Hi! I’m Aashima
Strategic Designer and Innovator working at the intersection of technology, AI, and social systems.
In practice, my work brings together
Strategic Design
Design Research
Systems Thinking
Participatory Design
Strategic Designer and Innovator working at the intersection of technology, AI, care systems, and social infrastructures.
My work examines how complex systems shape institutions, communities, and collective futures. I draw on strategic design, systems thinking, human-centered design, and participatory practice to explore challenges across technology, governance, and society.
Over the past eight years, I have worked across governance, healthcare, and technology sectors in roles spanning engagement management, product development, and social innovation consulting. Much of my work has focused on designing and managing initiatives in disaster mitigation, response, and resilience building.
These experiences shaped my interest in how systems of care evolve across communities and institutions, and how design can support more equitable and resilient social infrastructures.
I am also interested in how play in later life can foster creativity, social connection, and well-being among senior adults.
I am currently a graduate student of the MS Strategic Design and Management program at Parsons School of Design - The New School (Class of 2027), where I continue to explore how design can help shape responsible technological futures with communities.
Good design doesn't impose futures - it makes space for ones that already exist.
Human-Centered Design
Pluriversal Design
What Guides My Work -Designing for
Complexity & Care
AI & Social Infrastructures
How might we design AI systems that strengthen equitable social infrastructures and public services?
Climate & Migration
How might design help communities navigate climate change, displacement, and forced migration?
Technology & Public Values
How might participatory design shape technologies that reflect community knowledge and public values?
Systems of Care
How might systems of care be reimagined to support collective well-being across communities and institutions?
Institutions & Governance
How might institutions adapt when technological systems evolve faster than policy and governance structures?
Care and Aging
How might play create meaningful engagement, creativity, and agency for senior adults?
My Story
Every complex system holds a question someone forgot to ask.
I began with systems - just not the human kind
My foundation was computer science - learning to see the world as interconnected logic, flows, and feedback loops. But I quickly realized that the most complex, consequential systems weren't in code. They were in communities, in governance, in the invisible structures shaping people's daily lives. That realization set everything in motion.
Design as a tool for governance and justice
Selected from a top 1% applicant pool, I joined the Governor's Office in Haryana (India) - redesigning citizen grievance systems, leading statewide oxygen supply chains during the pandemic, and driving data-backed reforms across 12 government departments. Design, I learned, wasn't about aesthetics. It was about power, access, and whose needs get centered.
From strategy rooms to community ground
Across roles at EY, Swasti, and Dhwani, I moved between policy tables and field visits — co-designing public health programs reaching 100 vulnerable communities across 8 states, directing Amazon India's $18M climate resilience portfolio, and building disaster response systems across India, Japan, and Australia. Every project deepened my conviction: solutions only hold when communities co-create them.
The Beginning
The Shift
The Field
The Crisis
A pandemic, a mobile grocery store, and a lesson in improvisation
In 2020, when national lockdowns froze supply chains, I designed and launched Store on Wheels - a mobile grocery program across 10+ cities, built in 3 months. It was design under pressure: no perfect brief, no clean data, just real need and the urgency to respond. That experience - turning crisis into infrastructure, became a defining part of how I work.
Disaster response, climate resilience, and designing at scale
I led strategic consulting for Amazon India's $18M philanthropic portfolio - directing climate risk and resilience programs, co-designing disaster response frameworks, and building impact reporting systems for 150+ grantee partners. A defining moment: designing and launching an MVP for real-time disaster coordination across India, Japan, and Australia — enabling live stakeholder decision-making in the moments that matter most. Working at this scale taught me that systems change requires both the rigour of data and the intimacy of participatory process.
The Scale
Where I am now
Today, I'm deepening this practice at Parsons School of Design - The New School. I am pursuing an MS in Strategic Design & Management, facilitating care-centered co-design workshops, and supporting research on structural inequality at The New School. Eight years of field work, now sharpened into frameworks for the futures I want to help build.
How do I unwind?
My creative energy flows beyond professional boundaries into meaningful personal projects. I combine my love for photography and social impact by designing postcards featuring moments captured during my community visits. These postcards do more than tell stories—they help raise funds for initiatives supporting rural Indian women's health and hygiene awareness. Each image represents a connection made, a story shared, and an opportunity to create positive change through design.
Reading is my other sanctuary
I set ambitious yearly reading goals and host intimate book clubs that transform my living space into a hub for intellectual exchange and community building.
My digital bookshelf, which I design and curate, invites others into my literary world, featuring both my current reads and thoughtful reviews. It's become a space where my passion for design, storytelling, and knowledge-sharing intersect.
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.