Leaders

It's not always necessary, to reinvent the wheel, unless the tyre is flat. What beautifies the experience is how smartly and intelligently we reuse the existing wheel, to meet our requirements and to bring in innovations.

Moreover, there is no point in providing the right solution to a wrong problem. So ensuring that the root cause is identified before design activities are initiated is the first step for the success of any design. These are the beliefs of Suhani Mittal, the Co-Founder of OpenKnot, a User Experience design studio. Having come a long way as a business leader since the inception of the organization in 2017, she has effectively managed her responsibilities at the organisation and sets an example for many others to follow.

According to Suhani, OpenKnot's vision is to increase the UX maturity of as many organisations as possible. They help clients discover and leverage the full potential of User Experience design in order to maximise their organisation's ROI through design. The company has been catering to a host of global clients and helping them make their products usable and desirable.

While interacting with the Women Entrepreneur Magazine team, Suhani shares her exceptional journey of founding and leading the organisation. Here are a few excerpts from the conversation.

Take Us Through Your Educational Journey. How Did You Start Your Professional Career And What Experiences Do You Bring To The Table?

Nobody is born an entrepreneur and everyone has a unique path. I come from a back then conservative family but against all the odds, I was the first female Engineer in my paternal family, first to move to a different city to pursue post graduation, very first female to start teaching in design schools and to begin an Entrepreneur journey. It brings a smile of content on my face to have normalised and opened the doors for the young kids of the family.

I was born and raised in Ahmedabad and studied Electronics and Communication Engineering, at the Gujarat Technological University Engineering helped me strengthen logical reasoning ability.

After that, I completed post-graduation in Industrial design from MIT institute of Design, Pune. Studying design helped me develop perspective taking looking at a problem as an opportunity area and this has proven very beneficial life-long skill.

I took calculated decisions in my professional career. In my initial years, I worked with a UX design studio to authenticate my understanding of UX in the industry. Next, I worked with a technology consulting organisation to get an insight into how bigger organisations operate. After some time, I worked with a services startup. Later, to explore my capability of delivering projects independently, I did full-time freelance for a while, before starting my venture. I believe, it is an unstoppable combination when you identify the intersection of three areas.

· First is what you love doing - your passion

· Second is what you are good at - your skillset

· And third is how your work is creating value for the industry - the market needs

What Are The Design Services That Openknot Specializes In? What Have Been Some Of The Significant Milestones Achieved By The Company?

Till the time users aren't consuming your products & services as desired by the business, it won't be profitable for you or for your business be it consumer facing application or internal employee facing portal.

Our mantra at OpenKnot is quite straight forward - understand business goals & what is profitable for the business and achieve it by creating solutions that are usable and desirable for the end users.

OpenKnot is a User Experience design studio. We design and measure the value created by design for various platforms (web portals, mobile app, PWD, websites etc), specializing in complex enterprise solutions.

We offer customised services to the client depending on their requirement and scenario. Scenario could be introducing a new portal to an existing market, taking product to new market, transforming legacy system, making product ready for adding new features, maintaining and uplifting the existing experience of the software.

Conducting UX audit, building UX strategy for the organization, conducting competitive analysis, creating a design system, hands-on User Experience design are a few services among others that OpenKnot specializes in.

We started as young entrepreneurs, with zero investment and without any strong network. For us, every first client on-boarded from a different country or domain and successful execution is a victory, getting repeat business is a victory, providing solutions for entire organization apart from just a project is a victory.

“Growth is all about being progressive by developing and maturing. For me, defining the destination' and having a meaningful journey' is very essential. So having a vision is critically important”

We have helped clients increase their revenue by 120% just through design. Moreover, every year seeing very good growth in revenue is a huge success for us.

What Are The Various Responsibilities That You Shoulder As A Cofounder? What Business Challenges Do You Encounter And How Do You Work Towards Overcoming Them Successfully?

Starting from sales and on-boarding the client to looking at operations, I carry out the major responsibilities of the organisations.

I come from a design background with no formal business training. Therefore, every day there is a challenge and learning attached to it, like pitching, scaling up and negotiations. I have two ways to counter these challenges.

· One is to give it a shot, in which either I will sail through or I will learn something.

· Secondly, I believe that one should take advice from a person who is already successful in that area.

What Is Your Role In The Growth Of The Organization? What Is Your Leadership Mantra That Aids In This Growth?

Growth is all about being progressive by evolving and maturing. For me, defining `the destination' and having a `meaningful journey' is very essential. So having a vision is critically important. Once the vision is clear, lay down a clear and defined roadmap on how to achieve and evaluate. I believe in breaking the vision in bite size tasks and taking baby steps towards accomplishing the goals. I feel this is one of the most productive means.

Nevertheless, to inspire and guide others, I strive to create a culture of lifelong learning and education for myself.

In This Technical World, Where Everything Is Moving At A Faster Pace How Do You Keep Yourself Intact With The Period Evolutions That Are Occurring Within The Industry And Tech? What Would You Advise The Young Women Who Aspire To Become Business Leaders And Entrepreneurs In The Field Of Ui And UX?

Most of the days before I start my work, when I do not have any urgent task to accomplish, I prefer some UX bites as my breakfast. It could be either reading a small article, hearing a podcast or watching a UX video. I also undergo UX certifications myself other than teaching students. This helps me to dive deeper and refine my expertise. Moreover, I try to follow global leaders to keep myself intact with the changes in the technical world.

To young women, I would just say, `Go for it'. At times the problem looks bigger, especially when you are in the situation but do not let it stop you from achieving your goals. Just keep moving and soon it shall pass. So dream big with a resilient mindset.

Suhani Mittal, Co-Founder, Openknot

Suhani Mittal is the Co-Founder of OpenKnot, a User Experience design studio. Having come a long way as a business leader since the inception of the organization in 2017, she has effectively managed her responsibilities at the organisation and sets an example for many others to follow.