When I started this Newsletter years ago, I had no idea we would come this far. Thanks to folks like Soo, guest editors and many who joined in and kept it going when my time was short or energy was waning. Grateful for the support 😅 Soo takes a short break and, in a brand new experiment, I am turning this newsletter more into singular thought pieces, than a collection of links. There’ll be those too. But fewer…

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In this issue:

We explore those quintessential questions we get about DesignUp volunteering (we do get a lot of questions): how do I get to be a volunteer? what’s it like being one? what do we look for? what makes them tick & stick?

First let’s rewind, right to the beginning and spill some secrets. Ready?

Narayan and I had proposed the idea of an “off-beat, different” Design Conference to Adobe. We were both working there. There were several conferences, but we wanted something more eclectic, inclusive, integrating tech and business, not just another UI/UX variety or every-form-of-design. No navel gazing, no extended college-fests. In short, the list of what we didn’t want was long. As the then Interaction Design Association’s (IXDA) Regional Co-ordinator for Asia & Oceania, I also pitched the idea to the board (and friends) at both NewYork and Lyon—an IXDA Bangalore conference. Both IxDA and Adobe passed on the idea.

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Tu Kya Karega?

We revisited it in 2016 after a dear teacher of mine, MP Ranjan, passed away. His famed line which I have quoted often—”tu kya karega?” or “what are you going to do about it?” (expanded: if you’re not happy with the conferences around, what’s going to be your response? it can’t be sitting around cribbing and hoping for something better to magically appear!)

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DesigningUp…

Late 2015, through 2016, I had an unusual vantage point thanks to being a Designer-in-a-VC: a birds eye view of a changing ecosystem. Swiggy was looking to find a Design Head, NoBroker was building a team, MakeMyTrip was courting radical change in it’s teen years (it was 16 yo then), Meesho was off to Y-Combinator (YC), ClearTax had come back from YC and were housed in an office generously offered by PayTM founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, that also had Rohin Dharmakumar of The Ken (he was onto an IOT startup idea then, no Ken yet), and others. Bangalore was abuzz with startups.

While everyone around seemed to be starting up, we decided to DesignUp!

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The “Senior” Volunteers

After a first set of discussion in places ranging from our kitchen table with Esha, and cafes in UB city with Narayan, the framework emerged. The first formal set of DesignUp meetings were at a cafe in Kormangala, Bangalore. Located between the iconic “food street” and the Kormangala BDA complex. We had several meetings—the idea was to see who persistently turned up and engaged deeply with the idea. Of those who became regulars of that group were Baisam (he had worked with me while I was heading Flipkart), Ranga, Abhishu, Dharmesh aka Ba (I had worked with them while leading the Adobe Design team and the latter two were interns then), Prabin (I met him at a portfolio startup called Belong.co), Ripul (we went to the same D-School) and Veena. Narayan and I had known Veena as the chapter lead for LadiesWhoUx, I had spoken at their events. Plus there were Megha and Deepen.

Those first set of interactions defined what we look in volunteers:

One. Deep sense of ownership, accountability.
Two. Some superpower—a skill, attitude, ability (and zeal) to do at least 1 thing better than anyone we have known so far!
Three. To think clearly, calmly amidst chaos.

We could gauge the above from having known and worked with some of these people in the past. Knowing their one superpower. Knowing how they behave in the midst of chaos and trying situations, when entrusted with responsibilities. However small or big.

Prabin brought in Manu—he vouched for Manu meeting all of the above. Like Baisam, Manu too was great making at “machines talk”, was calm in chaos when slides refused to project or wifi died or tech refused to behave logically. Baisam brought in Nitesh.

Sima, former superstar Program Manager from my Flipkart days (who later moved to being a PM) decided to pitch in. My former boss, Arvind recommended and positioned Supriya as a “moderator, announcer”—the word MC wasn’t on our radar yet and it would be a few more editions before Suresh Venkat would take over. Somu, aka Somuda (from Sunderbans) and 2 student volunteers from PESIT joined in (recommended by Prabin, they wanted the ‘certificates’). And so the rag tag bunch of 2016 started.

Many of them are still with us, while some dropped off owing to relocation, family or work commitments, or health emergencies.

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The Second Wave

In 2017, Shiva - a speaker at the first DesignUp Conference, and my senior from D-School, joined us. As did Rasagy (pronounced Ras-a-gya) Sharma. Rasagy had missed the first event since he was away getting married, and had major FOMO. Over 2017 and 2018, newer people got added up—Prabin brought in Tuhina and Roshni (who I ended hiring up for my team in MakeMyTrip), Saloni and Soo, both of whom I had hired and worked with at Adobe. An intern at MMT then, Nikita also joined in—as did Anindita, who later married fellow ‘senior’ volunteer Abhishu. Shiva brought in Lucky, a man with a sharp sense of all things AV, and paired up with Baisam and Prabin, Nitesh. Gaurav would join this group post 2021.

The two interesting additions were Aghosh and Anil as volunteers in 2017. A Facilities Manager at the venue where we had our first event, Anil got inspired and brought in his logistics chops, and much needed help for Narayan. The owner of a thriving Dev studio, Aghosh, initially came in to code our digital properties and has stayed on as a volunteer. Being around us influenced Anil to change tracks, switch over and become a Designer, while Aghosh is familiar with more typefaces than (and I’m fairly confident) a Design student.

The 2nd wave reaffirmed our first set of principles, and we added 3 more things we look for in volunteers:

Four. Sense of humour.
Five. Ability to zoom in and out—caring about the smallest details and the bigger picture!
Six. Commitment to play the long term game.

The last point is something that Naval Ravikant talks about often. Despite all the planning over 362 days, it’s just one shot at getting many things right at run time in the annual conference: just across 3 or those 365 days. So learning and course correcting, developing the soul of a conference, building a community that cares takes years. It’s a long term play. And it’s fun when you play it with long term people. Another volunteer who exemplifies this is Katja Forbes, we go back pre-2016, to our IXDA years and she makes sure she’s around for the DesignUp days and ready to pitch in.

“Play long-term games with long-term people. Why? This is an insight into what makes Silicon Valley work, and what makes high trust societies work. Essentially, all the benefits in life come from compound interests. Whether it’s in relationships, or making money, or in learning.” Naval Ravikant

The fact that many of the volunteers have stayed with us over 6-8 years is a testament to their commitment and patience: To shape DesignUp gently and intentionally over the years. And in turn, be shaped by DesignUp. Many speakers, and fellow volunteers have inspired them to switch careers, jobs, roles; forged friendships, support and informal mentorship networks.

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Paradoxes

And that leads me to another set of problems, why we don’t accept new volunteers readily! Volunteers don’t get the usual trappings of a job: titles, reportees, appraisals, increments, growth plans. They often work on weekends and sometimes don’t get to watch the conference at a stretch. And yet, very few volunteers leave us. Which means we do not have enough “volunteer vacancies”.

Many volunteers have changed jobs, switched careers, taken on more responsibilities, larger roles. And they continue to be part of DesignUp. Sometimes supporting from far away places!

What’s more, as we have systemically looked at different flows and processes, understood and tightened these, the need to have many is replaced by the need to have fewer folks who are really really good at what they do.

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The Third Wave

After the largest DesignUp event in 2019 (1900+ attendees in India, 250 in Singapore) and the covid wave of 2020 came the fundraiser conference of 2021. We went online and raised over INRs 70,00,000 (seventy lakh) for charities fighting the deadly 2nd wave of Covid.

Between 2021 and 2024 came a fresh bunch who exemplified the idea of getting more and more specialised people. Developer turned Designer turned Ux writer Mohana, and BBA Grad turned Designer Arun, Surbhi, Bhavna and Gaurav joined in. We had worked together at MakeMyTrip and Goibibo, Flipkart. Shubham (who I always thought would be a great Design Ops person, though he thought otherwise), joined us - we had worked briefly at Udaan.

Realising the need for a specialist program co-ordinator and for the first time we drafted in someone we had never worked with before, but came with lots of references: Smita. Smita was part of core team in the reboot years of 2022, 2023 and in early 2024 passed on her baton to Tanisha—in Program management. None of us had a previous history of working with Tanisha either, but she came through a former Adobe colleague and had to jump through many hoops, before becoming part of the core team.

The volunteer group is an extremely diverse bunch today: seasoned Product leaders, Program Management folks, Design leaders, young Designers, self-taught Designers, Engineers, PhDs, folks who went to NID & IDC & BITs. One thing is common: they leave their titles at the door, they roll up their sleeves and make their work count.

Our latest additions are Product Management Leader Mouli, who came in as a speaker in 2023, and Baisam’s former colleague at Microsoft. Mohana, Arun, Mouli exercise our social media muscles (and no, we do not have an agency). Shristi grad Hriday joined us after a ‘trial of fire’ (he apprenticed under a demanding taskmaster Baisam), Tanvi - a 2022 lightning talk speaker, and Akta who briefly was our city co-ordinator for Chennai.

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Re-Designing Orgs

2023 brought a major change with me and Narayan stepping out from our signatory, roles and handing it over to a competent board. People who had seen DesignUp from it’s inception and early years: Esha and Shiva, my classmate and Product Leader Shirish (he helped me square up the numbers for the first 2 editions of DesignUp), and Hemant. As an industry veteran, founder of Fractal Ink (later sold to Dentsu) and former Exec President of Association of Designers of India (ADI), Hemant estimates he’s been to around events in 3.5 decades. He says:

“DesignUp isn’t just different, it’s in a league of its own.”

For me, personally, DesignUp is years long (in it’s 9th year) counter-intuitive org design experiment - influencing without titles, creating high-impact experiences without the rigid structures, and a culture of radical caring. Caring deeply for what we create. Played as a long game with people we love having around us.

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What will you do?

If you’ve read so far, congrats. It was meant to be long. Add some friction. No AI used. Stories from the heart and crafted by hand and head.

We’d love to have more folks volunteering, but looks like no empty spots right now! However, if you’re still interested, you’ve done the first step: engage with content.

Based on what you read, craft us a thoughtful email. Hand typed. Not ChatGPTeed! Tell us—what unique skills do you bring and why should it matter for DesignUp. Tell us how and where you used your superpowers! Tell us if you’ve attended DesignUp and what makes it special for you. Tell us which volunteer you most identify with, and why.

Don’t take to AI tools, craft your response. Small or long. Mail us at [email protected] We may not respond soon, but we will surely get there. And do subscribe, next issue we share what the volunteers have to say… and some learnings on the way!

Stay curious, stay inspired…

Jay

Postscript…

1. Call for speakers is open, active and buzzing

2. I interviewed Pablo Stanley on AltCwithJD podcast, watch the full episode now!