Designing with logic, led by curiosity

Why I Love What I Do

For me, design has always been about making sense of complex things, not just making them look good. Over time, it became the lens through which I understand people, systems, behavior, and now AI. It’s how I connect the dots between insight, execution, and impact.

Design quickly became more than a craft. It became a way of thinking, a discipline of exploring, questioning, aligning, and shaping. Not just screens, but decisions. Not just interfaces, but interactions, workflows, and outcomes.

As Tim Brown once said, “Design is a team sport.” I’ve seen that firsthand. My job isn’t just to design what people use; it’s to help teams see the game they’re really playing, and how design, technology, and data can move them toward better outcomes.

A Lifelong Pull Toward Design

I didn’t discover design in design school; I discovered it with charcoal and a sketchpad. My brother noticed I had an eye for detail and challenged me to try creating graphic design. One painfully slow custom-built PC, an early copy of Photoshop, and too many late nights later, I was hooked. The joy of making something from nothing changed my life.

My early freelance work in Flash, motion, and rich media pulled me deeper, not just into pixels, but into empathy, interaction, and behavior. I was no longer just designing for the eye; I was designing for how people feel, decide, and act.

Working across agencies, startups, and my own design studio eventually exposed me to enterprise-level challenges, where good design wasn’t just about craft, it was about process, coordination, and how all the moving parts connect.

That’s when I realized:
I wasn’t designing screens anymore. I was designing systems.

From Making Screens to Modeling Systems

The real shift in my career wasn’t learning design thinking; it was learning to think in systems.

Leading initiatives across healthcare, fintech, HR tech, and enterprise SaaS taught me that successful products don’t come from clever UI; they emerge when design, data, operations, AI capability, and human workflows align with purpose.

That shift didn’t take me away from the craft; it sharpened it. I stayed close to the work: mapping journeys, designing workflows, prototyping real solutions, validating them with users, and building Figma-based systems that teams could actually scale. Over time, my scope expanded from designing interfaces to shaping and shipping brand-aligned experience systems, the kind that unify product, workflow, and identity across teams, platforms, and touchpoints.

Whether collaborating with founders, product managers, researchers, engineers, data scientists, or AI teams, I’ve learned that my real value lies in designing meaningful design solutions, the kind that aligns teams, reveals blind spots, and unlocks momentum.

Where Craft Turns into Influence

My career didn’t jump from craft to leadership overnight; it grew through roles that required me to bridge design, business, and technology. From co-founding my studio, XD Theory, to designing interactive experiences at Microsoft, I learned early how to wear multiple hats: designer, strategist, project lead, and partner.

That mindset carried into enterprise environments. At Change Healthcare, Elevance Health, and Gusto, I evolved from practitioner to design leader, guiding teams, aligning stakeholders, and building scalable frameworks that connected business goals, design systems, data, and experience strategy.

Leadership, for me, isn’t about hierarchy or titles; it’s about creating the conditions for momentum. That means fostering cross-functional trust, building collaborative design cultures, and aligning teams around a shared sense of purpose. When that happens, decisions get sharper, design gets more intentional, and the work starts to actually move.

Where I Am Now

Over time, my role has shifted from designing interfaces to shaping environments where good products and good teams can actually take root. I connect design craft, human insight, system behavior, and AI capability to build products that don’t just function, but get shipped, adopted, and scaled with confidence.

I still sketch. Only now, the medium isn’t charcoal, it’s workflows, feedback loops, conversational flow, model behavior, and business outcomes.

What matters to me now isn’t just the work, but the people shaping it. I’ve been fortunate to learn from strong leaders across disciplines, and I pay that forward by building cross-functional trust, mentoring designers, and helping teams not just ship better products but build with purpose. That’s the kind of work that lasts.

What Comes Next — The Next Chapter

I’ve always been drawn to a question:

What happens when design, technology, insight, and AI don’t just coexist, but actively inform, challenge, and elevate one another?

That’s the challenge I’m now pursuing with intent. Not just designing better interfaces or smarter automation, but mastering AI Systems Thinking: stitching together discovery, design, data, operations, and governance into one continuous learning loop. A system that doesn’t just work, it improves, listens, and delivers real value.

I’m currently exploring both contract and full-time opportunities, bringing together strategy, design, AI, and execution to help teams move faster and build with purpose.

If my focus and approach resonate, I’d love to connect: manishdua@outlook.com

Awards & Recognition

G2 Momentum Leader – Gusto (2025)
During my tenure, I contributed to key growth initiatives, including improvements to the referral experience, tiered incentives, and in-product engagement strategies.

Webby Honoree – Anthem Whole Health (2024)
Recognized for excellence in digital health experience. I led product experience strategy across member-facing web and mobile experiences during this initiative.

Gold Stevie / American Business Award – Anthem Digital Experience (2024)
Awarded for advancing digital engagement and experience innovation. My team helped shape core workflows and improve platform usability and accessibility.

Merit Digital Health Award – Healthy Blue NC Medicaid (2023)
Honored for improving Medicaid member experience through thoughtful UX and service design. I guided experience strategy and cross-functional collaboration across digital teams.

Frost & Sullivan – Customer Value Leadership Award (2021)
Awarded for platform impact and customer outcomes. Played a key role in shaping user experience strategy across teams working on the platform.

Frost & Sullivan – Enabling Technology Leadership Award (2019)
Change Healthcare was recognized for advancing digital transformation in healthcare payments. Supported the platform’s design vision, collaboration frameworks, and product experience strategy.