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Uday Gajendar, UX Architect at Automation Anywhere • Updated 7/26/20

It is time to move beyond velocity-driven sprint metrics & short-term UX/UI fixes.

We need to answer questions about creating long-term value for customers, via strategic metadesign. This has become my mission.

This transcends UX/UI, buttons & icons, wireframes, or Sketch files. Instead, what is the shape, structure, and pattern of the journey, service, or interaction being offered? How are marketing comms & tech features tied across channels and devices in support of customer moments? How do they enable a benefit that will be enjoyed – ensuring satisfaction or fulfillment – over the long run? Is your organization set up for achieving this? This is about intentional change for positive outcomes through discovery: molding critical frameworks + systems, guiding process + strategy with impact on culture. There are no JIRA tickets or burndown charts for this kind of work – it's truly at the meta level. But it's vital for any business that values satisfied, returning customers. And I can help your organization pursue this journey.

Metadesign is the designing that needs to happen before the design itself. It's defining a foundation that can flex & scale. I can help you do this.

My Background

I'm Uday Gajendar. With 15+ years of corporate & consulting experience in Silicon Valley tackling complexity & ambiguity, I am a design leader focused on innovation for strategic value. I am a proven catalyst for design-led innovation, defining next-generation concepts & coaching start-ups on UX fundamentals. My specialities include creating visionary concepts for new business models, leading collaborations with engineering & product, and shaping a progressive design culture. I bring versatile expertise, for enterprise to consumer, desktop to mobile, and beyond.

My Education

My Approach

There is no easy formula for good design! Instead, it's based upon cycles of learning: understanding your users, modeling the problems, and visualizing possible solutions – all powered by creative, iterative thinking in a deliberate yet efficient way. Sure, this all sounds theoretical...until you ask Adobe, LinkedIn, Netflix, Google, AirBnB, Square, Uber – who all apply this proven model in their own unique ways. Not so theoretical anymore, is it? Read more about why I can't design without research > (and neither should you!)

On Design Leadership

What does it mean to be a design leader? I believe there are multiple facets which evolve over time per priority & context. The four facets of design leadership shown here amplify each other, fostering a cycle of optimism grounded upon coaching or sharing knowledge & passion, transmitting that value through impact, influence, and inspiration, whether working with startups, organizing conferences, or envisioning concepts. Leading by example is very much a big aspect, role modeling best practices for teams to embody.

UX Career Themes

There are four key themes that summarize the arc of my design career thus far.

Sketching: I am unabashedly an artist at heart, so I thrive on pen & paper sketching — fast and gestural — as my primary means of problem exploration & solution generation. Plus, anyone can do it! I can teach you how.

Systems Thinking: No matter what kind of problem I’m given, I always seek to understand the parts and wholes, the pathways and elements, how they all relate. Diagrams are fantastic storytelling devices to foster cross-team alignment & agreement for the most complex products. I print them out large (as much as 7 feet long) for maximum engagement!

Enterprise UX: My path organically swept across many companies bent towards large-scale software rich with complexity & ambiguity, deep into business productivity arenas. I find this problem space intellectually rewarding and rich with untapped design potential. Read more on why I design for Enterprise UX > I also help curate the annual Enterprise UX conference via Rosenfeld Media, along with the monthly community calls and newsletter.

Next-Gen Concepts: Naturally provoking speculative concepts to shift the design direction and motivate new business models, that’s a vital theme as well in my work. Sometimes you need to shake things up with something unexpected!

UX Talks

For well over a decade, I have spoken about UX topics at a range of popular industry conferences & corporate events around the world, from Austin to Bangalore to Sydney. It's my way of sharing professional insights, and learning through active dialogue with like-minded peers, all seeking to elevate our field.

My services in pursuit of metadesign

As an architect / principal-level UX leader, I provide strategic design value for my clients & employers, who maximize the expertise I bring for solving complex customer-centric problems. I provide UX coaching, promote "Design IQ" within organizations, deliver rapid expert design in a collaborative manner, and create innovative concepts for future or alternative business models.

Useful Resources