Hardik Pandya
@hvpandya
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✨ Design Leader who loves building tasteful products・Before: SVP of Design @Unacademy & @AirlearnApp・Design Lead @Google Search, @GoogleCloud, @GooglePhotos
Bengaluru, India
Joined April 2010
✨ Introducing TANDEM Brain ✨. A brand new approach to AI-powered personal knowledge management & note-taking. ⚡ Capture text / image / voice snippets.✅ Semantic recall of your snippets.✍️ Generate artifacts like notes & podcasts.🧠 Pick & switch to any LLM right inside
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If you're doing well in your career, someone somewhere stood up for you without you knowing. Be grateful.
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Hi.
Out of all the people with the same name as yours, is there someone slightly famous, who ruins your Google search results, when someone googles your name?.
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🚨 UPI scam from this morning 🚨. Posted an ad for an iPad on OLX. Scammer gets in touch, takes it to WhatsApp and offers to transfer money instantly. Then does this —
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I’ve paid INR 650/mo for about 4 years now to @googlephotos — that’s INR 30,000+ lifetime, and counting. ~1,56,000 photos, 1.8 TB. The most underrated consumer product out there with an unmatched LTV, retention and lock-in loyalty. Almost no worthy competitors either.
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California is quite literally, insane.
Every day someone in California is like “went on a walk” and then proceeds to post the most breathtaking landscapes god has to offer.
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New Balance and ASICS make the best and the most comfortable lifestyle sneakers.
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For the production budget the @IPL has, the TV graphics look quite outdated and basic for how modern the game has become. For comparison, see how sleek the @thehundred graphics look —
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✨. I'm joining @Unacademy as the Head of Design. Building a product to help people learn is one of the most challenging missions out there. The opportunity to build a compelling digital product portfolio in this space is massive. I'm very thrilled to go all in on this journey.
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Bidding adieu to this beautiful house after 3 years. Dwar have done a fantastic job on this one.
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Every Indian restaurant abroad is always rated ⭐️ 3.5. Not 2 stars, not 4+ stars. As if Indians go there expecting amazing food, get disappointed but can't rate it poorly because they still got Indian food.
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Obviously, it doesn’t take much to know this raised all the alarms from the get go. But the imitation transaction messages sent manually by him was the funniest part! . @GoI_MeitY @BlrCityPolice @CPBlr.
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Unpopular opinion: . I've got no issues with my traditional old-school banks at all. Been a happy HDFC & ICICI customer for 10+ years. Have had to call them on maybe 5 occasions tops. As for the new-age fintech apps, I got scammed in the first 15 days of trying one.
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Every button in FinTech apps is an opportunity to open a loan in your name, without you knowing. Sigh.
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Elon Musk, dejected by the rapid AI progress, walking on the streets of New York collecting signatures to pause AI development.
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🚨. I've interacted quite a bit with the GenZ workforce in last few months. You'd see a consistent pattern around their casual disregard for hard work, longevity of a career and the tradeoffs involved. Their argument is that work has evolved. It has. Here's what hasn't –.
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No, tipping shouldn’t be normalized. You charge your product and service fairly and pay your workers. “But they do it in the US” is not a sane argument here. They also install spikes there to deter homeless people from sleeping on sidewalks.
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So @HDFC_Bank redesigned their Net Banking portal, and to nobody’s surprise, it’s unusable to a shocking degree.
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🌹 after a very intense & fulfilling tenure at this beloved behemoth, i’m leaving Google. impossible to fully express my sincere gratitude here for G & the ☁️ + 🔍 teams. i’m so proud of the work we put together and the impact it has had. it’s time for a change. up next: 🇮🇳.
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So I get a 'Online check-in' email from Radisson Blu Hotel, Guwahati. Check-in? Tomorrow (28-09-2023). I have no plans to fly to Guwahati tomorrow. Turns out it's a room booked for @hardikpandya7 for the #ICCWorldCup warm-up match in Guwahati. Wow.
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Do not take advice from someone whose full-time job is to give advice. The best advice comes from people who are busy doing the work — who reluctantly share a nugget or two because you asked.
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✨. [ Career update ]. Director, Design → VP, Design @Unacademy . Thank you for the trust and constant support @gauravmunjal & @hemezh. We'll continue our journey of building iconic products. With that, back to work 🚀.
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Startups ruined SMS completely with ridiculous amount of spam first. Now I see many of them giving automated IVR calls to remind you to use their app. How is this normal and acceptable?.
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Driving a car in Bangalore is the absolute worst experience by far, compared to any other comparable city in India. No other city comes close in how painful this is.
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☕️ Top coffee in Bangalore – . 1. Subko.2. Shades of Coffee.3. Maverick & Farmer.4. HumbleBean.5. 6. Blue Tokai. Third Wave, Araku, Beanlore, Lavonne & others fall terribly short. What are the few more places worth trying?.
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✨ Farewell Unacademy ✨. After 4+ eventful and deeply satisfying years, I am moving on from my role as Senior Vice President of Design for the Unacademy Group. There's a lot to reflect upon and a lot to be grateful for. Looking back, when I committed to this responsibility in
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[🌻 trigger thread alert]. Noticing so many folks being massively distracted by chasing twitter fame, conference & talks 'clout', internet stardom, visibility fluff and virtue signaling lately. Grab a coffee, this'd be intentionally uncomfortable for many & informative for most.
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✨ Every user research session reconfirms one thing consistently: . 🤳 Users aren’t illiterate or lazy, they just don’t have time for the bullshit & the gimmicks you weave in the product. Don’t waste their time. Design better.
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Back in Bangalore and glad to see the weather isn't that far off from that in Switzerland.
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✨. Let us as an industry stop treating Visual Design as a low third-rate skill. Your problem solving narrative cannot be a cover-up for the lack of a high-quality final output.
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A walk in Koramangala on a quiet day is a dose of serotonin.
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Going to Indiranagar in the evening. Will keep an eye out for a certain gunda.
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Quality of life improvements:. • Mesh WiFi + security cams at home.• Fashion-neutral wardrobe.• Prime & YouTube Premium.• AirPods.• Secondary private phone number.• Memory foam pillow.• Decent coffee machine.• House-help.• A good car.• The best work chair.• Comfy shoes.
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Life mein brutal feedback mangna aur lena seekh lo. Kaam aayega.
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✨🇰🇪✨. We’ve spent the last few days in Kenya and its gorgeous wilderness. Initially we were only doing the Mara, but later expanded the trip to more parks and that decision was spot on!. If you’re planning a trip, here are a few of our findings (with photos) ↓.
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Koramangala gets so quiet that every night I hear my neighbour doing their Duolingo lessons for hours on end. No kidding!.
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You could be a founder, engineer, product manager, designer or anyone. I can count exactly 0 reasons for why you'd ever feel the need to call your users stupid or illiterate. When you do that, you absolve yourself from all the responsibility to do better.
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God help you if you’re wearing your AirPods while placing your order on Zomato, and the payment is successful.
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✨ Sharing a career milestone ✨. ✅ Senior Vice President, Design @Unacademy . What an incredibly satisfying year with such an amazingly talented, driven and sincere team. I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you for the continued trust & support @gauravmunjal & @hemezh 🤝.
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🚨 Get your design portfolios right, please 🚨. It aches my heart every time we hire, seeing the amount of thinking designers put, in building their portfolios. Commonplace repeated errors time and again, making it such a tough case to consider them. ✨ Very important tips ↓.
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So the Google Photos tweet blew up. Some of the most unhinged suggestions by people: . - It’s a paid tweet 😂 .- Store w/ Raspberry Pi attached drive 🤦♂️ .- Store on Telegram 🤯.- Delete most of the photos🤞 .- Upload on Instagram, delete the rest 🤷.
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Twitter pundits: “Who wants a PS5 delivered in 10 minutes?”. You’ve probably never ordered a gadget in life if you think this isn’t amazing. I want the gadget in my hands before the payment successful SMS hits my phone.
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✨. The best designers I know and have worked with, never waited for fully fleshed PRDs. They picked up a problem and helped shape the PRD with the Product Manager. These designers put their skin in the game.
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🚨 Here we go 🚨. Presenting Unacademy Debut 🧢. Kickstart your Design career w/ us in an all new way: ✅ No portfolio needed.✅ Share your story (60 min).✅ Get an offer or get detailed feedback from our team. ⚡️ Submissions open:
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Send a message in Slack. A few hours later, wonder why there's no response from the person. Open chat, see a bunch of ✅ reactions. They acknowledged hours ago. 🤷🏻♂️.
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My final 2c – . Don't fall in the trap of banking your career on temporary trends. Don't miss out on building long term talent moats by closing the door on valuable opportunities. 🤝 Make sure to get your advice from someone who doesn't have a course to sell. Happy hunting!.
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✨. Here are a few lighting hacks:. - Source of light shouldn’t be directly visible.- All lighting should be diffused.- Warm over cool .- Light sources should be either at your eye level standing up, or lower.
Interior design hack: Just never use your overhead general lighting ever again. Brings a room from a 3/10 to 8+/10 every time.
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✨. What if Job Descriptions were structured in this way:. ✅ Part 1 [micro]. What your average day would look like in this role, from morning to evening. ✅ Part 2 [macro]. What your impact looks like on a 6 month / 1 year horizon. ———. That’s it.
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“You’re not your work” tends to be said most often by people who aren’t good at their work. It’s an admission of mediocrity.
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✨. Remember: The designer is the only person who sees all the ~50 product screens side by side. User only sees 1 at a time with some causal memory of 2-3 screens prior.
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✨. If you’re privileged in life, the smartest thing you can do is to enjoy the privilege without an ounce of guilt or shame.
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✨ First 90 days at a new job, you start from a low trust position. Here’s a way to ramp up: . - Take up smaller things.- Deliver on them 120%.- Communicate widely that you delivered. As you spend more time in the org, you can relax all 3 constraints above.
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✨✨✨. Sharing the learnings I've gathered over the years working in Design, as one-liners. Starting here ↓.
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✨. Met this legend. Over 20,000+ international runs in this photo. None of them mine.
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👋 I took some time off to gather my thoughts. Sharing an incomplete list was an oversight and I accept the mistake. Thanking everyone who shared their feedback. I take the learning & commit to doing better going forward. 🙏 Deeply grateful for those who reached out privately.
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✨ Design internship ✨ . We've been designing our Internship program offering such that we have a solid experience + takeaway to give to everyone who interns with us. Here's our core value-offering, with the program launching soon!
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If you hate designing with constraints, try designing without any.
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Love Amazon’s approach to design. Other sites: Consistency, number of clicks to order, less clutter, focused checkout. Amazon: Bottom sheets on a weekend, a 5 click checkout on weekdays, here’s 15 offers all at once, here’s a completely unnecessary ‘Final confirmation’ page. ❤️.
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✨. Completed 1 year @unacademy today. Couldn't have imagined a better setup to start my foray into leadership with. Very grateful for the talented Design team that I get to work with every day. Onwards 🚀.
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Do you also take a screenshot, share it and then immediately go to Google Photos to delete it?.
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✨ You don’t need a design portfolio through your entire career. You only need it for that one job that will eliminate the need for a portfolio forever. So, build one to then not need one.
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✨Design in India is quite often a tense struggle between the designers that strive for aspirational polish, and the users that need raw and grounded simplicity.
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✨. Went from ~.Google Meet.Google Chat.Google Docs. To ~.Zoom.Slack.Notion.
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My only advice to Product Managers is to go deep in at least one direction — . Engineering design, User Experience & Craft, or Growth-shark Product Marketing chops. The industry is done with the “let me help you fill your next sprint” generalist role.
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In my entire design career so far, I have never once regretted going and talking to the PM while designing.
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My favourite bit of UX is when you make a payment on Google Pay, listening to music in your headphones, and it pauses everything to play the ting…. And then just leaves the music paused.
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✨💰 Thread on Salary Negotiations. Over the years I’ve gathered some pointers on negotiating compensation better after struggling myself early on in the career and then seeing so many others struggle. Here are some thougts —.
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