Resume

Born and brought up in the coastal city of Mangalore in a Roman Catholic household, I pursued a career as an engineer until, by a spot of luck, I came across the field of design. After a Master's degree in Information and Interface Design from the National Institute of Design, I began my practice as a digital product designer.

Now with 12+ years of experience, I am a product design leader with a keen interest in growing designers, building strong teams, and creating psychological safety.

In my spare time, I like to travel to new places, make coffee content (opens in new tab), read non-fiction and contemporary fiction (opens in new tab), collect graphic art, and write short stories and travelogues (opens in new tab).

Want to work with me or discuss a cool project that you are working on?

Write me an email at kennethmdesouza [at] gmail [dot] com or DM me @kenneth (opens in new tab).

Leadership and Organizational Impact

• Built and scaled design teams across Practo, Gojek, and Jiva (from leading the GoMerchants design function in a 100+ designer org like Gojek to building the product design team at Jiva.ag)
• Defined performance ladders for Product Design and UX Writing, and authored annual reviews, growth plans, and promotion recommendations.
• Established weekly design critiques, biweekly cross-functional product reviews, and documentation systems to improve alignment, cross-pollination and decision velocity.
• Led end-to-end hiring across multiple roles, including campus hiring (NID, IIT-G) and product management interview panels.
• Directed design systems work across web and mobile, including Jiva’s multi-platform Akar design system.

Selected Writing and Speaking

• An insider’s guide to a Job hunt (opens in new tab): A short talk I give to design school students, from the perspective of a hiring manager, who are about to sit for their college placements.
• Near, far, wherever we are (opens in new tab): Transcribed from a talk that Feby (researcher) and I (designer) gave during the pandemic about working in teams across international borders.
• Gamify DesignOps with human connection (opens in new tab): I spoke to Kavan Antani, CEO of Indiefolio, as part of the podcast series 'DesignOops' centring around design operations and management.
• What is a product designer? (opens in new tab): A reflection of what it means to be a product designer in the software industry.
• Squads as a growth engine for designers (opens in new tab): Wrote about how we leveraged squads to help designers in the team grow.
• Archive of my newsletter for Design Managers (opens in new tab): Between 2020-2023, I wrote 22 newsletters on the topics like building career ladders, hiring designers, building inclusive processes and much more.

Work Experience

Education

Certifications

Elsewhere on the Internet

• On Designing team growth on the 'NewCampus blog' (opens in new tab) (2023): Saloni and I were interviewed about how the NewCampus courses have impacted our working style at Jiva.
• Creating a stand-out portfolio: Advice from design leaders on the 'Obvious blog' (opens in new tab) (2021): A summary writeup of a twitter space a few of us did with Obvious regarding hiring designers.
• Challenges with Transitioning to a Design Manager from an IC role on the 'Ownpath blog' (opens in new tab) (2021): This is an excerpt from my fireside chat with Ownpath in 2021.
• What Designers Want on 'The Hard Copy' (opens in new tab) (2019): Quoted: “I treat the interview process as a reflection of the org. Are they using a generic job description? Are they able to communicate well during the process?” — Kenneth D’Souza, Product Designer, Gojek