About

Pratiksha
Kulam

(pruh-tick-sha)
Product Designer ✦

Started in code. Found my way to design. Turns out the best product decisions live somewhere in between. I design at the intersection of research, systems thinking, and emerging technology — currently at Northern Trust, shipping enterprise products at scale, leading research that changes how teams prioritize, and building design systems that outlast any single project.

View my work → Download resume ↗
Pratiksha Kulam
Pratiksha having fun
Moment collector 📷
Espresso dependent ☕
Serial burger explorer 🍔
Unintentionally hilarious 😄

3+

Years in product and enterprise design

Research-led

Designing conversational and complex product experiences

25%

User engagement lift through product thinking

Human-centered

Accessibility, usability, and research-driven decisions

30%

Usability improvement at Northern Trust

The designer

I am the kind of designer who…

01

…reads the error state before the happy path.

Edge cases aren't edge cases to real users. I design for the moment things go wrong because that's when trust is built or broken.

02

…interviews users before touching Figma.

70% of my time is in research. Finding the right problem is half the solution, the other half is making sure you've actually talked to the people who have it.

03

…speaks developer because I used to be one.

CS degree + frontend experience means I design with implementation in mind and hand off without surprises.

04

…thinks AI should serve people, not impress them.

I design for LLM-integrated experiences and conversational UI, not because it's trendy, but because that's where the hardest UX problems are right now.

05

…treats accessibility as a starting point, not a checkbox.

WCAG compliance, screen reader logic, keyboard navigation baked in from day one. If it doesn't work for everyone, it's not done.

Outside the screen

The eye that trains
the designer.

Everything I do outside work feeds back into how I see composition, detail, pattern, and depth — the same things that make design feel considered rather than assembled.

Photography

Photography

My way of noticing things.

I like capturing little things people usually miss — textures, messy corners, tiny moments that somehow feel beautiful..

Mandala

Mandala

My way of slowing down.

There’s something calming about starting with one small shape and watching it slowly turn into something detailed and balanced.

Painting

Painting

My way of switching off.

No structure, no rules, no trying to make things perfect. Just colors, moods, and seeing where it goes.

Reading

Reading

My way of staying curious.

I read a bit of everything. Sometimes for ideas, sometimes for comfort, sometimes just to see how other people think. Books keep that alive.

Experience

Where I've
shipped work.

Product Designer

Northern Trust · Chicago, IL

30% usability improvement 3+ enterprise apps Design systems Stakeholder research 25% engagement lift

Sep 2025 – Present

UX/UI Designer

Mphasis · India

28% satisfaction increase Responsive web and mobile Agile delivery Cross-functional collaboration Interaction design

Mar 2021 – Jul 2023

"Design is really an act of communication." — Don Norman Let's start that communication →

What's next

See my case studies→ Get in touch→ Download resume↗