About
I'm Nikethana — call me Nike.
Product designer and design engineer for complex B2B and AI workflows. I care about how a product feels, how it works, and why people should trust it.
BasedNew Orleans — open to relocation
FocusProduct design + design engineering
StatusOpen for new opportunities
What I Love Doing
Turning complex workflows into products that feel clear, trustworthy, and useful.
What I Bring
Research, product strategy, interaction design, and functional prototypes — plus the technical fluency to work closely with engineers and ship.
01Design Lessons
How I Think About Craft
A few things I hold myself to, every project.
Form Follows Function
I follow this religiously, from product down to individual screens. Nailing the function helps me nail the form.
Design With Intention
After designing a screen, I pause and ask: what's the core action here? If an element doesn't serve that purpose, I cut it — subtraction is a design tool.
The 8-Second Gut Check
I show a design to someone outside the project for eight seconds. Whatever they remember tells me what's working. If it doesn't align with the screen's goal, I refine.
Whiteboard First, Always
Whiteboarding is where ideas breathe — my go-to for unlocking flow, alignment, and fast problem-solving, every time.
02Professionally
The Path Here
Across reliability, product quality, and design.
Product Designer, MIT MTC
2026 – Present
Design Engineer, Inrupt
Designed and shipped Charlie’s onboarding, data-masking, and pre-send review interfaces for a privacy-first financial AI assistant.
2026
Founding Product Designer, GrowthFactor Inc.
Led research, information architecture, interaction design, and shipped UI for retail site evaluation and deal management.
2024 – 2025
UX Graduate Teaching Assistant
Combined my love for teaching and design to mentor 50+ students in UX and research, empowering them to build user-first solutions.
2024
MS in Information Systems (spl. UX Design)
2022 – 2024
Product Owner (Engineering), Freshworks — India
Worked on the product team across site-reliability infrastructure and Freshcaller, partnering with engineering on service quality, product design, and the day-to-day reliability of a customer-facing communications product.
2019 – 2022
03Personally
Beyond the Job
A few things that shape how I show up to work.
Based in New Orleans, previously in Boston and originally from India — I love exploring new cities and cultures. Amateur photographer (mostly street and travel). Music is always on, from indie folk to classic Tamil film music. Currently reading about product strategy and behavioral psychology.
Principles I Learned to Live By
If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solution.
— Albert Einstein
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
— Michael Scott, The Office
A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it's not that good.
— Martin LeBlanc
If life gives you lemonade, make lemons. Life will be all like "Whaaaaaaat?"
— Phil Dunphy, Modern Family
But first, coffee.
— Me