Transforming Design into Business Strategy: A Practical Guide for Middle Managers and Senior ICs
The real battleground for design influence isn’t the C-suite—it’s middle management. As a design leader, you shape how design is perceived, prioritized, and funded within your organization. But to drive real business impact, you must move beyond usability and tie design to KPIs, revenue, and efficiency. Learn how to position design as a business driver, not just a service.
What High Performers Do Differently & How to Train Yourself to Become One
High performers aren’t just talented—they train their minds, habits, and energy to consistently achieve exceptional results. Whether in business, sports, creativity, or leadership, they follow specific patterns of thinking and behavior that set them apart. Research from performance psychologists, business leaders, and neuroscientists has identified core strategies that drive success—and the good news is, you can train yourself to do the same.
Balancing Speed and Safety: Building Trust in Expansion Mode
In high-growth organizations, psychological safety is the foundation for innovation and high performance. When teams feel safe to take risks and learn from failure, they create, not just execute. I explore five key strategies to build trust while scaling: Curiosity Over Perfection, Guardrails, Not Roadblocks, Two-Way Feedback, Shared Ownership, and Intentional Pauses. When teams feel safe, they push boundaries and drive impact.
Building Bridges to Make an Impact as a New Leader
Starting a new leadership role in design can be both exciting and challenging. As a new leader, it’s essential to build strong connections between design and business objectives, while shaping a vision that aligns with the company’s mission. In my latest article, I share my approach to creating impact in a new organization by focusing on aligning design with business goals, fostering collaboration, and empowering emerging leaders. Whether you’re stepping into a leadership role or scaling a design team, these strategies will help you navigate the transition and drive lasting change in your organization. Read on to discover how you can build bridges for success and set the foundation for impactful design leadership.
Designing AI for Equity: The New Imperative for Interaction Design
AI is shaping the future—but is it reinforcing the past? From hiring algorithms to personalized pricing, AI systems often mirror historical biases, deepening inequities instead of solving them. Designing for equity means embedding fairness, transparency, and human oversight into AI. The future of AI isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about trust.
Exploring New Frontiers: Equipping Design Teams with Tools, Tips, and Strategies for the AI Era
Are you a design leader navigating the challenges of proving design's value and staying ahead in an AI-driven world? My latest article offers practical advice on aligning design with business strategy, preventing headcount loss, and integrating AI into workflows. Discover actionable tips to empower your team, enhance efficiency, and position design as a critical driver of innovation and success.
Your Career Is a Recipe: The Design of Mastery, Balance, and Growth
Growing up in India, kitchens were my classrooms, where resilience, creativity, and preparation were stirred into life lessons. Watching women transform simple ingredients into unforgettable meals taught me the power of intention. Today, as a design leader, I see parallels between cooking and crafting careers—both require vision, adaptability, and a balance of skills to create something meaningful and impactful.
Unlocking Talent Excellence - Tips for Senior Managers to Hire the Best Talent
Discover strategies for senior managers to hire exceptional talent with empathy, foresight, and structured methodologies. From defining the ideal candidate profile to crafting thoughtful offers, this guide explores inclusive job descriptions, dynamic interview processes, and best practices for onboarding. Equip yourself with tools and insights to build high-performing teams and elevate organizational success.
The Superpower of a Strong Design Team: Driving Growth and Transformation
A strong design team is more than aesthetics—it’s a strategic growth driver. By uniting silos, simplifying complexity, humanizing innovation, and accelerating decisions, design connects human needs with business goals. Companies prioritizing design see increased customer retention, stronger brand equity, faster time-to-market, and seamless cross-functional alignment. Design isn’t optional; it’s essential.
Cultivating Leadership Through Key Meetings
In this post, I share three essential meetings every Design leader should prioritize: Daily Design Reviews, Skip-Level One-on-Ones, and Cross-Functional Experience Reviews. These meetings foster alignment, transparency, and leadership within design teams, empowering senior managers and ensuring continuous feedback, growth, and collaboration throughout the design process.
Embedding Customer-Centricity into the DNA of Your Organization
Organizations must adopt a holistic view of the customer journey to embed customer-centricity. Design leaders align teams around a shared vision, integrating feedback and fostering collaboration. This approach drives growth, enhances brand loyalty, and reduces operational costs by proactively addressing issues across touchpoints, creating long-term value for customers and the business.
Harnessing Diversity: Lessons from a Design Leader
Resilience is forged through experience, shaped by challenges, and strengthened by the richness of our identities. As an immigrant and design leader, navigating new environments and adapting to unfamiliar cultures have been my greatest teachers, honing my ability to empathize with diverse contexts and build thoughtful, high-performing teams.
Lessons on Leadership I learned from my first manager
Jean Cattell, my first design manager and a legendary Director of Design at The Field Museum, profoundly shaped my journey as a designer and leader. Through her fierce advocacy, high standards, and human-centered approach to leadership, Jean taught me lessons that continue to guide me today. In this tribute, I reflect on her impact and share three timeless principles she embodied: fostering autonomy to build belonging, understanding the power of contribution to drive performance, and setting the tone for good behavior. Read on to discover how Jean's legacy can inspire design leaders and teams to thrive.
Gaining credit - Our design journey into expanding Venmo
In this case study, I take you behind the scenes of the Venmo Credit Card launch, exploring how we transformed user insights into a product that seamlessly integrated into Venmo’s ecosystem. From balancing simplicity with powerful functionality to aligning cross-functional teams around a shared vision, this journey highlights the strategic decisions, creative problem-solving, and design principles that made the Venmo Credit Card a success. Dive into the challenges we faced, the lessons learned, and the impact of a user-centered approach in redefining how Venmo users connect with their finances.