got my first design paycheck in 2018. INR 500 ($5.99). the obsession hasn’t changed since. ^*Permalink

life’s hard. getting a cab in NYC? hard. finding the perfect product online? hard. building trust with customers you’ll never meet?? even harder. but, design has the power to cut through noise and connect people with stuff they’ll actually love. ^†

the best products are made by people who get that great design isn’t just what you see… it’s how you feel throughout. exceptional design i do starts with user research and influences every decision… brand strategy, conversion optimization, retention strategies, and customer experience.

tldr; i want to build products that make people feel confident while helping businesses grow… feel simple, not stressful ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

check out what i’m currently up to in my /log page and about the work and team I’m after here.

work historyPermalink

Here’s my resume. Please read my case studies. Some highlights:

• I interned at Twitter, now X, from 2019 to 2020 as Associate Product Manager Intern. Improving the Notifications experience and analytics funnel for Twitter Android app.
• I built Letter Beta from initial commit in 2022 through to its beta launch in 2024. A mobile app where strangers could anonymously send each other messages of kindness.
• I worked at MISO Energy as Product Designer till May 2024. Redesigned their help center to be more user-friendly and efficient.
• I run my own independent design practice from 2024 for Euro and US clients, remote from Chennai, India. I plan, design, build and manage projects from wireframes to launch.
• In the 2020s, I did brand design at Saatchi & Saatchi, London among other places. You can still find my 2020-era brand work in India Health Link Kiosks nearby in Chennai or Bangalore.

skill sets & stacksPermalink

As a frontend engineer, I’m fluid with React and Typescript. I’m particularly interested in LLMs, design systems, real-time, local-first systems and a notebook. the notebook is the most important one.

As a designer, I use high-res tools such as Paper, Figma to derive design systems and assets, or low-res tools such as TLDraw or whiteboards to figure out product flows.

As a prototyper, I use tools such as Claude code, Anycubic Kobra 2 Neo 3D Printer, Raspberry Pi, Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3, Mycelium, Bio-plastics to explore non-interface interaction experiences. I’m drawn to mycelium-based bio-design, computational poetry, and physical computing… places where design meets material, and digital meets organic.

I’ll tell you when a feature should not exist, before you’ve built it. I’m competent as a designer or engineer and I love making design real in code. Some people call this mix “design engineering”.

processPermalink

The value of good design is only realised if you have an engineer capable of discerning the details in code (or if you’re lucky, they’re one and the same). Jim Nielsen

what do i do? - talk to users, make sense of it, design something, build it, ship it, watch what happens. repeat. that’s the whole thing. in between…

Code as design tool. I use code as a design tool to get as close as possible to the nitty gritty of the medium. It is simply a much faster feedback loop & gives me unique agency. ^§

Materialising ideas. Neither code nor design is the point. Materialising ideas is. I think there is no substitute for the journey of forming/curating personal taste by paying attention to the world and learning the trade of making ideas real.

Tempo. Knowing the tempo of work is underrated. Are we testing a hypothesis? Drafting it until it’s obvious and simple? Running downhill towards a feature release? I keep a tempo in mind at all times.

Teamwork. I believe that scenius is a big secret hidden in plain sight: shared intuitions and mutual at-handedness within a team creates the speed which “prioritises parsimony and substraction in the solution space”, as Collison says.

beyond the screenPermalink

I collect music of Tamil Retro esp. Ilaiyaaraja and M.S.V.

I read books and watch films voraciously; Kollywood movies or Hollywood action-packed movies are current fav in watchlist. My favourite pick is either Naayagan or Tom Cruise's any movies.

I’ve lived in 3 countries and 8 cities. Home is Chennai, India with my parents.