Experience design leader · Raleigh–Durham, NC

Design leadership,
run as a business.

Twenty-five years making enterprise software people can actually use. Today: a 15-person global team, five product lines, and $100M+ in revenue at Axtria — with an AI-native design org to run it.

Trained in literature, then law. Neither stuck. Design did.

Enter the Evidence Room the record, presented differently — a 3-minute walk
Shyamal Dhar
The numbers

Proof, not promises.

$100M+
Portfolio

Annual revenue across five product lines under design leadership at Axtria.

41
Markets

International markets, one experience — the MetLife global rollout.

+42%
Engagement

Measured lift on metlife.com after the enterprise UX transformation.

1M+
Downloads

MetLife Korea 360 Health, in its first five months.

Work

Three arenas, ascending scale.

Axtria

Sr. Director, Experience Design
Nov 2022 – Present

Design across a $100M+ portfolio serving pharma and life sciences — five product lines, one design language, and design maturity moved to NN/g Stage 3: a business partner, not a service function. Built the AI program: generative and agentic UX as core capability, with an agent framework that validates agentic experiences before they ship.

15-person global teamDesign-to-code workflow Sentiment & renewal as shared KPIsWCAG 2.1 in governance

MetLife

Director, Experience Design
Jul 2018 – Nov 2022

Led the enterprise UX transformation of metlife.com — a 42% engagement lift in the US and a rollout spanning 41 international markets. Launched Korea 360 Health past a million downloads in five months.

Global design systemUX pattern lifecycle → AEM Data-driven practice

Kony (acquired by Temenos)

Director, Experience Design
Mar 2013 – Jul 2018

Founded the design org and scaled it from one to ten. Defined UX strategy for the MBaaS platform recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader five consecutive years, working directly with JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Scottrade.

1 → 10 design teamMagic Quadrant ×5 Fortune 500 clients

Earlier: 2001–2013 at Digital Avenues, Kony India, and others — twelve foundational years in financial-services interfaces and teams. Selected project case studies available on request.

Design Excellence AwardAxtria DataMax · 2023
Operational SuccessMetLife 360 Health · 2022
Magic Quadrant LeaderKony MobileFabric · ×5 years
CUA · IBM AccessibilityHFI · IBM
Selected work

Case studies, on request.

Enterprise Design System

Design language unifying five product lines across a $100M+ portfolio.

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Global Health Platform

MetLife Korea 360 Health — 1M+ downloads in five months, human-centered.

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AI-Native Design Org

Standing up generative + agentic UX as a core organizational capability.

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Writing

Thinking in public.

Medium
Jul 2026
8 min read
A Framework for Evaluating Agent UX — Because Screens and Agents Aren't the Same Thing

Why screen-based usability heuristics fail on agents, and a three-layer, twenty-one-dimension framework — built to score conservatively — for evaluating experiences you have a relationship with over time.

Medium
Feb 2026
6 min read
Claude Code to Figma Is a Genuine Leap Forward. It's Just Not Ready for Your Design Team Yet.

A hands-on test of Code to Canvas: clean output for ideation, but three gaps — no component-library awareness, invented tokens, single-person auth — that keep it out of a real team's production workflow.

Medium
Sep 2025
4 min read
Workflow Strategies for Designers: The Sweet Spot Between GenAI Efficiency and Originality

The design market is splitting into efficiency-led execution and strategy-led creativity — a practical playbook for wielding GenAI without losing your voice, and the human skills that decide who thrives.

Off the clock

Swim dad — early heats, long decks, a stopwatch that never flatters. Generative artist — art made with code; a plate hangs in the Evidence Room. Long-horizon investor — the same patience, different pool.