And what am I eventually getting into
Engineering
Almost every Indian Man starts with this. It is because it tells you want you DON'T want to do. I specialised in Electronics & Communication. No I can't fix your laptop. Just restart it like the IT guy said 💻
Theatre & Poetry
In Engineering, my parents told me to do whatever I wanted to do until I don't get backlogs. I chose theatre. If out of nowhere I crack some deep lines in meetings to make you smile, don't be surprised 🎭
Design
Design was a beautiful accident happened to me when one on-campus company hired only one designer from the college ever. Well, that company never came back to hire again. I don't know why 🥸
Travel & Observe
It's a by-product of design that now I've got an eye for details. I travel to new places frequently and document my observations. Yes, I would click picture of random street lamp design rather than the mountains 🏔️
I have got a mix of work. Some of it is what I have done for money, some for my passion and some for both.
Problem:
We observed that 46% of the CS Queries (one of the top contributors) were around Salary Status to inbound Client Queries.
Solution and Impact:
After 2 weeks of cross functional efforts, we provided Clearer Progress Bar, Contextual Information per Step, Guidance When Action is Required, and Personalised Experience by Payroll Type.
Saw 21% reduction in Client Queries
Problem:
The Dashboard had a low conversion (even 0.03% in some cases) to various products .
Problem:
Make the product RTL (Right to Left) enabled for Arabic Users and make the necessary changes according to their culture, compliances and language from existing LTR (Left to Right) Design
Problem:
Improve the current conversion from detail page to booking test drive (2.67%)
Other than work
Just talking about Design altogether is not going to help you know entirely about me
Youtube and Medium Posting
I talk about my design learnings and other interesting stuff that I think about. You can find my travel diaries to design suggestions Check links below and if you find it interesting, do subscribe & follow 🤓
Reading Philosophy
Right from Friedrich Nietzsche to Rajneesh (Osho), I love to read all perspectives.
Poetry and Theatre
I did many stage shows in and around my city. If you know Hindi or Urdu, you can check some poetries here.
Traveling and Observation
Other than just working full time, I just go to a new place almost every 2 months to just observe new cultures and people there
Mentorship @ 10kdesigners
I am a part of an online cohort run by Abhinav Chhikara where I get to guide many new budding designers
Cooking
I keep trying different cuisines from Youtube and experiment. Most of the times it is tasty.
Creativity flows everywhere like a swirl out of a ice cream machine, it's just on a great ideator who is always ready with a cone in their hand
Testimonials
In 5 years, I worked with people from varied backgrounds. Here's what they say about me. None of them was asked to do this at Gunpoint 🔫
Harshit Sinha
Design Head, Cadmus
Vaibhav is one of the most motivated and enthusiastic individuals. He brought a lot of positive energy to our team. He's the kind of person who thrives when in the deep end of the pool!
Pushpendra Sharma
Product Manager, Honasa Consumer
Vaibhav is a true team player who consistently took ownership of his projects. If you're looking for a dedicated and skilled product designer who gets things done, Vaibhav is the one to have on your team.
Rajat Saini
Design Manager, WPP
Vaibhav is a highly motivated, energetic person to work with. He demonstrates the very high level of engagement with work, and one can count on him.
Why Design?
As I said, Design happened as a beautiful accident for me. I got the job because I was just resilient enough to stick by all the rounds. Over time I realised that Design is just a beautiful amalgamation of Analytical side (that engineering gave me) and Creative side (that theatre and poetry gave me). Now, it has just become a part of my personality
Why Dubai?
I just wanted to explore the world outside India and Dubai came out to be the most feasible option to start with. It is close to my home, no taxes and diversity of people. The world seems even closer with Dubai.
You keep traveling, does it not affect your work?
I guess that is where my good management of work and flexibility of work at all of my previous companies comes in really handy. I have been privileged to have got great people who I work with. I complete my tasks well before time and keep myself available for urgent calls.
How are you different from other designers?
Every human is unique and so am I. One thing that really helps me in my design job is my storytelling skills that I learned in theatre. I try to keep my meetings entertaining and to the point. If I want to get my ideas heard, I need to earn the ears of the audience. My strong observation and communication skills help me a lot with research and execution of my designs.
What are some of the most challenging projects you worked on?
1. At Cars24, I designed the video first detail page. The idea was revolutionary but it required real persuasion skills because the idea demanded great efforts. I learnt a lot about getting things done in that project.
2. At Edenred, I am working at improving the Dashboard Design. I am solely working on it without a Product Manager. The challenges have been stakeholder mgmt, expectation mgmt and timeline setting.
What can we expect from you when you join our team?
Clear mind with the ability to dissect and understand the real problem
Quick Prototyping skills
Interesting boardroom session and less boring presentations where you are forced to keep yourself awake with 16th coffee of the day
Observation skills to be able to see the things hidden in plain sight
A good guy who can invite you at his place and prepare delicious dinner for you :D
Seems like you are interested to connect and make some great impact in your team with design
