looking back, I am sure a boy sitting in an accounting class could have never pictured himself doing what he is doing today.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future.

— Steve Jobs

It’s a quote I believe in, especially now. It’s important to trust some of the decisions, even if they feel risky or not so relevant at the time, just see them as yet another milestone ‘Dot’ and trust it’s going to connect to the right next one and keep moving forward.

These were my dots, which totally makes sense now when I connect them looking backward. I may not have started a company or become a billionaire, at least not as yet ;), but I have an opportunity to work on products that impact millions of customers.

Why now?

We all know it’s important to set goals and move forward to achieve, but I feel it’s equally important to reflect on your journey, acknowledge your big and small milestones alike, what you have been through and how you have gotten where you are right now. Keep pushing :)