Hardik Pandya Notes × Talks × Work with me

Notes on products, design & leadership.

These are my notes on product & design – like a semi-frequently updated journal. Everything I write is born out of empirical learnings and everyday observations. These’s obviously bias in these notes but since there’s a great dearth of honest personal accounts of people in tech, I hope this serves as a useful one.

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If you’re a founder: These notes can help you better understand design as a function, set up the design team the right way and find a productive operating cadence with designers.

If you’re a designer: These notes can help you navigate your career better with tactical guidance on operating with more agency and ownership in your work.

After reading, if you have a different perspective, feel free to ping me on twitter or email me@hvpandya.com.


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Note to New Design Managers

Claude Analyzed My Writing

Tactics for Retention

The Paradox of Builders & Users

Success Helps Ease the Pain

Design Portfolio Advice

Aggressive Leadership

Ending the 'Seat at the Table' Debate

Brutal Feedback

No Career Conversations in Isolation

Outcome Indicators of Leadership

Working on Zero-to-One

Simple Ways to Build Career Alpha

Bad Design Managers

Design Principles

Design Quality is Coupled with the Business Model

Managers & Leaders

Founders, Hire Your First Designer

General Advice for Designers

Are You at the Right Workplace?

Increasing Net Competency

Know Your A-Team

What is Simple?

The Lonelier Parts of Leadership

Leaders Communicate Like Copper

Operational Dilution in Startups

How We Built Our Design Team

The Creator vs Editor Dilemma

The Five Year Team

You're Reflecting Too Much

Design Culture Code at Unacademy

Effective User Personas

Make Features Successful

On Copywriting

Designing for Education

Who's a Lead Designer?

Design Org at Unacademy

Transition to Leadership

Product Intuition Calibration

Two Lane Theory

Hot Seat Products

Small Slope Mentorship

The Unlaunch Manifesto

More Leverage

Exec Presentations

Thoughts on Design Documentation

Brief Note on Portfolios

Leverage in Large Organisations

Leadership in Large Organisations

My Framework for Delight

What I've Learned at Google as a Designer