Product Design Manager · Founding team, Firstclub · Bengaluru
Most of my work now happens before a screen exists — naming the real problem, getting the team to one decision, and making their answer better than mine.
I head product design at Firstclub, a quick-commerce platform I joined as part of the founding team, launched in Bangalore. Before that, eight years and five companies of systems-heavy product work — Cleartrip and Flipkart, Zeta, Newme, Appiness: fare rules, banking data, support queues, a listing page read in under a second.
Engineer by training. Four years teaching design alongside the day job, which is where I learned that the fastest way to test whether you understand something is to make someone else able to do it.
Where I create leverage
Four things, in roughly the order they matter to a team.
Product strategy
Turning an ambiguous ask into a problem worth solving. Most of the value is in deciding what the team is actually trying to change — before anyone opens Figma.
Design leadership
Helping designers build their own point of view instead of waiting for mine. My success is the quality of the decisions the team can make without me in the room.
Cross-functional leadership
Getting Product, Engineering and Business to one decision, early enough that the design survives it. Late-stage disagreement is where good work goes to die.
Product craft
Still close enough to shape a flow, an information model or a fare table when the decision is expensive. Delegating execution is not the same as losing the plot.
- Currently Product Design Manager at Firstclub — founding team member, quick-commerce
- Scope N designers across N product areas · partnering with Product, Engineering and Business
- Previously Newme · Flipkart · Cleartrip · Zeta · Appiness
- Teaching Guest faculty at Pearl Academy · four years faculty at Designboat · 20+ workshops across India
- Recent impact +200% international booking value at Cleartrip · +15% conversion on the Newme shop page
- Status Open to Design Manager and Head of Design conversations
Selected work
Four leadership stories from Firstclub, and the shipped work behind them.
How I lead
Five principles. Each one has a project attached, because a principle without evidence is a slogan.
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Frame the problem before reviewing the solution
The brief that arrives is rarely the problem. Before I look at a screen I want to know which decision the user is stuck on and what the team is actually trying to change. Reviewing craft on top of the wrong problem is the most expensive thing a design team can do.
At Cleartrip the funnel said the result page leaked hardest, so the first phase went there — not the search form everyone had opinions about. International flight search →
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Make the team think; don't hand over the answer
A designer who waits for their manager's answer stops being a designer. My job is to supply enough context and enough challenge that they reach a better answer than the one I had — and can defend it without me in the room.
Four years as design faculty at Designboat, now guest faculty at Pearl Academy, plus 20+ workshops. Teaching is where you find out whether you actually understand your own reasoning. Leading →
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Decide what is primary, and defend it
Every function has a field they want on the card. Deciding what is genuinely primary — and saying no to the rest with the people who asked still in the room — is most of the job, and it isn't a craft skill.
The primary-versus-secondary data point list for the international flight card, settled with product managers, business representatives and engineers. International flight search →
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Get close when the decision is expensive
I delegate execution and stay in the decisions with real user or business consequence. Knowing which is which is the whole skill — being everywhere is just a slower way of being nowhere.
Three iterations on international search, each shipped and read before the next started, with weekly engineering reviews through implementation. International flight search →
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Judge design against outcomes, not polish
A beautiful screen that doesn't move the thing it was built to move is a failure with good taste. I want the team arguing about the user's decision and the metric, not the corner radius.
+200% booking value and +23% transactions at Cleartrip · +15% conversion and −12% bounce at Newme · 21% average conversion on CT FlexMax. Craft →