# Maanasa S.

> Designer

Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/maanasa

With over 10 years of experience, I specialize in design strategy and service innovation at the City and County of San Francisco's Mayor's Office of Innovation, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. My focus is on creating impactful end-to-end experiences across digital and physical touchpoints, navigating complex systems and multi-stakeholder environments to deliver customer satisfaction and meaningful outcomes.  

Leveraging expertise in organizational leadership and customer-focused solutions, I collaborate with cross-functional teams to transform ambiguity into clear product strategies. My work integrates systems thinking, user-centered design, and product strategy to craft scalable experiences, particularly in regulated and high-stakes environments.

## Work Experience
### Lead Product & Service Designer | The Mayor's Office of Innovation | Bloomberg Philanthropies @ City and County of San Francisco
Jan 2023 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area

### Senior Product Strategist @ ZENDA, LLC
Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | New York City Metropolitan Area

### Product Strategist @ ZENDA, LLC
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | New York City Metropolitan Area
Applying design thinking to tackle intricate business and customer challenges for Fortune 500 companies and business stakeholders. My expertise lies in deciphering signals of change while cultivating an understanding of people and trends across social, technology, economic, and investment landscapes.

### Behavioral Designer @ The World Bank
Jan 2020 – Jan 2022
Led research work for the team to enhance emergency shelter services in Haiti during disaster-related risks. Our work resulted in service improvements that positively impacted the lives of 150,000 individuals.

### UX Researcher & Designer @ Outside the Byte
Jan 2015 – Jan 2021
Discovered key users and market needs. Drew an extensive understanding of the organizations users and product market. Created design solutions, iterated on wireframes for a fintech web application and e-commerce mobile application. My clients have included School of design strategies, Parsons School of Design, United Nations Development Fund, UNICEF.

### Consultant @ Inter-Parliamentary Union
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021

### Design Research Associate @ The New School
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | New York, United States
Applying mixed methods design research from discovery to prototype evaluation (e.g. competitive analysis, desk research, ethnography, IDIs, usability testing, co-creation, card-sorting, etc)

### Design Researcher @ Indian Institute for Human Settlements
Jan 2015 – Jan 2018 | Bangalore
My work focused on enhancing access to public health centers, sustainable public housing and sanitation services through human-centered design. My role was to lead qualitative research and co-design strategies and scalable solutions with govt, non-profits, and local communities.


## Education
### Masters in Science- Design in Design
Parsons School of Design - The New School

### Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) in Architecture
Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/maanasa-sivashankar
- Portfolio: https://maanasasivashankar.com/

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Source: https://flows.cv/maanasa
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/maanasa/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-13