Vignesh Sachidanandam
I lead design and strategy for consumer products at scale, from vision to shipped product.
15+ years across WhatsApp, Google, and Microsoft. Hands-on, designing products used by billions.
Meta · WhatsApp
I lead product design and strategy for AI on WhatsApp. When Meta set out to build a widely used AI assistant, WhatsApp brought the largest audience and a high bar for privacy and craft: end-to-end encryption and a brand built on restraint. The patterns we defined there were later reflected across Meta’s other apps, from the first consumer AI launch through Incognito Chat, a fully private way to chat with AI.
Alongside the AI work, I defined WhatsApp’s first forward-looking product vision and its largest visual refresh, set the multi-year north star for moving beyond phone-number based identity, and led our design org’s shift to AI-native ways of working.
I led design for experiences that move beyond the phone into ambient computing: the Android 12 ambient display, lock screen, at-a-glance widgets, and how a phone works with the devices around it. I also led design for Soli / Motion Sense on Pixel 4, a new way to control a phone through radar-based gesture and presence sensing.
Microsoft
I led end-to-end design for incubation projects in communications and productivity, partnering across the company and working directly with Microsoft’s senior leadership. Earlier, I defined the product vision and UX for Outlook across mobile, wearables, and desktop, designed entertainment apps for the Xbox One launch, and started my career as a design researcher on Microsoft’s first touch productivity experiences.
40+ patents at Google and Microsoft, including a few with Bill Gates :)