radhika sawhney.

building and scaling design teams

Introduction

About Me

Design leader with a track record of building and scaling high-impact product design teams at Cisco, ThousandEyes (acq. Cisco), Quid, and the National Robotics Engineering Center (CMU).

I bring a user-centered, research-driven approach grounded in deep expertise in data visualization and complex B2B systems. At ThousandEyes, I led design through its acquisition by Cisco, scaled the team from the ground up, and helped evolve the design org into a strategic partner.

Since leaving ThousandEyes, I took a year-long parental sabbatical (2023-24). Over the last year, I have been exploring business ideas, prototyping AI-native products (HappyPath AI, Splice AI, Dolce.health) and advising early-stage founders on design team formation, agentic UX, and building with emerging AI capabilities.

Lastest Work

Case Studies

Building HappyPath AI

Building HappyPath AI

Conceptualized and built a product guidance agent for B2B SaaS

AIStartupB2B SaaSDigital Adoption
Design Leadership at Cisco ThousandEyes

Design Leadership at Cisco ThousandEyes

Scaling Design through hypergrowth and a $1B Acquisition

Design LeadershipNetwork Monitoring
Projects

Past Projects

Quid Apps

Quid Apps

Launched a new 'lite version' of Quid based on highly repeatable use cases.

AIProduct LaunchData Visualization
Quid Natural Language Search

Quid Natural Language Search

Enabling users to search in natural language pre-GPT era.

AIConversational UI
Quid Faceted Search

Quid Faceted Search

Redesigning the Search experience for users users to find relevant documents.

Usability TestingUX Design
Quid Persona Deep Dive

Quid Persona Deep Dive

A deep dive into the marketing ecosystem to identify and understand the various facets of users.

PersonaUser JourneyCase StudyUser Research
Drawing with Data

Drawing with Data

A visualization of a week's worth of travel data to spot patterns.

Data VizArt
Grocery Shopping Innovation

Grocery Shopping Innovation

A system to simplify the grocery shopping experience and connect it with planning and cooking meals at home.

Systems DesignDesign Strategy
Design Thinking for K12

Design Thinking for K12

A handbook for teaching Human Centered Design and its application to creative problem solving in K-12 curriculum.

Human Centred DesignEdTech
Nightowl: Preventing Date Rape

Nightowl: Preventing Date Rape

A mobile application that provides users with a safe and anonymous way to report potentially dangerous situations at social events.

Design ThinkingUX ProcessSocial Innovation
Sustainable Water Purification

Sustainable Water Purification

Industrial Design and Ethnographic Studies

Industrial DesignEthnographic StudiesSocial Innovation
Experience

Professional Journey

Various AI Ventures

Founder

June 2024 - Present | Remote

Exploring business ideas, incubating AI-first products across digital adoption (HappyPath AI), managed data stacks (Splice AI), and digital health (Dolce.Health). Ran 80 + discovery sessions, shipped multiple POCs, and secured early design-partner traction.

Product DiscoveryRapid PrototypingVibe CodingAI
Cleric AI

UX Advisor

June 2024 - Present | Remote

Setting up first design practice for an early stage SRE agent startup based in SF. Defined hiring roadmap, lean UX processes, and v1 product flows. Coaching team on continuous research and usability testing.

ConsultingAI
Parental Sabbatical

June 2023 - May 2024

Cisco

Director, Head of Design ThousandEyes

January 2020 - June 2023 | San Francisco

Scaled design org from 2 to 12, formalized design function, and elevated UX to a strategic partner. Post-acquisition, introduced PLG motion that lifted trial-to-paid conversion, unified design system with Cisco portfolio. Previous positions: Senior Design Manager, Principal Product Designer

Team LeadershipDesign SystemsPLGB2B SaaS
Quid Inc

Head of Design

October 2016 - December 2019 | San Francisco

Led a team of 5 designers & researchers to articulate the product vision and ship data-vis heavy workflows for enterprise analytics. Built scalable design system, integrated new graph visualizations, and launched new product lines, along with structuring the design org. Previous positions: UX Designer, UX Design Manager.

UX DesignData VisualizationDesign LeadershipUX Research
National Robotics Engineering Center, Carnegie Mellon University

Design Strategist

June 2014 - July 2016 | Pittsburgh

Applied Human-Centered Design to robotics projects: mapped stakeholder needs, ran ethnographic studies, and prototyped novel HRI interfaces adopted in two DARPA-funded projects. Previous positions: Design Intern

Human-Centered DesignRoboticsUser ResearchSystem Design