About - Naveed Ahmed

Me

I am a User Experience (UX) Designer with over 13 years of experience in designing and crafting digital products.

During my career, I have worked both as an individual designer and as a design manager. I've contributed to products used by hundreds of millions of people, designing core experiences for Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft SharePoint, Adobe Learning Manager, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

My current role involves crafting experiences aimed at improving critical business and UX metrics such as NPS, growth, adoption, and user delight. To achieve these goals, I actively collaborate with cross-functional teams including Product Management, Engineering, User Research, Content Design, Art Directors, and Marketing, and work closely with Senior Leadership to develop and execute product visions and strategies.

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Personal Stuff

Besides design, I dabble in photography, watch reruns of Seinfeld, and binge on sci-fi. I was once a hardcore Matrix fan and went too deep down the rabbit hole, that I now prefer spending time in libraries and museums.

I recently authored a book on Microsoft Lists (Apress Publishers) and have published Medium articles on enterprise UX. With varying speaking and written skills in eight languages, I dream of becoming a polyglot one day, before which I want to learn the Sign Language as well.

Design origins

My journey in design is something that I stumbled upon and one that I have never looked back from. It started with designing a humble poster in the first semester of my undergrad in Computer Science. What began as a way to solve visual problems and express myself through tangible media (especially compared to the CLI output of C, C++, and Java) soon led to freelancing in print and web design, eventually evolving into a career in user experience design.

In 2012, I took a break from career to pursue a full-time Masters in Interaction Design from IDC School of Design (erstwhile Industrial Design Centre) at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) in Mumbai. The intense learning and the amazing people ❤️ I met during the program completely transformed me and helped me become what I am today—a better designer.