Life & Writing
What I think about when I'm not designing — and occasionally, what I write down.
Outside Work
Reading
Psychology, personal growth, and poetry — that's my reading diet. Audible and Substack count too. Currently listening to Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks.
Pilates & Spinning
When I first moved to Seattle three years ago, Soulcycle and Solidcore gave me community and survival instincts for the grey. I've never looked back — to the old life or the old cardio. And yes, my best design ideas happen mid-class. I consider it a very expensive thinking chair.
Cooking
I'm most creative when I'm cooking. I don't follow recipes, and I don't write them either — I wing it, mixing experience, cuisines, and flavors to maximize protein while keeping my meals meat-free. My friends and coworkers know me for my cooking. I didn't even know I was good at it — I just kept surprising every person I hosted. People say I'm gifted. I won't deny it.
Painting
My dad — a doctor who somehow always carved out time for play — taught me that all work and no art makes anyone a dull human. So I picked up oil painting, graduated to watercolors, and now I can zone out for hours staring at a canvas and call it meditation. Namaste, but make it turpentine.
Writing
Articles & Essays
Problem-solving with design in complex systems
Dec 2018On designers as participants, wicked problems, and why everyone should be involved in problem-solving.
Design Featured on Prototypr Blog ↗
Designing ethically under pressure
Oct 2024Nobody called them dark patterns in that meeting. The growth team called them retention optimisations. Two stories — one where I pushed back, one where I didn't.
Ethics
Balancing user needs with business constraints
Jan 2024The constraint was never users versus revenue. It was honest revenue versus extraction. Those look identical in month one. Very different in month eighteen.
Strategy
I can't get buy-in
Aug 2023Three weeks of the same feedback: "This doesn't feel right." Nobody could tell me what right was. Why finished designs fail and rough thinking succeeds.
Leadership
My work isn't having real impact
Feb 2023Ticket in, mockup out. Forty-some screens that quarter. Not one moved a metric anyone tracked. On shifting from output to outcome.
Process
Am I solving the right problem?
Sep 2022Three weeks in, we had wireframes and alignment. What we didn't have was the right problem. On the unease that arrives mid-project and why it's worth listening to.
Research
Imposter syndrome and creative doubt
Mar 2021First critique at the new job. I caught maybe forty percent of what people said. On not knowing, and what that turned out to be good for.
Career
Cracking the code for employee retention
Mar 2020A message to leadership — why retention isn't about perks, and why the concept might be obsolete.
Leadership
Things that are different in New York from India
Dec 2018Culture shock, observation addiction, and the New York Moment that compelled me to write again.
Life
Switch from Android to iOS — Muscle Memory in Denial
Mar 2018A UX designer's unfiltered take on switching platforms. Spoiler: muscle memory doesn't forgive.
UX
Dunzo: the Saviour, the Mom, the Best Friend
Jul 2017A love letter to the app that replaced my mom, my best friend, and my personal assistant. Almost.
Life