Headline

Product, Design & Strategy • Alumnus (INSEAD MBA, Engineer @ NIT Durgapur)

About

We are all stories in the end—stitched together by the choices that make us, the risks that shape us, and those moments when we decide to become just a little better. For the past few years, I lived in the heartbeat of wireframes and pixels. Leading design teams at blazing-fast startups, I fell in love with design’s power to whisper solutions where chaos once screamed. Every button, every flow, every colour palette was a promise. And for a long time, that was enough. But deep down, I craved to design not just experiences, but futures. I’d sit in strategy meetings, watching brilliant minds reduce design to “the pretty part,” and my soul would ache. What if we could speak the language of boardrooms without losing our creative pulse? What if design wasn’t just a cost, but a compass? And as I grew, I began asking questions - How does design influence strategy? How do we measure its value in boardrooms, not just user journeys? These questions nudged me toward an unexpected pivot: an MBA at INSEAD. Some called it a detour; I saw it as unlocking a new lens. At INSEAD, I learned to marry EBITDA with empathy, see scalability as a design challenge, and argue that the best brands aren’t built on logos but on stories users feel. Business school was more than spreadsheets and case studies. It was about discovering how I could fit into organizations' DNA. People often ask how I shifted worlds. The truth? I didn’t “shift.” I expanded. Like a painter learning music, I let curiosity guide me. Yes, there were nights I doubted—“Am I still a designer if I speak ROI?” But then I’d remember: Design isn’t a tool. It’s a mindset. A way to solve, to lead, to humanize growth. Today, I stand where art and arithmetic collide. As companies increasingly recognize design as a core competitive muscle, my mission is to lead teams where usability and profitability coexist, where user-centricity fuels growth, and where every pixel tells a story of purpose. As for me, I’m still writing my story! This is just the preface!

Location

Bengaluru

AI stack

aistudio

anthropic apis

claude code

midjourney

ChatGPT

Figma Make

Work experience

Head of Product Design at Ownly, Apr 2025 - Apr 2026 · 1 yr 1 mo, Bengaluru, • Led the end-to-end development of a new food delivery marketplace from concept to MVP, defining customer problems, product strategy, and launched within four months. • Worked directly with founders, engineering and business leaders to prioritise product opportunities, evaluate business trade-offs, and shape roadmap decisions across marketplace, pricing, logistics, and customer experience. • Hired and managed the design function, defining hiring criteria and interview processes, while establishing scalable product development processes across research, experimentation, and delivery.

Manager, UX Design at Dream11, May 2022 - Nov 2023 · 1 yr 7 mos, Mumbai, • Orchestrated the product strategy for the loyalty experience, identifying engagement opportunities that reduced retention costs by 50% while increasing the app adoption by 40% within six months. Know more about the project here. • Defined behavioural hypotheses, prioritised experiments, and partnered with engineering, data science, marketing and product teams to improve user retention and long-term engagement. • Worked closely with business stakeholders to align loyalty investments with customer lifetime value and commercial objectives. • Managed multiple external design agencies to ship DreamX, a sister venture of the parent organization.

Lead Product Designer at Furlenco, Jun 2019 - May 2022 · 3 yrs, Bangalore Urban, • Owned the entire consumer product design initiatives across user acquisition, conversion, and post-purchase experiences, partnering with Product and Engineering leadership to improve growth, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. • Led new initiatives like UNLMTD that grew revenues by 15%. Revamped website/app, introduced chatbots, brought large scale automation. • Improved the customer acquistion and conversion funnels by over 60% by redesigning and deploying the PLP, PDP, Cart checkout and payment flows. • Owned a suite of consumer and internal products - Increased CVR (~45%), AOV (~12%) & LTV (~12%) • Hired and mentored a team of four designers, multiple interns and researchers.

Senior UI/UX Designer at Porter, Jul 2017 - Jun 2019 · 2 yrs, Bengaluru Area, India, • Designed core order-management workflows - trip booking, ride details, checkout, and account management. • Led the revamp of the website design and implemented the lead management flow resulting in over 200,000 monthly inbound users. • Led product design for the fleet management platform, optimizing the experience for vehicle owners and agents - driving 3x adoption within 6 months of launch.

User Experience Designer at UrbanPiper, Jul 2016 - Jul 2017 · 1 yr 1 mo, Bengaluru, • Early team member responsible for defining product experiences across restaurant ordering, inventory management, and website builder solutions. • Worked directly with founders and enterprise customers (ChaiPoint, Chillis, Dominos India) to identify product opportunities, validate workflows, and prioritise roadmap decisions. • Built product experiences used by restaurant chains to manage orders, inventory, and operations at scale.

Education

Master of Business Administration - MBA, INSEAD

Bachelor of Technology - BTech, National Institute of Technology Durgapur

Public links

medium: https://medium.com/@sekhardutta13