Great teams build great products.

Great teams build great products.

Great design drives great business.

Great design drives great business.

I design both.

I design both.

Impact at a glance:

Impact at a glance:

Impact at a glance:

  • Streamlined developer workflows, ↑ efficiency by 54% (13→6 weeks)

  • Led 0→1 SaaS platform launch (56% ↑ ACV YoY)

  • Evolved Siloed tactical → Strategic design org (4% ↑ ARR)

  • Reimagined enterprise security experience (Time-on-task ↓ 85% & TTR - Time to Respond ↓ 99.97%)

  • Grew and nurtured multi-disciplinary teams of different sizes (3→70, 3→13, 18→30)

  • Unified 20+ enterprise products into 5 core workflows (24% ↑ satisfaction)

  • Shipped award-winning network automation platform for technical users (82% ↓ deployment time)

  • Streamlined developer workflows, ↑ efficiency by 54% (13→6 weeks)

  • Led 0→1 SaaS platform launch (56% ↑ ACV YoY)

  • Evolved Siloed tactical → Strategic design org (4% ↑ ARR)

  • Reimagined enterprise security experience (Time-on-task ↓ 85% & TTR - Time to Respond ↓ 99.97%)

  • Grew and nurtured multi-disciplinary teams of different sizes (3→70, 3→13, 18→30)

  • Unified 20+ enterprise products into 5 core workflows (24% ↑ satisfaction)

  • Shipped award-winning network automation platform for technical users (82% ↓ deployment time)

i'm a PCDE:

Passionately Curious Design Enabler

The designer in me specializes in crafting experiences and product strategies for technical and non-technical users in multi-stakeholder domains.

The enabler in me adapts to whatever is needed to create a space for great design to happen and elevate the craft to deliver meaningful business impact.

Agentic Design

B2B SaaS

AI Driven workflows

Security & Trust

Developer tools

Commerce

Infrastructure mgmt

Employee experiences

GTM & Growth

Sales Enablement

Enterprise UX

what do I bring to the table?

Stuff I honed through "Yay!, Oops! and Ouch!" moments.

I craft inspiring visions and drive successful product design.
By creating clarity from ambiguity, turning complex challenges into breakthrough solutions, and balancing strategic direction with hands-on action we deliver measurable results. Thinking made tangible.

I focus on fostering inclusive, collaborative cultures where we thrive & grow.
With an empathic mindset and team well-being front and center, I entrust teams with balanced autonomy, honest feedback, and focused mentoring that empowers them to deliver their best work and become multipliers.Together we soar.

I build strong cross-functional partnerships to drive alignment.
With an 'assume positive intent' mindset and my technical pedigree, I build bridges between design, product, and engineering, to make measurable progress toward our shared goals. Takes a village.

I create systems to improve design quality and operational efficiency.
By establishing frameworks, toolkits and rituals, I scale excellence across products and teams raising our collective design quality bar while maintaining operational efficiency. Together we rise.

Rakesh Patwari

Rakesh Patwari

Rakesh Patwari

Rakesh Patwari

A passionately curious, hands-on design enabler with a penchant for dad-jokes

My recent work history

My recent work history

My recent work history

Cisco

Director Experience Design

2022-2024

Meta

Product Design Manager

2021-2022

Salesforce

Director of Product Design

2018-2021

Juniper Networks

UX Lead

2016-2018

Aerohive Networks

Staff Product Designer

2014-2015

Cisco

Director Experience Design

2022-2024

Meta

Product Design Manager

2021-2022

Salesforce

Director of Product Design

2018-2021

Juniper Networks

UX Lead

2016-2018

Aerohive Networks

Staff Product Designer

2014-2015

Cisco

Director Experience Design

2022-2024

Meta

Product Design Manager

2021-2022

Salesforce

Director of Product Design

2018-2021

Juniper Networks

UX Lead

2016-2018

Aerohive Networks

Staff Product Designer

2014-2015

selected work

Stuff that made me grow and occasionally groan!

I’ve been fortunate to lead and contribute across these core dimensions of design leadership: Shaping Direction, Elevating Execution & Enabling Success. These selected projects represent highlights from that journey.

Each project draws from all three facets of design leadership—but one often takes the lead. This visual highlights the primary emphasis based on how I contributed to the work.

Elevating

Execution

Shaping

Direction

Enabling

Success

Elevating

Execution

Shaping

Direction

Enabling

Success

Elevating

Execution

Shaping

Direction

Enabling

Success

Elevating design practice to influence product strategy at Cisco

Strategy + Direction

XD Leadership (4)

All Org (24)

Enabling

Success

Strengthened team systems, design quality, delivery, and cohesion.

At Cisco, the seller and partner ecosystem faced a "leaky bucket" challenge: low renewals (ARR), and design org operated in disconnected silos trapped in reactionary "whack-a-mole" mode.

Elevated the design practice through strategic, intentional, orchestrated initiatives, transforming it into a strategic force.

The result: 8% higher subscription revenue, 4% increased ARR, and UX Research adoption jumped from 15% to 80%+ and 4 design-led key initiatives.

Elevating design practice to influence product strategy at Cisco

Enabling

Success

Strengthened team systems, design quality, delivery, and cohesion.

At Cisco, the seller and partner ecosystem faced a "leaky bucket" challenge: low renewals (ARR), and design org operated in disconnected silos trapped in reactionary "whack-a-mole" mode.

Elevated the design practice through strategic, intentional, orchestrated initiatives, transforming it into a strategic force.

The result: 8% higher subscription revenue, 4% increased ARR, and UX Research adoption jumped from 15% to 80%+ and 4 design-led key initiatives.

Elevating design practice to influence product strategy at Cisco

Enabling

Success

Strengthened team systems, design quality, delivery, and cohesion.

At Cisco, the seller and partner ecosystem faced a "leaky bucket" challenge: low renewals (ARR), and design org operated in disconnected silos trapped in reactionary "whack-a-mole" mode.

Elevated the design practice through strategic, intentional, orchestrated initiatives, transforming it into a strategic force.

The result: 8% higher subscription revenue, 4% increased ARR, and UX Research adoption jumped from 15% to 80%+ and 4 design-led key initiatives.

Privacy platform at Meta

Shaping

Direction

Strategy-led vision, alignment, scalable tools, and team rituals.

At Meta, the privacy review process had ballooned into a 13-week bottleneck that stalled product launches, risked multi-million dollar fines, and was viewed as a frustrating "tax" by engineering teams.

We tackled this challenge by reimagining both the product experience and team structure, creating intuitive workflows and shipped a cohesive product experience for technical and non-technical users alike.

The result: we cut the 13-week bottleneck by 54%, increased coverage 100%, improved sentiment 24%.

Privacy platform at Meta

Shaping

Direction

Strategy-led vision, alignment, scalable tools, and team rituals.

At Meta, the privacy review process had ballooned into a 13-week bottleneck that stalled product launches, risked multi-million dollar fines, and was viewed as a frustrating "tax" by engineering teams.

We tackled this challenge by reimagining both the product experience and team structure, creating intuitive workflows and shipped a cohesive product experience for technical and non-technical users alike.

The result: we cut the 13-week bottleneck by 54%, increased coverage 100%, improved sentiment 24%.

Privacy platform at Meta

Shaping

Direction

Strategy-led vision, alignment, scalable tools, and team rituals.

At Meta, the privacy review process had ballooned into a 13-week bottleneck that stalled product launches, risked multi-million dollar fines, and was viewed as a frustrating "tax" by engineering teams.

We tackled this challenge by reimagining both the product experience and team structure, creating intuitive workflows and shipped a cohesive product experience for technical and non-technical users alike.

The result: we cut the 13-week bottleneck by 54%, increased coverage 100%, improved sentiment 24%.

Evolving platform strategy to unlock revenue opportunities at Salesforce

Elevating

Execution

Shaping

Direction

Vision-driven alignment with strong execution focus.

At Salesforce, the pandemic accelerated demand for Experience Cloud, and we needed to pivot and mature the platform to cater to evolving market needs.

I led the transformation of the content services platform—one of our core pillars—by aligning cross-functional teams through JTBD workshops, co-creating foundational models with engineering, and shaping a cohesive narrative that brought executive alignment.

The result: a re-architected platform, 55.7% YoY ACV growth, a leadership spot in Forrester rankings.

Evolving platform strategy to unlock revenue opportunities at Salesforce

Elevating

Execution

Shaping

Direction

Vision-driven alignment with strong execution focus.

At Salesforce, the pandemic accelerated demand for Experience Cloud, and we needed to pivot and mature the platform to cater to evolving market needs.

I led the transformation of the content services platform—one of our core pillars—by aligning cross-functional teams through JTBD workshops, co-creating foundational models with engineering, and shaping a cohesive narrative that brought executive alignment.

The result: a re-architected platform, 55.7% YoY ACV growth, a leadership spot in Forrester rankings.

Evolving platform strategy to unlock revenue opportunities at Salesforce

Elevating

Execution

Shaping

Direction

Vision-driven alignment with strong execution focus.

At Salesforce, the pandemic accelerated demand for Experience Cloud, and we needed to pivot and mature the platform to cater to evolving market needs.

I led the transformation of the content services platform—one of our core pillars—by aligning cross-functional teams through JTBD workshops, co-creating foundational models with engineering, and shaping a cohesive narrative that brought executive alignment.

The result: a re-architected platform, 55.7% YoY ACV growth, a leadership spot in Forrester rankings.

Lets

decode

connect

ship

Rakesh Patwari

rakesh@rakeshpatwari.design

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Based in San Francisco Bay Area, CA

© 2025 Rakesh Patwari

Curious George meets Mr.Spock meets Master Shifu

Lets

decode

connect

ship

Rakesh Patwari

rakesh@rakeshpatwari.design

Copy

Copied

Based in San Francisco Bay Area, CA

© 2025 Rakesh Patwari

Curious George meets Mr.Spock meets Master Shifu

Lets

decode

connect

ship

Rakesh Patwari

rakesh@rakeshpatwari.design

Copy

Copied

Based in San Francisco Bay Area, CA

© 2025 Rakesh Patwari

Curious George meets Mr.Spock meets Master Shifu