# Mitul Bhat > Director of Product Design | Startup Advisor | Design Mentor Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/mitulbhat I am a product design leader with twenty years of experience, living in the San Francisco Bay area. Born in a sleepy business town in Western India to a middle-class working couple, I found my calling in stories and visuals, leading to a degree in Graphic Design from the National Institute of Design, India. Early in my career, I focussed on the craft, designing desktop interfaces, mobile applications, and voice interactions at global enterprises and startup companies. I also have a failed startup to my name 'Doodles,' founded by two friends and eventually sold by one. Between, I learned what not to do in a startup, and what matters more than the craft! As a design leader, I am the user's voice in a debate dominated by technology and business. I help organizations identify latent needs, generate ideas, and transform concepts into successful business outcomes. I've led a range of consumer and enterprise products through successful international market launches following the human-centered design process. Not to say I haven't had failures. I have been part of launches and ventures that either bombed or did not take off. Along the way, I grew resilient, amassed a few awards and half a dozen design patents. My design journey has led me to believe, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast; process for lunch!" This belief guides me as I build, scale, and manage global design organizations, spread across geographies. I try to foster a healthy culture that empowers individuals and aligns processes with developing genuinely transformational products and experiences. At work, or not, I carry a diary and am often found doodling, mostly during office meetings and during re-runs of old Tv show viewings. It helps me de-clutter my mind. When I am not designing or doodling, I play with my daughter and pen short fiction. Thoughts: https://medium.com/@mitulbhat Slice of work: https://mitulbhat.com ## Work Experience ### Director of Product Design @ VMware Jan 2021 – Present | Palo Alto, California, United States Head of Design for VMware Cloud Foundation's Networking suite of products. Leading a design organization spanning across US & India. In the past, led design for Telco and Edge Cloud, Digital Transformation and Engineering Services. Built and scaled a Product Design Organization across the USA, Bulgaria, and India. Enabled a 1000+ people matrix Engineering and Digital Transformation organization to adopt a user and customer-centered design philosophy for crafting successful business solutions. ### Sr. Manager of Product Design @ VMware Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | Palo Alto, California ### Staff Product Designer @ VMware Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | Palo Alto, California, United States ### Advisory Board Member @ Chiku Inc Jan 2024 – Present | Palo Alto, California, United States ### User Experience Design Lead @ Polaris Wireless Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 Led and managed the experience design function and team at Polaris Wireless. Responsible for planning design strategy, defining schedules and providing valuable strategic inputs, while collaborating effectively in cross-functional multi-site product team. ### User Experience Design Lead @ GE Healthcare Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 Leading experience design function for Identity and access management products for Caradigm- A Ge Healthcare and Microsoft company. ### User Experience Lead @ Veveo Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | Bangalore, India Lead the user experience activities of a start up that enables the implementation of intelligent conversational interfaces along with personalized universal search for various industries including mobile, video & television, and enterprise software, with offices in Boston and Bangalore. ### Lead User Experience Designer @ Nokia Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Bangalore Lead user experience activities of the Digital Identity and trust business (CABD). • Responsible for leading the user experience efforts of a product program that is looking into new product development. • Provide valuable strategic inputs, while collaborating effectively in cross-functional multi-site product team. • Ensured that all top-priority business and technical requirements were met. • Apply a range of UX design skills, techniques and tools to enable the delivery of world-class service designs into a challenging market environment. • Defining design proposals, user scenarios, service UX architectures, interaction flow wireframes, and visual composite designs to satisfy target user and business needs. • Spearhead usability studies and user research activities targeted towards rural population, with special emphasis on emerging markets. ### User Experience Designer & Usability Specialist @ Nokia Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 Design applications and spearhead usability studies for Nokia’s revolutionary open soure platform - MeeGo. My role at Nokia gives me the opportunity to interact with users through usability studies; and bring key insights into design projects. ### Usability Analyst @ Human Factors International Jan 2008 – Jan 2009 HFI, is the worlds biggest usability consulting firm with offices around the globe. Worked as a usability analyst / design researcher across varied projects for clients like Glaxo Smith Kline, Intel and Bangaluru international Airport limited. ### Co-founder and Managing Partner @ Doodles Jan 2007 – Jan 2008 Co-founded Doodles, a communication design and animation firm. A Managing Partner working at all the levels – Public relations, client facing, conceptualization, design deliverables, outsourcing – on various design projects.  Doodles has developed the popular Konees animation series for Vodafone-MTV, the opening promo for Ranveer, Vinay aur Kaun, the Network symbol for Broadcast 24, worked on the internal portal for Reliance called R-connect to name a few projects.  Clients: Vodafone, MTV, SKC, Hotmuggs, LEO Airways, Reliance Industries, Broadcast 24, Star One, Pumpkin Design, KropMarks advertising, Colosceum Media Private limited, Sunshine Films. ### Interaction Designer @ D.E.Shaw India Private Limited Jan 2006 – Jan 2007  The D.E.Shaw group is a specialized investment and technology development firm, with offices in India and USA.  Designed User Interfaces for the various in-house software applications, both server based and web based. ### Freelance Graphic Designer @ Edukite Learning Services Jan 2006 – Jan 2006  An entrepreneurial venture, with offices in India and South Africa. A company pioneering the use of information technology and innovative learning solutions in the field of education.  Designed the symbol and the corporate identity for the company.  Designed a complete product marketing kit for the South African market with symbols and brochures of its various offerings. ### Interaction Designer @ Juriscape Legal Research Private Ltd, India Jan 2006 – Jan 2006  A multinational firm, with main office in the USA. It is USA's biggest legal placement firm.  Developed the in-house communication design unit.  Worked as a communication designer on all the in-house identity, print and web projects. ### Freelance Graphic Designer @ National Institute Of Design, India Jan 2005 – Jan 2005  Designed the visual identity for protection under IPR for handicrafts project of DC(H) India.  Developed and designed the visual identity for three final crafts selected from each of the four states - Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. ### Graphic Designer @ Bullseye Advertising Fz LLC, Dubai UAE Jan 2004 – Jan 2005 | Dubai  Designed the brand identity for Bullseye Advertising and its partner agency Equity Advertising.  Extended the brand identity to all varied and necessary collateral.  Also worked for clients like Emirates Airlines, Citibank, BP, Castrol, Sony, British Council. ### Graphic Designer @ Benett and Coleman & Co. Ltd., Jan 2003 – Jan 2003 Proposed a system to redesign their monthly publication, Filmfare. Received extensive hands-on training in the running and smooth functioning of an effective publication. ## Education ### Graduate Diploma Program in Design in Communication Design National Institute of Design ### Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Graphic Design MSU ### St. Xaviers Loyola Hall ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mitulbhat - Portfolio: http://mitulbhat.com - Portfolio: https://medium.com/@mitulbhat --- Source: https://flows.cv/mitulbhat JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/mitulbhat/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13