Karn AnandProduct Design Leader
About

Set the direction, then draw it.

I’m Karn — a product design leader based in India. For twelve years I’ve worked across telecom, fintech, gaming, research, healthcare and messaging, and I’ve learned that the best design leaders can both set the direction and draw it.

I’ve scaled design organisations from one designer to more than fifteen, set up the rituals and systems that keep quality high as teams grow, and personally designed the flows that moved the numbers.

Today I lead product design at Hike, across Messenger, Cinema, Travels and Sports. Before that I ran design at R1 RCM, led India design at Gartner, headed design for Gamezy, and rebuilt the Policybazaar app.

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Portrait of Karn Anand
  • RoleHead of Product Design, Hike
  • Experience12+ years
  • Team scaleUp to 16 designers
  • DomainsMessaging, OTT, fintech, gaming, enterprise SaaS
  • Based inIndia
Leadership

What I bring to a team

Three things I do in every role, with the evidence for each.

01 · Building teams

Teams people want to join

  • Scaled R1’s India design org from 1 to 6 designers in six months, with structured onboarding and career frameworks
  • Mentored 16 designers at Gartner on strategy, stakeholder communication and craft
  • Set up critiques, retros, design ops and system governance
02 · Driving impact

Business cases leadership funds

  • Designed for products reaching 100M+ users at Airtel and Policybazaar
  • 45–60% efficiency gains across 9 enterprise SaaS apps at R1
  • 25–32% lifts in conversion and engagement, from Gamezy to Gartner
03 · Hands-on craft

Doing the work that matters most

  • Built a 50+ component design system at Gameskraft: 50% more consistency, 40% faster delivery
  • Built Hike Messenger’s cross-platform token system, from audit to code
  • Prototype in Figma, Origami Studio and code; run usability sessions myself
Principles

How I work

Frame before design

A mandate isn’t a brief. I turn business asks into problems the team can actually solve.

Human-centred, data-informed

Research tells me why, and analytics tells me how much. I need both before I commit.

Systems, not screens

Every decision should scale beyond the screen it was made on.

Accessible by default

WCAG isn’t a final pass. It’s how the work starts.

Career

From graphic designer to design leader

One layer at a time: visual design, then product, then teams, then organisations.

  1. Apr 2026 — Now
    Head of Product Design
    Hike

    Leading design across Messenger, Cinema, Travels and Sports as a player-coach: brand, product and the token systems underneath them.

    • Hike Cinema launch
    • Messenger design system
    • Hike Rewards
  2. Jun 2024 — 2026
    Manager, Product Design
    R1 RCM

    Led product design across 9 enterprise SaaS apps for healthcare revenue-cycle management and scaled the India design org. Personally designed the AI-assisted coding interface and core modules of the R1 Decision redesign.

    • 60% productivity (AI coding)
    • 45% faster workflows
    • 1→6 designers
  3. May 2023 — Jun 2024
    Senior Manager, Product Design
    Gartner

    India design leader and principal designer for onboarding, engagement and retention across the global client platform. Partnered with C-level stakeholders.

    • +32% session time
    • 16 designers mentored
  4. Jan 2022 — May 2023
    Principal Product Designer
    Gameskraft

    Headed design for Gamezy, from onboarding to gameplay to monetisation. Built the team, managed agency partners, and personally designed live-score, team-selection and wallet experiences.

    • +25% top-up success
    • 50+ component DS
  5. Feb 2019 — Jan 2022
    Lead Designer
    Policybazaar

    Led the mobile app revamp: new information architecture, a pattern library, and flagship features including Policy Wallet, integrated Help and Quick Claim.

    • Policy Wallet
    • Quick Claim
  6. Jan 2016 — Feb 2019
    Senior Product Designer
    Airtel

    Designed end-to-end experiences across My Airtel, Airtel Payments Bank and Wynk Music for millions of users, working with Airtel’s brand team on creative direction.

    • Whack 2016 winner
  7. 2012 — 2016
    UI & Graphic Designer
    Bharti SoftBank, The Lalit Group, Clove Dental

    Built a foundation in visual design, UI and brand identity. Founded TILT, a creative agency for research, UI/UX, brand and marketing.

    • Founded TILT

Recognition

  • Adobe Creative Jam winner2019 and 2020
  • Airtel Hackathon (Whack) winner2016

Education

  • B.ComUniversity of Delhi
  • Advanced Diploma, VFX & DesignMAAC
  • UX Design CertificationInteraction Design Foundation

Tools

  • Figma, Origami Studio, Adobe CCDesign & prototyping
  • Claude, Lovable, ReplitAI-assisted design and code
  • GA, Power BI, Tableau, FullstoryAnalytics
  • Jira, MiroCollaboration