Product Design & Management Leader with entrepreneurial + intrapreneurial experience - driving innovation in both startups and bigger organizations like Google & Yahoo!.
Built high-impact UX teams that created value through strategic partnerships. Adept at tackling ambiguous problems with a hands-on approach.
Passionate about mentoring emerging designers and advancing design's role in sustainable business success.
Key Contributions:
Curie / Curiosity Labs
Google Search
Google Maps Enterprise
Google Assistant
Project Ratatouille @ A120
YouTube Kids
Email
LinkedInCurie / Curiosity Labs
Founder & CEO
May 2023 - Now
Millions of children worldwide spend countless hours in passive, mindless screen time. Curie transforms this challenge by providing AI companions that turn screen time into active learning experiences.
Our platform features empathetic AI friends who engage children in natural conversations, adapting to each child's unique interests and abilities. Through personalized learning journeys such as stories, quests and games, children develop crucial skills in creativity, storytelling, reading, math, and listening.
Our early results show promise: 3K+ users have engaged in over 250K+ conversations, created 3600 stories and went on 9k learning quests with their AI companions, demonstrating exceptional engagement metrics and early product-market fit. We're already generating revenue while helping children develop key traits like curiosity & creativity in the age of AI.
As the founder & CEO, raised a pre-seed round, wore multiple hats and built a strong team to execute on this opportunity.
Download App
Demo videos
Curie Users
Kids SketchTime
Google Search - Modern Creators & Formats Sr. UX Manager - Creator Experience
Notes - A new way to search on GoogleViewing Notes on a search resultCreating NotesNotes links for each resultView notes from others on any webpageCreating NotesRich Notes with images
Sep 2021 - Mar 2023
For many user queries that don’t have a single right answer, Google Search wasn’t serving user needs well. My team’s work involved activating creators of different types, surfacing their content and creating a thriving ecosystem on Google Search. The work spanned across multiple fronts from simplifying creation, aligning incentives including distribution, monetization, audience engagement and insights that all contribute to creators being successful.
Led a team of 15 designers including managing managers, and collaborated with multiple xFN teams across Search to drive the vision, strategy and execution of multiple new initiatives related to the Creator Presence and user-generated content (UGC) on Search. This includes content created on 3P platforms as well as new 1P efforts.
Our 1P creation efforts resulted in the experimental launch of Notes. Goal was to allow everyone to share their knowledge right on Search, helping others find the best answers for their subjective questions.
Google Maps Enterprise Sr. UX Manager, Mobility Solutions
Last Mile Fleet Solutions OverviewOn-demand rides & deliveries - Solution overview
Nov 2018 - Sep 2021
Joined as the founding designer of a new business initiative and built a team of 6 designers and researchers to deliver mobility solutions for Enterprise customers in two industries: On-demand rides & deliveries, Last Mile Fleet solutions.
My team helped develop a deep understanding of customers and their stakeholders (e.g. Couriers, End users and Fleet Managers / Dispatchers) to shape and drive our product strategy - innovate with new solutions, execute with high quality and iterate with velocity.
Led projects that cut across various product areas within Google and drove alignment on what matters for customers and how we could bring the best of Google to address those needs resulting in $$$ deals.
Relevant links:
Google Maps - Transportation & Logistics
Ridehailing Customer Testimonial
Address Validation API launch
Google Assistant - Smart Displays Product Manager, Meals Vertical
Hands-free help in the kitchen - OverviewJump to Meals DemoStep-by-step cooking help
Nov 2017 - Oct 2018
Post-acquisition of our team (Ratatouille) from A120, our team helped jumpstart the Meals vertical on Google Assistant.
Launched new category defining experiences for Smart Displays with Google Assistant that help people with their daily routines. Received significant media and industry acclaim for our Kitchen Assistant work. Helped shape overall strategy and vision for recipe exploration, guidance, 3P ecosystem, shopping list integration, and meal planning working with various stakeholders across the company.
“The best new kitchen appliance since the dishwasher” - Android Police
“The biggest reason I'd pick the Lenovo Smart Display over the Echo Show is its prowess in the kitchen.” -- CNET
Relevant links:
Launch Announcement
Google I/O Demo
Project Ratatuoille @ Area120 Founder & CEO
Nov 2016 - Nov 2017
Area 120 is Google's internal incubator whose mission is to empower entrepreneurial Googlers to unlock value for Google through 0 -> 1 innovation.
I pitched and got funding for Ratatouille (Audio-Visual Assistant for your Kitchen) - built a team including 3 engineers (backend, frontend, full-stack + voice actions), myself and several 20% contributors and advisors.
Our vision was to empower every cook / kitchen in the world with an intelligent virtual sous chef. Impressed with the progress we’ve made in 9 months of our time at Area 120, we got acquired by the Google Assistant team to kick-start a new vertical focused on Kitchen and Meals.
YouTube Kids Co-founder & UX lead
Research methods used to gather feedback from parents & kidsBranding - Initial App Icon for YouTube KidsApp trailer by a kidYouTube Kids - Onboarding UXTimer ControlsMonthly Themes - eg: Sports ContentYouTube Kids - Conversational Agent (Vision)Conversational Agent - Surprise & Delight MomentsInteractivity - Sing-along in YouTube Kids (Concept)
Jul 2013 - Nov 2016
Co-founded YouTube Kids and played a key role in the product launch and scaled it to millions of kids globally.
Initially, pitched the idea along with Dir. of Product and UX strategist. I persistently worked to make a case for a stand-alone app and mitigate leadership concerns. Eventually, we successfully got the buy-in to invest and execute the vision to build a kid-first app. This allowed us to challenge the status-quo and reimagine YouTube from the ground-up with kids & parents in mind.
Grew the UX team from being solo designer to 8 UXers - hired and managed multiple specialized roles incl. Visual, Motion, IxD and UXR. Hired and managed agencies to fill gaps (branding and sound design)
when needed. By the time I left the team,
we had 10M+ DAUs and launched in 20 countries.
Relevant links:
YouTube Kids
UX India talk on “Navigating New Terrain”