# Rishma Mendhekar (She/Her) > Staff Product Designer, AI Search and Growth @ Crunchbase Location: New York, New York, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/rishmamendhekarsheher Not providing referrals unless we know each other or have worked together. Product designer and inclusive design advocate. Georgia Tech M.S. HCI grad '20. I design to advocate for users of all backgrounds and abilities. ## Work Experience ### Staff Product Designer @ Crunchbase Jan 2024 – Present * Implemented AI into filter-based search, allowing users to search with natural language instead of combing through hundreds of filters * Achieved 84% increase in page visits to retention driving feature through information architecture redesign *Published UI design and implementation standards for design and engineering teams in collaboration with front end engineering leadership ### Senior Product Designer @ Crunchbase Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 ### Senior Product Designer @ The Wanderlust Group Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 ### Senior Product Designer @ Lumanu Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 Lead iterative design process for native iOS and Android DTC fintech app by collaborating with engineers, product managers, and stakeholders. Revitalized key revenue-generating features by designing improvements based on user interviews and quantitative usage data. Conducted Lumanu’s first UX research studies and created discovery research framework for 3 product pods. Collaborated frequently with external stakeholders through user research and internal C-suite stakeholders through workshops and design reviews. ### Product Designer @ Lumanu Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 ### User Experience Advisor @ Mentra Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 ### User Experience Design Lead @ Mentra Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | Greater Atlanta Area Mentra is an inclusive hiring platform built for connecting Autistic individuals with recruiters to find meaningful employment. As a UX design lead at AxisAbility, I have helped design our product from the ground up - sketching, wireframing, and mocking up user onboarding and recruiter dashboard flows based on product requirements and user feedback. I have been working with the Mentra research team and neurodiverse experts to iterate on the key functions of our website and collaborating with engineers to get our design system up and running. Finally, I have developed and implemented version control and design update processes for design and product teams. I have also been working closely with our UX researcher to author study protocols and conduct usability tests. ### Product Designer @ Corvus Insurance Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Boston, Massachusetts, United States Facilitated and planned exploratory interview study with key user group to understand motivations and usage habits to inform future product work. Conducted iterative design and research process for new and existing features with PMs and engineers. ### Graduate Research Assistant @ Georgia Institute of Technology Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Greater Atlanta Area Worked with Dr. Carrie Bruce to develop and co-teach an inclusive design syllabus for Georgia Tech's EXCEL program. The course focused on universal design with an emphasis on human abilities and evaluation of physical and digital products. ### Graduate Teaching Assistant for Research Methods for HCI @ Georgia Institute of Technology Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 ### Graduate Teaching Assistant @ Georgia Institute of Technology Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 As a GTA, I hold office hours, grade code and interview assignments and exams, and assist during lectures. I have been a GTA for two courses at Georgia Tech, CS6456/4470: User Interface Software and CS3790: Introduction to Cognitive Science. ### User Experience Intern @ ADP Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Alpharetta, GA As a user experience intern at ADP, I was able to work on both research and design. I authored, facilitated, and analyzed a card sort. I also observed and acted as note taker during prototype evaluation. On the design side, I compiled and re-designed a number of atomic components as part of an ongoing effort to update ADP's design system. ### Teacher @ Girls Who Code Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area As a teacher for Girls Who Code's summer immersion program, I taught introductory computer science topics to a group of 20 rising high school juniors and seniors. During the 7 week program I taught Scratch, Python, robotics (Arduino C), web development (HTML/CSS/JavaScript), and data science. I also lead a teaching team consisting of myself and two TAs. ### Teaching Assistant @ Connecticut College Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | New London/Norwich, Connecticut Area Fall 2016: As a TA for Introduction to Computer Science, Data Structures, and Multimedia, I held weekly help sessions during which I went over concepts with students and answered questions about assignments. I helped students with Python, Java, MATLAB, and Adobe Animate based concepts. Fall 2017: I am an in-class TA for Introduction to Computer Science. I help clarify general coding concepts learned in class and answer student questions about in-class coding assignments. ### Researcher @ Connecticut College Jan 2015 – Jan 2018 | New London/Norwich, Connecticut Area I am researching GPU methods of creating large-scale particle simulation using the GPU. I utilize DirectX in conjunction with Unity, which will ultimately result in a Unity plug-in that creates up to 8 million particles based off of images or video. Along with two other students and three professors, I conducted field research in archives in the Smithsonian and 6 colleges in New England about the Posture Portraits. ### Digital Art Intern @ The Bloc Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Greater New York City Area As a digital art apprentice, I worked with 8 other apprentices to revamp The Bloc's apprentice recruitment strategy. I designed a microsite for The Bloc's apprenticeship program as well as PowerPoint templates, icons, and style guides for numerous pharmaceutical companies. ### Graphic Design Intern @ NINI Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Greater New York City Area As a design intern for NINI I create social media graphics for use on Instagram using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I also redesigned select pages of NINI's website using CSS and Wordpress. ## Education ### Master's degree in Human Computer Interaction Georgia Institute of Technology ### Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Connecticut College ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rishma-m - Portfolio: http://rishma.co --- Source: https://flows.cv/rishmamendhekarsheher JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/rishmamendhekarsheher/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-29