I do my best thinking in transit.

I do my best thinking in transit. I can see my life at a distance--  detached, away from an end point or a starting point. To be in transit is to be in the middle, at an in-between, caught between two states, transitioning. In fact, truly entrepreneurial, innovative processes never have a beginning or an end, they seem to be infinite loops, circular in shape. In some ways, I have always been in transit, belonging to nowhere and no one, but also everywhere and everyone.

My family moved to the United States from the third world when I was nine, living across from a trailer park in New Jersey before moving to The Main Line of Philadelphia in the first 6 months of living the American dream. We lived in flux, in a state of in-betweens, mixing American mannerisms with the immigrant lifestyle, along with the Indian culture we left behind. We lived on an income of less than 40,000 during those first few years, but my sister and I never felt the pinch of tight pockets. Our parents were always able to provide us with excursions despite a limiting budget.

Our parents were always able to provide us with excursions despite a limiting budget.

We travelled together as a family on road trips and camping trips, exploring as much of the first world as we could. When I was nine, my parents bought a used silver Honda Civic from California and we drove it back to Philadelphia, passing through all types of American terrain along the way and taking the old country routes as opposed to the main highways, making for perfection with my mother’s over-planning and my father’s spontaneity. My family is built on both conservative and liberal tendencies. We have never been traditional. My mother is South Indian and my father is North Indian. They grew up speaking different languages and eating different types of food. And yet somehow, they found themselves together after meeting at work, quitting their day jobs to start a company together. My mother worked as the technical lead while my father moved to the United States to market the software product they developed in India. Three years later he moved our family to the first world, all while chasing an entrepreneurial dream.

They grew up speaking different languages and eating different types of food.

Being in transit is like that California road trip: Seaside views of sea lions on Route 1; cheap trucker motels with blaring red neon lights at 1 am; a backseat melange of old chips, coke cans, and McDonald’s bags on slightly greasy seats; my dad farting and the three of us opening windows, gasping for fresh air; mountains turning into fields turning into rivers turning into towns turning into cities; roadsides and trees blurring into one; listening to an audio record of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; playing word games and story games; my mother reading a map; majestic views of national parks; curious stares from locals; Old Country Buffet; my sister and I arguing over who gets to use the bathroom first when we finally get to the motel; pillow fights and jumping on motel beds doused in the fumes of cheap cigarettes.

Studio in Transit LLC is built upon the principles of innovation, inclusion, objectivity, humility, hard work, and the entrepreneurial lifestyle my parents instilled in me— that ability to go far on a tight budget.

Studio in Transit LLC is built upon the principles of innovation, inclusion, objectivity, humility, hard work, and the entrepreneurial lifestyle my parents instilled in me— that ability to go far on a tight budget. I come from a family of engineers. My dad is a chemical engineer and my mom is an electrical engineer, which only made it fitting that I should choose mechanical engineering as my major at Carnegie Mellon. Yet despite my love for calculus, I felt that there was something missing in my specialization until I took Engineering Design. In this course, we had a chance to create something that people would actually need and use. And here the focus shifted from technical to personal, for now we had to understand human needs and wants when creating a product for actual people, real users. 

After graduating, I was sure that I did not want to be a traditional mechanical engineer. I was more interested in people and the products or experiences that could be created for a group of people, a set of users. I dived into the startup world at first, working as an engineer at a medical device startup called Abililife Inc. and then shifting gears to work as a user experience manager at Yellowdig, an education technology startup. I liked both jobs because I was able to understand our users through tests and interviews, develop a connection with them, and use my understanding of their needs to create better digital experiences or physical products. 

I was more interested in people and the products or experiences that could be created for a group of people, a set of users.

My startup expertise led me to an internship as a UI UX intern at Bentley Systems, allowing me to use my analytical side to help design a workflow for 3D printing software. At the same time, I was also writing for Complex Magazine, Kill Screen and Intel iQ as a freelancer. I loved these side jobs because I got to to go out into the world and interview so many interesting people with brilliant ideas and help share their vision with our readers. 

All my experiences culminated in getting my dream job at Frog Design as a design researcher, working with multiple clients to create digital experiences for users.  After a year of consulting, I moved to Printfly Corporation as a Lead UX Strategist, an opportunity that is between my startup experiences and the corporate agency world. I loved this job because I got to work closely with the operations side of things to learn more about the business, while leading certain UX initiatives. I took on freelance and contract work to work my way through a Masters in Integrated Product Design at the University of Pennsylvania. The program involves taking courses in Wharton, the School of Design, as well as the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences for a well-rounded education in business, design and technology. I became the Director of UX Strategy at FreeConferenceCall and it has been a full-filling experience managing 4 designers, working closely with the leadership team, and refreshing design systems for 3 product lines. At the same time, I’ve been able to co-found Ideate Labs LLC to make UX UI design more accessible to women, minorities, and POC. We’ve grown a community of 20,000 learners in just 2 years and offer courses, free workshops, and mentorship.

Today my goal is to continue to manage and co-design with executive team members, designers, product managers, engineers, and of course, users/customers alike. I strive to empower everyone I work with and everyone I mentor.