the person behind the pixels

the one who finds what others miss

As a kid, I took things apart to see how they worked. Toys, gadgets, anything I could get my hands on. I loved Lego as a game. And when I wasn't building, I was daydreaming. Magical objects, impossible worlds, things that didn't exist yet but felt like they should.

Turns out, that's exactly what design is. You find what's broken, you build it back up, and if you're lucky, you get to add a little magic.

I went to NIFT, New Delhi to make that official. Four years. Graduated 2019. Armed with a degree and a growing suspicion that most products were not nearly as good as they needed to be.

So I got to work. Bigbasket. Moonraft. Airbase. Each one a different problem, a different set of users, a different way of being wrong. I learned from all of it.

At Esper, I had been designing tools for IT teams to manage devices without friction. The question hasn't changed. The answers keep getting better.

In daily life, I find the magic in a perfect cup of matcha, a Van Gogh brushstroke, and an unusually shaped pair of sunglasses that just feels right.

How I Work

My design process, end to end.

01

manage_search

Discovery & Research

Understanding the problem, learning about the customers, identifying gaps in the current state.

02

lightbulb

Principles

Crafting design principles to guide directions and maintain team alignment.

03

route

User Journey

Storyboards, user stories, personas, and decision-making flows.

04

palette

Design Exploration

Diverging wide, exploring a range of solutions. Testing, iterating, discussing, and working through the problem space.

05

quiz

Usability Testing

Validating solutions and identifying opportunities for refinement.

06

tune

Refinement

Polishing the chosen direction and documenting rationale for handoff.

07

handshake

Handoff

Working closely with engineering and QA'ing the implementation.

08

monitoring

Monitoring

The work is never really done. Monitoring product performance to uncover the next thing worth fixing.

Books I Recommend

A shelf worth browsing.

Superthinking
The Design of Everyday Things
Design is Storytelling
UX Team of One
UX for Lean Startups
Show Your Work
Universal Principles of Design
Never Split the Difference
Atomic Habits
The Courage to Be Disliked

What People Say

From colleagues and collaborators.

"Any team would be fortunate to have Puja's ability to bring both craft excellence and user advocacy that makes technical teams think differently."

Nikhil Punathil

Sr. Engineering Manager, SalesEng · Esper

"She's someone who cares about getting things right and makes the whole process smoother."

Shrivara K

Engineering Manager · Esper

"She has this incredible ability to take complex problems and turn them into simple, intuitive designs that just make sense for the user."

Kiran Anto

Principal Architect · NeoSapients

Let's Connect

I'm always interested in hearing about new opportunities, creative collaborations, or just chatting about design over coffee.