Headline

AI-Native Product Builder | Microsoft, Airtel, Samsung | Founder (Watchlyst, ThinkPlanty)

About

Senior product designer. 12+ years. More decisions than pixels. 📊 What I've shipped: → 2.5B tokens and 1800+ hours of Agentic AI coding, created 8+ fully functional complex apps → Microsoft Excel: cut chart deletion 30%, drove 9% of total Copilot usage across Excel's AI features → Airtel (100M+ users): shipped Thanks 2.0, grew MAU engagement 6% through gamification → GoodWorker: rebuilt the conversion funnel (+12%), built their design system from zero, managed 4 designers → ThinkPlanty: ₹60L revenue, 75% gross margins, profitable by year two - shut down anyway, on my terms → Watchlyst: 50K+ downloads, $40K from the Facebook Accelerator, ran out of runway before the monetisation model worked 🧰 How I actually work: I built my own framework for making design decisions under ambiguity - a repeatable process for turning "we don't know" into "here's what we'll test," with a stated failure condition on every principle in it. A principle nobody can prove wrong is just an opinion with good posture. That's the systems-thinking part. The data-driven part is simpler: I don't ship a redesign until I know what number it's supposed to move, and I've retired my own stats when they didn't hold up under a source check. I'm also 1800+ hours and 2.5B tokens into building my own tools with AI. Not a side hobby - the way I now prototype, test, and ship before an engineer is even in the room. 🧲 I'm T-shaped: multiple deep spikes, not one wide shallow one. Enterprise UX. Consumer growth. AI product design. Design leadership. Startup building, twice. Currently open to design leadership roles - Principal Designer, Staff Designer, Lead Designer - at a company where design still has a seat at the table. Email: abhisxn@gmail.com

Location

Gurugram

AI stack

claude code

hermes agent

kilocode

Framer AI

OpenRouter

Supabase

Work experience

Senior Product Designer at Microsoft, Feb 2024 - Jan 2026 · 2 yrs, India, Shipped AI-powered features for Excel. The kind of work where you're designing for everyone from analysts to teachers tracking attendance. 🎯 Impact • Ran the analysis that found 98% of Excel users never created a chart - reframed the roadmap around removing that barrier, not adding chart types • Reduced chart deletion rate ~30% through data-driven redesign of defaults • Drove 9% of total Excel Copilot usage via Chart Insights • Cut designer onboarding time 40% with an internal Wiki AI agent 🛠️ Key Projects • Chart Insights - AI generates contextual insights the moment a chart is inserted • Default Chart Redesign - fixed what the data showed: people were deleting charts because they were ugly, not wrong • Wiki Agent - answers design questions faster than a Slack thread does 🤝 How I got buy-in • Built the internal case before I said a word in the room - the pushback that came wasn't about missing data, it was about who the feature was actually for • Presented the strategy to Excel leadership • Mentored junior designers on AI product craft

UX Design Manager at GoodWorker, May 2022 - Apr 2023 · 1 yr, Bengaluru, GoodWorker ran two product streams inside a Temasek-backed platform built to move India's blue and grey-collar workforce into better jobs - Learning, and Jobs. I owned Jobs. 🎯 Impact • Ran primary research with gig and blue-collar workers to find what actually stops someone from getting hired - not what a job board assumes stops them • Designed the hiring flow end to end: navigation, listings, and every stage from application to offer • Built social-trust signals into the flow - in a market full of fake postings, every worker opened the app assuming the job wasn't real until proven otherwise • Improved conversion funnel 12% through the employer portal redesign • Reduced time-to-hire 25% by streamlining job posting → hiring 👥 Leadership • Managed 4 designers across Worker and Employer apps • Built the design system from scratch - tokens, components, documentation • Co-owned product metrics with PM - not just pushing pixels • Established critique rituals, design cadences, eng handoff processes

Founder Product Designer at Planty, Oct 2020 - Sep 2023 · 3 yrs, Gurugram, Started a plant e-commerce brand during the pandemic. Built everything end-to-end - product, brand, ops, growth. The MBA I never wanted but definitely needed. 📈 Traction • 4% MoM growth in a market where people prefer touching plants before buying • ₹60L revenue over 3 years · 75% gross margins · 40% operating margin at peak • Profitable within 12 months · 85% customer retention · 6+ cities • Shut down at peak profitability - chose not to raise ₹25-35L for next-stage scaling 🛠️ Built • Mobile-first shopping experience with 360° plant preview • Brand identity, packaging, fulfillment automation • Vendor network and logistics from zero 💡 Real Learning Business model validation, unit economics, CAC/LTV. Design school never taught me any of it. Running a profitable business did - the hard way.

Principal Experience Designer at airtel, Mar 2019 - Sep 2020 · 1 yr 7 mos, India, Led product design for India's 2nd largest telecom app. 100M+ MAU. The kind of scale where a button color change triggers stakeholder meetings across three cities. 🚀 Shipped • Airtel Thanks 2.0 - complete redesign, 100M+ users, zero critical incidents • International Roaming - end-to-end flows that simplified prepaid/postpaid journeys • Growth Design Function - created Airtel's first experimentation team 🎯 Impact • Increased MAU engagement 6% via gamification (quizzes, rewards, referrals) • Built Design System V1.0, scaling a shared component library across 5 product teams 👥 Leadership • Defined design org cadences and ways of working • Hired 25+ designers across UX and visual • Created a Growth Playbook for experimentation modules • Mentored designers on product thinking and metrics-driven design

Director UX Design at Cheil Worldwide, Feb 2018 - Mar 2019 · 1 yr 2 mos, India, Agency-side creative direction for Samsung India. Part UX, part brand campaigns, fully chaotic in the best way. 🏆 Wins • Galaxy A series digital launch - exceeded sales targets 15% • Won 3 major pitches: Samsung Opera House, Aakash Digital, e-commerce mandate • Led UX improvements on Samsung India e-commerce 👥 Leadership • Directed cross-functional team of 12 (design, copy, dev) • Managed end-to-end campaigns from concept to execution • Presented to Samsung leadership and handled client relationships

Education

Certificate in Leadership with AI, Agentic AI, Indian School of Business

Bachelor of Design, National Institute of Fashion Technology Delhi

Public links

github: https://github.com/abhisxn

thatguyabhishek.com: https://thatguyabhishek.com/