For the past 8+ years, I've been leading design at the City of Cambridge - a job that started with me as the only designer for an entire city government.
I built it all from scratch. Design system. Accessibility standards. Research protocols. Usability testing. I partnered with department heads who'd never worked with a designer before. I collaborated with engineers who were skeptical that design mattered. I mentored designers who were learning what it meant to work at scale.
The work paid off: 96% adoption, $11M in savings, and a 40% reduction in support requests.
But the real win? I changed how 46 departments think about design. It's not decoration anymore. It's strategy. It's measurable. It's how we solve problems.
8+ years building design practices and digital experiences at scale.
2022 - Present
City of Cambridge
Design Leader
2017 - 2022
City of Cambridge
UX Designer and Senior Product Designer
2017
MFS Investment
UI Designer
2022 - Present
Harvard Kennedy School
Design Intern
2022 - Present
Boston Globe
Senior Software Developer
2022 - Present
Sentient Science
Software Developer
2022 - Present
Synacor
QA Developer
I build design practices that scale.
My work lives at the intersection of craft, systems, and capability. I design the product. I build the infrastructure. I lead teams and teach them how to think differently. One doesn't work without the others.
Product and UX Design
User Research
Journey Mapping
Usability Testing
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Wireframing
Prototyping
Visual Design
Accessibility (WCAG 2.1)
Service Design
A/B Testing
Design Systems & Operations
Design System Architecture
Component Libraries
Design Tokens
Documentation Process
Design Tool Implementation
Vendor Management
Quality Standards
Cross-functional Collaboration
Brand & Creative
Visual Identity
Brand Guidelines
Creative Direction
Photography
Videography
Editorial Design
Print Design
Environmental Graphics
I have a thing about systems that don't work for people.
It's more than a professional interest—it's an obsession. I see broken interfaces, inaccessible forms, bureaucratic nightmares, and I can't look away. I need to fix them. Maybe it's a kink. Maybe it's my superpower. Either way, it bleeds into everything I do.
I grew up in Kolkata, India. Got a BS in Computer Science and Engineering. Moved to the US in 2010 for grad school. Landed in Buffalo, NY writing code, then Boston writing JavaScript for the Boston Globe. How a kid from India ended up building a design practice for an entire city government is still kind of a mystery. Maybe it was debugging one too many front-end bugs and watching users struggle. Maybe it was the realization that I cared more about why people got stuck than whether my code was elegant. Maybe it was pure luck. Probably all three.
For the past 12+ years, Boston has been home. In that time, I've experienced change—deep, disorienting, transformative change. I married the love of my life, changed homes many times, and became a mum to Anouk. I left software development and rebuilt myself as a designer. I took night classes at Harvard while freelancing to pay tuition. I became the first UX designer for the City of Cambridge and watched the government slowly, painfully, beautifully learn to design for humans instead of processes.
Government work rewired how I see design. It's not about shipping beautiful pixels. It's about teaching 46 departments to think differently. It's about building systems that scale. It's about making the inaccessible accessible, the overwhelming approachable, the bureaucratic human. Accessibility isn't a checklist—it's the entire point. Research isn't a luxury - it's how you avoid building the wrong thing. Design systems aren't about consistency—they're about capability.
Finding meaning in complexity is my obsession now. Perhaps that drive comes from being an immigrant who had to decode new systems just to survive. Perhaps it's from being a developer who watched people fail at using things I'd built. Perhaps it's from being a mother who sees the world through my daughter's eyes and wants it to work better for her. Whatever the source, it's become how I work.
I'm optimistic about what's next. I spent nearly a decade proving design's value in an environment that didn't understand it. I built a practice from nothing. I changed how an entire city government thinks about digital services. Now I'm ready to work with teams that already believe in design and want to push it further. To take everything I've learned about building capability and apply it where the pace matches my ambition.
We need designers who can build systems, not just screens. Who understand that design isn't decoration—it's strategy. Who can partner with product and engineering as equals, not subordinates. Who measure impact in adoption rates and cost savings, not just Dribbble likes. Who care deeply about making things work for everyone, not just the tech-savvy.
Right now, design is at an inflection point. AI is changing how we work. Accessibility is finally becoming non-negotiable. Users expect experiences that just work. Organizations are realizing design isn't a nice-to-have—it's competitive advantage. If you're building a team that gets this, let's talk.
I'm ready for what's next. And I find it all kind of exciting.
