my story

I am Chaitanya Mendu, a product designer with over 8 years experience.

I love helping companies go from 0-to-1 and then figure out what's next. I was most notably part of the founding team of Tekion, a unicorn currently disrupting the automotive retail space. I have spent my career working at small, medium, and large-sized companies and early startups as one of the founding and first few product designers.
Chaitanya Profile Pic
Designer . Mother . Photographer
I have been involved in various stages of product delivery, from doing 0 ➡ 1 work in seed-stage startups to scaling up features for SaaS companies across multiple platforms. My background in engineering makes me a systems thinker who naturally gravitates toward product problems. I believe collaboration and closed-looped feedback are critical to building a good product. I use design as an instrument to create impactful products to enhance, inspire and meaningful human interactions. A generalist at heart, I got into product design because it allowed me to pursue creative, business, and technology interests. Since then, I have worked on many problem areas, including - AI and Machine Learning, Automotive, E-commerce, productivity, and reporting.

Recently, I led an end-to-end experience for an Explainable and Model Monitoring AI Platform at Fiddler Labs, that enables enterprise data science teams to monitor, explain and analyze machine learning models at scale, with actionable insights that are trustworthy, transparent, and understandable. Before this role, I led and designed experiences for automotive retail at Tekion, and I worked on FirstRain's business analytics platform for sales and marketing.

Through my journey, I have had the opportunity to solve product problems new to the market. I feel this has given me a unique perspective on operating and succeeding in different environments. Outside of design, I am passionate about Organic sustainable gardening, and Macro and Landscape Photography. I always try to acquire new skills to grow and learn something new. I live in Dublin with my two boys and husband.
01. work experience
Product Designer - Nightfall.AI

NOV 2023 - Current, Dublin, ca.

Product Design Consultant - Self-Employed

Jan 2023 - Current, Dublin ca.

Product Designer - Gem

DEC 2021 - July 2022, SF ca.

Senior Product Designer - Handshake

May 2021 - Dec 2021, SF ca.

Product Designer - Forge Studio

oct 2020 - may 2021, OAK ca.

Product Designer - Fiddler

July 2019 - OCT 2020, Palo alto ca.

Founding Designer - Tekion

JULY 2016 - MARCH 2019, SAN RAMON ca.

Senior Product Designer - FirstRain

NOV 2013 - JUN 2016, SAN MATEO ca.

UX Designer - VMware

JUN 2012 - SEP 2013, Palo alto ca.

UX Designer - Google

AUG 2011 - MAY 2012, MOUNTAIN VIEW ca.

Mobile UX / UI Designer - Walmart

JAN 2011 - AUG 2011, SAN BRUNO ca.

UX Designer - Partners HealthCare

OCT 2008 - DEC 2010, BOSTON, MA.

02. EDUCATION
Northeastern University // Boston, MA - 3.8 / 4.0 GPA

Bs in graphic design - jan 2010

Osmania University

BS in electronics - june 2001

Osmania University

Diploma in multimedia and software technology, may 1999

03. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
Won Fast Co Honoree for "Best User Experience" for Tekion ARC.

NOV 2019.

Won Silver "The Stevie Awards" for Sales 
2.0 - FirstRain.

JUNE 2016.

Recipient of book builders association of Boston - Scholarship.

outstanding ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE | May 2008.

Dean's list of Honors

YEAR 2007 AND 2008.

My photography journey

Follow me @chaitanyamendu