Patents
- Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum automatischen Laden eines elektrisch angetriebenen Kraftfahrzeugs - DE102020200292B4 📜
( Overhead robotic arm charger for Electric Vehicles, a patent filed while I was working at Volkswagen AG )
A LITTLE ABOUT ME
A life led
by curiosity.
Namaste. I’m Manoj.
I’ve always wanted to understand how things work—and how they could work differently.
As a child, I spent hours taking apart toys, radios, and household gadgets to understand what made them work. That curiosity led me to engineering and a career in software.
Over time, my attention shifted from how things function to how people experience them. I became interested in making information meaningful, shaping experiences, and asking what should be built in the first place.
That journey has taken me from engineering to design, from design to product strategy, and from working within organizations to building products of my own.
Outside work, I’m drawn to philosophy, world music, and nature. Art, filmmaking, and small experiments give me other ways to observe, express, and learn.
Visit the playground ↗
01 / Engineering
How it works.
Understanding the materials, systems, and possibilities behind a product.
02 / Design
How it feels.
Understanding how people experience a product and find their way through it.
03 / Product
Why it matters.
Deciding what should be built, for whom, and why it deserves to exist.
Along the way
OraclePrincipal Product Designer
KinstaSenior Product Designer
PictoryFounding Designer · Product Manager
SimulogicsGame experience design
Volkswagen / CarmeqEV charging experience
AlmabaseProduct design
Mutual MobileInteraction design
Mahindra SatyamProduct management
Learning & giving back
Product Management Bootcamp
UBC Sauder School of Business
Master of Design
Information and Interface Design
National Institute of Design
Engineering
Computer Science · Osmania University
Repair Cafe, Vancouver
Volunteering as an appliance repair assistant—another way to understand how things work, and help them work again.
Making room for creativity
Design-thinking workshops for students and children, alongside volunteer design work for environmental initiatives.
Highlights
Awards
- Finalist and Young Scientist Award - National Children Science Congress 1999
- First Prize for Short Movie on HIV Awareness - AP Govt Health Department, 2006
- Top 50 Designs for Parking Space - Nissan, Designboom 2009
- $2500 Grant for "Rethink the Design" - GE Healthcare, Behance 2013
Publications
- Design for education in emerging economies - USID, 2011
- Richer Experience over mobile phone interactions - USID, 2011
- Design of automobile infotainment system for elderly drivers in Indian context - IIID, Vienna, 2011
- Multimodal Interaction with user’s forced exhalation - IEEE TechSym, IIT Kharagpur, 2011
- Real Time Traffic Information Research - Transport Expert Forum, Vienna, 2011
Contributions
- Information visualization Designer - Datakind, Bangalore, 2016
Volunteering
- Appliance repair assistant - Repair Cafe Vancouver - SPEC · CBC video
- Graphic Designer - World Environment Day - WWF, India
- Graphic Designer - World Earth Hour 2007
Workshops Delivered
- TRIZ & Design Thinking - Mahindra Satyam, Hyderabad, 2007
- Creativity and Design Thinking - Gyanville, Hyderabad, 2012
- Design Thinking - Technozion NIT Warangal, 2013
- Design Thinking for Children - Design Gyan, Prerna Waldorf, Hyderabad, 2015
Sapere Aude.
Dare to think.