Solving Problems with Design & Common Sense.
UX design leader — curious at heart, with 12+ years driving impact across consumer, enterprise, and startup ecosystems.
About
I'm Akshat Verma - an experienced UX Design Leader with over a decade of experience solving complex problems at scale.
I currently lead design for Microsoft Teams Education, Consumer, GroupMe while previously worked on Security, and Viva Insights.
My career spans enterprise, consumer, and startup ecosystems, giving me the range to think broadly and execute deeply.
I'm passionate about coaching teams, building delightful product experiences, and crafting systems that work at scale to achieve business goals.
Expertise
- UX Design Leadership
- UX and Product strategy
- Cross-Geo Team Collaboration
- Coaching & Mentoring
Experience
Microsoft
Senior UX Design Manager
2019 – Present
Leading UX for Teams for Education Globally and previously on Teams Consumer, GroupMe, Workplace Analytics, and Security. Driving global product adoption, AI-first workflows, and cross-geo team alignment across Microsoft’s productivity stack.
Newzstreet Media Pvt. Ltd.
Co-Founder NYOOOZ | Product and Design
2014 – 2019
Co-founded and scaled a Google Funded hyperlocal news platform reaching 50M+ users. Led UX, CMS systems, mobile-first delivery, and growth ops for tier 2/3 India. Built editorial tech and multilingual workflows.
Honeywell
Global Strategy special project
2013-2014
Designed voice-first multimodal interfaces for industrial workflows. Piloted VUI dashboards and operational safety tools in high-pressure field environments.
Education
National Institute of Design
Master in New Media Design
Apr 2013
The program was an intersection between Art, Technology and Culture. This course introduced me to the world of design and solving problems with the human at the center at scale. Personally developed a Growth Mindset by "Learning to Unlearn".
VIT University
B.Tech. EIE
August 2012
Completed my engineering degree in Electronics and Instrumentation. Developed my love for product building by experimenting with the latest electronics and learning the "how" in detail.
Indian School of Business ISB
Short Executive Program
January 2021
Completed a short term strategic executive program that focused on Beingful leadership and improving critical executive skills to foster self awareness, enhance decision making and boost impactful team outcomes through continuous professional growth
Recent Works
Here are some of my recent projects that my teams have proudly built. Feel free to check them out.
Teams for Education UX Refresh
Transforming Microsoft Teams from an enterprise-first platform to a student-centered learning hub — simplifying complexity, prototyping new EDU-first experiences, and laying the foundation for AI in education.
- Vision
- Product Design
The White Lamp
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- Branding
Rucksuck
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- Product Design
NYOOOZ
NYOOOZ is a digital-first local news platform designed to empower Tier 2/3 Indian cities with timely, relevant, and accessible news. By leveraging technology and design, NYOOOZ bridged the gap between grassroots journalism and national publishers — scaling to millions of readers across the country.
- Website
Sand Dunes
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- Illustration
Minimalismo
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- Branding
- Product Design
