Hi, I’m Nikhil
For Sitting Metal Minimal
11+ YEARS DESIGNING AI-DRIVEN SAAS PRODUCTS. DIRECTOR OF DESIGN AT PORTKEY.AI · VANCOUVER 🍁
Hi, I'm Nikhil
I design AI products people actually use, and own everything it takes to ship them.
11+ YEARS DESIGNING AI-DRIVEN SAAS PRODUCTS.
DIRECTOR OF DESIGN AT PORTKEY.AI · VANCOUVER 🍁
Hi, I'm Nikhil
I design AI products people actually use, and own everything it takes to ship them.
11+ YEARS DESIGNING AI-DRIVEN SAAS PRODUCTS. DIRECTOR OF DESIGN AT PORTKEY.AI · VANCOUVER 🍁
For Sitting Metal Minimal
What I bring
Most designers own
one thing. I own all of it.
Raised while I owned design
I've owned the full design function at a funded AI startup and led a team through a NASDAQ IPO.
24+ Clients
Globally
Years Designing Products
Ten plus years in AI infra SaaS devtools enterprise systems.
Awards & recognitions
Awards from IPO-era SaaS to gen AI infrastructure leadership.
Faster from idea to shipped feature
AI-native design leadership across SaaS, devtools, and infra
Tools I use
Connect to Content
Add layers or components to infinitely loop on your page.
What I bring
Most designers own
one thing. I own all of it.
Product, brand, design systems, front-end, I've led every part of the design function. Not because I had to. Because I wanted to.
Raised while I owned design
I've owned the full design function at a funded AI startup and led a team through a NASDAQ IPO.
24+ Clients
Globally
Years Designing Products
Ten plus years in AI infra SaaS devtools enterprise systems.
Awards & recognitions
Awards from IPO-era SaaS to gen AI infrastructure leadership.
Faster from idea to shipped feature
AI-native design leadership across SaaS, devtools, and infra
Tools I use
What I bring
Most designers own one thing.
I own all of it.
Product, brand, design systems, front-end, I've led every part of the design function. Not because I had to. Because I wanted to.
Raised while I owned design
I've owned the full design function at a funded AI startup and led a team through a NASDAQ IPO.
24+ Clients
Globally
Years Designing Products
Ten plus years in AI infra SaaS devtools enterprise systems.
Awards & recognitions
Awards from IPO-era SaaS to gen AI infrastructure leadership.
Faster from idea to shipped feature
AI-native design leadership across SaaS, devtools, and infra
Tools I use
What I bring
Most designers own one thing. I own all of it.
Product, brand, design systems, front-end, I've led every part of the design function. Not because I had to. Because I wanted to.
Raised while I owned design
I've owned the full design function at a funded AI startup and led a team through a NASDAQ IPO.
24+ Clients
Globally
Years Designing Products
Ten plus years in AI infra SaaS devtools enterprise systems.
Awards & recognitions
Awards from IPO-era SaaS to gen AI infrastructure leadership.
Faster from idea to shipped feature
AI-native design leadership across SaaS, devtools, and infra
Tools I use
Selected Work
Work across products,
systems, and GTM_
A decade of shipping, from a NASDAQ IPO to an AI infrastructure startup. All designed by someone who stayed until it shipped.
AI Exploration
Most designers ownone thing. I own all of it_
Product, brand, design systems, front-end, I've led every part
of the design function. Not because I had to. Because I wanted to.
SwapWizard
Todo
Spotify
Anchor
AI Exploration
Most designers ownone thing. I own all of it_
Product, brand, design systems, front-end, I've led every part
of the design function. Not because I had to. Because I wanted to.
SwapWizard
Spotify
Todo
Anchor
AI Exploration
Most designers ownone thing. I own all of it_
Product, brand, design systems, front-end, I've led every part of the design function. Not because I had to. Because I wanted to.
SwapWizard
Todo
Spotify
Anchor
How I Work
How others describe
my impact_
A few things I've learned from building
real products under real pressure.
Evidence over assumption
Start from signals, usage, and constraints,
not opinions.
"Nikhil combines creative vision with strong execution. His ability to understand the bigger picture and ask the right questions consistently improves outcomes across teams and projects."
Varun Tyagi
Product, BCG X
Built with engineers
Design in close partnership so ideas
survive production.
Clarity before complexity
Reduce friction first, then add depth
where it matters.
What shapes
the output
Systems thinking
Partner loops
Craft
<Technical Empathy/>
Evidence
Story Focus
AI Fluency✨
Documentation
🌞
How I Work
How others describe
my impact_
A few things I've learned from building
real products under real pressure.
Evidence over assumption
Start from signals, usage, and constraints,
not opinions.
"Nikhil combines creative vision with strong execution. His ability to understand the bigger picture and ask the right questions consistently improves outcomes across teams and projects."
Varun Tyagi
Product, BCG X
Built with engineers
Design in close partnership so ideas
survive production.
Clarity before complexity
Reduce friction first, then add depth
where it matters.
What shapes the output
Systems thinking
Partner loops
Craft
<Technical Empathy/>
Evidence
Story Focus
AI Fluency✨
Documentation
🌞
How I Work
How others describe
my impact_
A few things I've learned from building
real products under real pressure.
Evidence over assumption
Start from signals, usage, and constraints,
not opinions.
"Nikhil combines creative vision with strong execution. His ability to understand the bigger picture and ask the right questions consistently improves outcomes across teams and projects."
Varun Tyagi
Product, BCG X
Built with engineers
Design in close partnership so ideas
survive production.
Clarity before complexity
Reduce friction first, then add depth
where it matters.
What shapes
the output
Systems thinking
Partner loops
Craft
<Technical Empathy/>
Evidence
Story Focus
AI Fluency✨
Documentation
🌞
Experience
11 years. Three companies.
One direction.
Junior designer to Director, I grew every
time the company around me did.
Leading all product and brand design for an AI infrastructure platform. Built the design team from 0 → 5, defined the visual language, and partnered with founders on GTM strategy.
Tool Stack
N8N
Cursor
Figma
Notion
After Effects
VS Code
Claude
Miro
Framer
Lovable
Premiere
Copilot
Linear
Github
Posthog
Vercel
Codex
Replit
Midjourney
Elevenlabs
//Awards and Recognisation
Workplace Recognitions
MVP Award — Freshworks
3× Winner ⭐
(Performance + impact)
Neo Platform Recognition
Recognition — Q4 2022🎖️
(Freshworks Dev Platform contribution)
True Friend of Freshworks Customer
Winner — Q3 2022 🎖️(Customer impact)
Design Ownership Award (CX BU)
Winner — Q2 2021 🎖️
(Ownership Award)
Exceptional Individual Performance Freshworks
Winner — Q1 2020 🎖️
(Execution excellence)
Into Design Systems Hackathon
1st Place 🥇
(Design systems + AI)
FLUI Design Jam
1st Place 🥇
(Design jam Mentorship)
BYAI-6 — “ToDo” AI app
2nd Place 🥈
(AI product)
Experties
FOCUS AREAS
AI infra & platforms
SaaS & B2B tools
Developer tools & no‑code
Sports & federations
Media, culture & education
Healthcare & wellness
No-code development
Skills
Design leadership
Product UX/UI
Design systems
Interaction design
Information architecture
UX strategy
Research synthesis
Enterprise UX
Developer experience (DX)
GTM + conversion design
Design ops
AI-assisted workflows
specialize in
AI-first product design
Enterprise workflows
Developer tooling UX
Observability
Design systems at scale
Onboarding + activation
Dashboards + analytics
Fast prototyping
Experience
11 years. Three companies.
One direction.
Junior designer to Director, I grew every
time the company around me did.
Leading all product and brand design for an AI infrastructure platform. Built the design team from 0 → 5, defined the visual language, and partnered with founders on GTM strategy.
Tool Stack
N8N
Cursor
Figma
Notion
After Effects
VS Code
Claude
Miro
Framer
Lovable
Premiere
Copilot
Linear
Github
Posthog
Vercel
Codex
Replit
Midjourney
Elevenlabs
//Awards and Recognisation
Workplace Recognitions
MVP Award — Freshworks
3× Winner ⭐
(Performance + impact)
Neo Platform Recognition
Recognition — Q4 2022🎖️
(Freshworks Dev Platform contribution)
True Friend of Freshworks Customer
Winner — Q3 2022 🎖️(Customer impact)
Design Ownership Award (CX BU)
Winner — Q2 2021 🎖️
(Ownership Award)
Exceptional Individual Performance Freshworks
Winner — Q1 2020 🎖️
(Execution excellence)
Into Design Systems Hackathon
1st Place 🥇
(Design systems + AI)
FLUI Design Jam
1st Place 🥇
(Design jam Mentorship)
BYAI-6 — “ToDo” AI app
2nd Place 🥈
(AI product)
Experties
FOCUS AREAS
AI infra & platforms
SaaS & B2B tools
Developer tools & no‑code
Sports & federations
Media, culture & education
Healthcare & wellness
No-code development
Skills
Design leadership
Product UX/UI
Design systems
Interaction design
Information architecture
UX strategy
Research synthesis
Enterprise UX
Developer experience (DX)
GTM + conversion design
Design ops
AI-assisted workflows
specialize in
AI-first product design
Enterprise workflows
Developer tooling UX
Observability
Design systems at scale
Onboarding + activation
Dashboards + analytics
Fast prototyping
Experience
11 years. Three companies.
One direction.
Junior designer to Director, I grew every
time the company around me did.
Leading all product and brand design for an AI infrastructure platform. Built the design team from 0 → 5, defined the visual language, and partnered with founders on GTM strategy.
Tool Stack
N8N
Cursor
Figma
Notion
After Effects
VS Code
Claude
Miro
Framer
Lovable
Premiere
Copilot
Linear
Github
Posthog
Vercel
Codex
Replit
Midjourney
Elevenlabs
//Awards and Recognisation
Workplace Recognitions
MVP Award — Freshworks
3× Winner ⭐
(Performance + impact)
Neo Platform Recognition
Recognition — Q4 2022🎖️
(Freshworks Dev Platform contribution)
True Friend of Freshworks Customer
Winner — Q3 2022 🎖️(Customer impact)
Design Ownership Award (CX BU)
Winner — Q2 2021 🎖️
(Ownership Award)
Exceptional Individual Performance Freshworks
Winner — Q1 2020 🎖️
(Execution excellence)
Into Design Systems Hackathon
1st Place 🥇
(Design systems + AI)
FLUI Design Jam
1st Place 🥇
(Design jam Mentorship)
BYAI-6 — “ToDo” AI app
2nd Place 🥈
(AI product)
Experties
FOCUS AREAS
AI infra & platforms
SaaS & B2B tools
Developer tools & no‑code
Sports & federations
Media, culture & education
Healthcare & wellness
No-code development
Skills
Design leadership
Product UX/UI
Design systems
Interaction design
Information architecture
UX strategy
Research synthesis
Enterprise UX
Developer experience (DX)
GTM + conversion design
Design ops
AI-assisted workflows
specialize in
AI-first product design
Enterprise workflows
Developer tooling UX
Observability
Design systems at scale
Onboarding + activation
Dashboards + analytics
Fast prototyping
// Creative Approach
Moments put
into words
Roles and projects that
shaped how I lead design today.
Satya Devarakonda
Co-founder, Scalekit
"Consistently delivered high‑quality designs with a strong grasp of fundamentals; a designer I’m confident recommending to any team.”
Lu Yu
Lead UX Designer, Tableau / Salesforce
"As Nikhil’s teammate, I’ve seen how he brings clarity to design. He pays close attention to detail and creates well-rounded work with illustrations, graphics, and UI."
Shruthi Venkatesh
Design @ Postman
“Pushes marketing teams to think strategically and then ships standout landing pages, illustrations, and videos that connect campaigns to clear business outcomes.”
Nikhil Muralitharan
Marketing Leader, Chargebee
"Strengthened brand identity and UX, improving traffic, engagement, and storytelling across our digital touchpoints, while staying deeply user‑centric and outcome‑driven for stakeholders."
Venkatesh Balasubramaniam
Sr. Director, Product Design, New Relic
Taqi Sleel
Co-Founder, Kooratech
“Nikhil balanced encouragement with honest feedback. His mentorship had an immediate and lasting impact on our team.”
Hannah Gagnon
Product Designer, TRIUMF / IDEA
For Sitting Metal Minimal
"A reliable, agile partner who continually lifted campaign quality and supported our team through changing needs."
Jerry George Thomas
Senior Marketing Leader, Salesforce
// Creative Approach
Moments put
into words
Roles and projects that shaped how I lead design today.
Satya Devarakonda
Co-founder, Scalekit
“Nikhil balanced encouragement with honest feedback. His mentorship had an immediate and lasting impact on our team.”
Hannah Gagnon
Product Designer, TRIUMF / IDEA
"Strengthened brand identity and UX, improving traffic, engagement, and storytelling across our digital touchpoints, while staying deeply user‑centric and outcome‑driven for stakeholders."
Venkatesh Balasubramaniam
Sr. Director, Product Design, New Relic
"As Nikhil’s teammate, I’ve seen how he brings clarity to design. He pays close attention to detail and creates well-rounded work with illustrations, graphics, and UI."
Shruthi Venkatesh
Design @ Postman
"A reliable, agile partner who continually lifted campaign quality and supported our team through changing needs."
Jerry George Thomas
Senior Marketing Leader, Salesforce
“Pushes marketing teams to think strategically and then ships standout landing pages, illustrations, and videos that connect campaigns to clear business outcomes.”
Nikhil Muralitharan
Marketing Leader, Chargebee
"Consistently delivered high‑quality designs with a strong grasp of fundamentals; a designer I’m confident recommending to any team.”
Lu Yu
Lead UX Designer, Tableau / Salesforce
For Sitting Metal Minimal
Taqi Sleel
Co-Founder, Kooratech
// Creative Approach
Moments put into words
Roles and projects that shaped how I lead design today.
Satya Devarakonda
Co-founder, Scalekit
“Pushes marketing teams to think strategically and then ships standout landing pages, illustrations, and videos that connect campaigns to clear business outcomes.”
Nikhil Muralitharan
Marketing Leader, Chargebee
“Nikhil balanced encouragement with honest feedback. His mentorship had an immediate and lasting impact on our team.”
Hannah Gagnon
Product Designer, TRIUMF / IDEA
"Consistently delivered high‑quality designs with a strong grasp of fundamentals; a designer I’m confident recommending to any team.”
Lu Yu
Lead UX Designer, Tableau
"Strengthened brand identity and UX, improving traffic, engagement, and storytelling across our digital touchpoints, while staying deeply user‑centric and outcome‑driven for stakeholders."
Venkatesh B
Sr. Dir., Product Design, New Relic
For Sitting Metal Minimal
"As Nikhil’s teammate, I’ve seen how he brings clarity to design. He pays close attention to detail and creates well-rounded work with illustrations, graphics, and UI."
Shruthi Venkatesh
Design @ Postman
Taqi Sleel
Co-Founder, Kooratech
"A reliable, agile partner who continually lifted campaign quality and supported our team through changing needs."
Jerry George Thomas
Senior Marketing Leader, Salesforce
Archive
Roles and projects that shaped how I lead design today.
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Archive
Roles and projects that shaped how I lead design today.
View All
Archive
Roles and projects that shaped how I lead design today.
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ABOUT ME
I design production‑grade AI systems ��️ turning complex SaaS and devtools into clear, dependable products—from IPO‑era Freshworks to Portkey.ai’s unified AI control plane �� AI‑native workflows, robust design systems, real business outcomes ��
Know More
Car Lover
Car Lover
Car Lover
Car Lover
ABOUT ME
I design production‑grade AI systems ��️ turning complex SaaS and devtools into clear, dependable products—from IPO‑era Freshworks to Portkey.ai’s unified AI control plane �� AI‑native workflows, robust design systems, real business outcomes ��
Know More
Car Lover
Car Lover
Car Lover
Car Lover
ABOUT ME
I design production‑grade AI systems ��️ turning complex SaaS and devtools into clear, dependable products—from IPO‑era Freshworks to Portkey.ai’s unified AI control plane �� AI‑native workflows, robust design systems, real business outcomes ��
Know More
hello@nixonic.ca
Schedule a Call
Download Resume
♥︎
Design & Built by hand
hello@nixonic.ca
Schedule a Call
Download Resume
♥︎
Design & Built by hand
hello@nixonic.ca
Schedule a Call
Download Resume
♥︎
Design & Built by hand