Samika
🙂

Samika

Product Designer in New York, NY, She/Her

Available for Work

6 months ago

About

Product designer with 3+ years of experience in bringing dynamic projects to life across startups, design agencies, and non-profits. A background in software engineering and UX Research. Currently, leading UX at Discovery Ed's Doodle D2C. Crafting digital experiences that delight, inspire, and empower.

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Education

Work Experience

2023 — Now
Remote
  • Leading the first-mile experience of a D2C product to enhance customer acquisition and retention, aiming for a 6% reduction in churn and maximizing trial sign-ups across desktop and mobile.

  • Collaborating closely with engineering and marketing teams in an Agile environment to execute A/B testing strategies, elevating conversion rates, and driving product strategy through retrospective meetings.

2021 — 2023
New York, NY

Collaborated with diverse non-profit organizations to drive significant improvements :

  • Achieved a 53% surge in learner retention on ClimateScience.org (an ed-tech tool) through qualitative research and user-centered design solutions. Revamped the brand identity to broaden appeal across age groups, resulting in a 15% boost in average session duration.

  • Conducted comprehensive analysis of eye-tracking data from 18 graduate students to enhance application user flow on Pratt Institute's website. Leveraged behavioral insights, resulting in a 35% increase in completed graduate applications.

  • Leveraged Google Analytics for quantitative research to enhance pantry location visibility on Staten Island Hunger Task Force’s site. Recommendations shaped by user journey mapping, and heuristic evaluation raised the System Usability Score from 54 to 73 points.

2022 — 2022
New York, NY
  • Initiated a mixed-methods research study at Ipsos, one of the largest market research companies, to identify key pain points in existing calendars and inform the integration of AI features.

  • Developed hypothetical AI-driven concepts for 4 user personas, delivered through storyboards to 28 participants via contextual inquiry and participatory design.

  • Achieved 87% positive feedback rate, underscoring the significant potential impact of the proposed concepts.

2022 — 2022
San Francisco, CA
  • Revamped the data filter management system in Sigma Workbooks, a B2B Data Analytics Platform, ensuring retention of Sigma's top clients.

  • Led design sprints for rapid deployment within an agile team, closely collaborating with the engineering team to enhance the feature's scalability within 4 weeks.

  • Since the feature's release in December 2022, the feature has attracted 480+ frequent users and demonstrated widespread adoption across 240+ distinct organizations.

2021 — 2021
Remote
  • Supported usability testing with 50+ participants on the flight booking Progressive Web App for India’s largest travel platform, thereby shaping the experience of 12 million users.

  • Defined research objectives and crafted user journey maps, contributing to a remarkable 3X increase in conversion rates.

  • Collaborated with the design team on design implementations, leading to a substantial 160% surge in shopper sessions and a significant 30% rise in last-minute bookings.

2020 — 2021
Remote
  • Synthesized development of Optmyzr's (AI-powered marketing automation tool for Ads ) account dashboard, using rapid prototyping and iterative testing, resulting in a solution that reduced customer support queries by 28%.

  • Formulated a custom dashboard layout with grid-based design and hierarchical organization, integrating 50+ interactive data visualizations for tools.

  • Incorporated engaging micro-interactions and affordances, resulting in an 83% increase in tools’ discoverability, attracting over 200 daily users within a month.

  • Directed brainstorming workshops with Product Managers and Engineers, leveraging design sprints, user story mapping, and card sorting, implementing 15 key features based on feedback.

2020 — 2020
Remote

Selected as one of six interns from a pool of 650+ applicants across India, I contributed to a 4-week project under the mentorship of a senior UX researcher. My role as a UX Design and Research Intern involved developing a logistics app designed to streamline operations for small and medium-sized enterprises in the food industry.

2019 — 2019
Bengaluru, India
  • Data Pipelining with Spark and Python: Played a key role in designing and constructing data pipelines for effective data ingestion. This included standardizing data formats to ensure uniformity and accuracy across different datasets.

  • Recommendation System Development: Assisted in developing a recommendation system that extracted and analyzed customer feedback from Twitter, focusing on both our and competitors' products. Utilizing sentiment analysis, this system provided key insights for product enhancement and strategic planning.

Side Projects

2024
  • Developed a project management workspace tailored for high school women in STEM, incorporating principles of cognitive ergonomics derived from generative research and usability testing.

  • 18/21 user testing participants mastered key functions on their first use, validating the effectiveness of anticipatory design, progressive disclosure, and contextual cues in facilitating a rapid learning curve.

  • Spotlighted as the MVP during BSTEM’s 2023 National Science Foundation presentation, contributing to a $500k grant for the initial product iteration.

2019


Short Animation: A visual compilation of images and moments from my trip to Russia, this project condenses the essence of my trip into a 40-second animation, capturing the emotions and experiences of the journey.

2019

Short Animation: An experiment in merging ambient and musical elements to shift the perception of a consistent facial expression - A Smile. Demonstrating the power of environment and sound in shaping emotional interpretation.

Contact

Website