Soumitra Sathe

Soumitra Sathe featured image

About

I'm Soumitra Sathe, a Service & Strategic Designer. My unique blend of creative and analytical thinking allows me to transform complex business challenges into innovative, user-focused design solutions. With a passion for creating experiences that resonate with customers and drive business outcomes, I'm as comfortable strategising as I am in the creative zone.

During my prior design consulting experience I've navigated diverse sectors like banking, insurance, ed-tech, e-commerce, B2B tech, and government, consistently delivering results that exceed expectations, while managing consulting teams and client stakeholders relations.

Currently on the look out for Service & Strategic Design opportunities.


Here is a quick snapshot of what I have been up to so far:

EDUCATION:

  • Royal College of Art / MA Service Design
  • London Business School / MBA Elective: Business Model Innovation
  • Imperial College Business School / MBA Elective: Entrepreneurial Journey
  • University of Mumbai / B.E. Mechanical Engineering


WORK EXPERIENCE:

CampusLife / Business Designer [JUNE 2022 - SEPT 2022, MUMBAI]

  • Successfully achieved product-market fit by leading research, ideation, prototyping, and testing initiatives. As a team leader, lead the design team of 3 designers, enhancing digital product designs for beta launch and collaborated with the C-suite to strategically expand product propositions through B2B partnerships.


Human Factors International / Senior Design Consultant [JAN 2019 - JULY 2021, MUMBAI]

  • Played a pivotal role in leading multiple Design Strategy and UX Design projects across diverse sectors.
  • Key contributions include setting design benchmarks for India's leading private bank, leading digital transformation projects, and securing new projects while successfully managing client relations for a Fortune 100 tech client.
  • Achieved a fast-track promotion to Senior Consultant from an internship.

Contact

Degree Details

Statement

As a Service & Strategic Designer, my approach combines a keen understanding of customer behaviours and needs, utilising both quantitative and qualitative research methods to inform empathetic, impactful design solutions. I employ human-centred design and strategic foresight to build future-resilient products and services, transforming complex business and customer experience challenges into innovative opportunities. Through my work, I bridge design, strategy, and business, delivering measurable value.


Areas of interest: Artificial Intelligence, Financial Services, New Venture Building, Sustainable Business Models

DataSense: Conversational Data Analytics for Small Business Owners

Empowering Small Business Owners to Take Data-Driven Decisions Through Conversations
Empowering Small Business Owners to Take Data-Driven Decisions Through Conversations

Neurodiverse Inclusivity in Financial Services

A quick snapshot of the project

The Challenge:

Create a digital proposition for neurodiverse individuals and their financial wellness that can be piloted by Barclays in the UK.


Our Approach:

We tackled this challenge in two parts:

  1. Understanding neurodiversity in society
  2. Understanding financial wellness for neurodiverse individuals

With these two paths explored, we then sought to identify the opportunities in the overlap between neurodiversity and financial well-being.


Our Solution:

We proposed a two-part solution:

  1. A semiotic-based design language for neurodiverse individuals leveraging sound, infographics, shapes, colors, and opacities as a collective.
  2. A proactive credit score product that helps people make sense of their financial world. It is a minimum viable financial service experience that offers proactive support to improve their credit scores through small tasks integrated into their everyday activities.


The Impact:

On Neurodiverse Individuals:

  • Improves financial service experience for 8 million neurodiverse individuals who bank with Barclays.

On Barclays:

  • Their services become accessible to a larger audience.
  • Helps establish a sense of trust and credibility in the market.
  • It can help position Barclays as an industry leader in Inclusive Design, thereby pushing other organisations to deliver neuro-inclusive financial experiences for the 16 million neurodiverse adults in the UK.

Grand Challenge: New Economic Models for the Oceans

The "GreenRig" project was selected as one of the top 12 finalists out of 70 teams in the annual Grand Challenge competition

Led the team in developing "GreenRig," a solution for repurposing abandoned oil rigs for sustainable seaweed cultivation and research in Aberdeen.