I was a bit hesitant, at first, to choose Anisha Jain for my second biography. After all, virtually nothing is known about her “early life” (i.e., anything pre-college). I can’t provide any details on where she was born, for instance, or where she grew up – not even the dreams she held close during her childhood. Even so, the more I read about Jain, the more invested I became in not only her point of view but also her origin story. How did she go from teaching science at an Oakland high school to becoming a VP of Design? What skills did she acquire across careers at Facebook, Dropbox, and Cruise? What can we, as designers, learn from her accomplishments?
The earliest known fact about Jain’s life is that she spent her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Majoring in mechanical engineering, Jain’s path into UX – like that of many others in this field – was not exactly a straight-shot. She interned twice as an engineering (or technical) hire, even staying three years at one company, Sandia National Laboratories. Also during this time, Jain taught 7th grade science at Teach for America in Oakland. Looking back on this experience, she likens the role of a product design manager to that of a teacher: “As a teacher, you are constantly thinking about the environment you are trying to create for your kids and how you want them to grow and change over the course of the year. Software design is similar — you imagine what behaviors you want to support and drive, and then execute to reach your goals” (Justinmind). Jain’s true break into design came with her 2010 product design internship at IDEO. Given the multifaceted nature of the design agency, Jain ended up with projects steeped in experience design, allowing her to learn the ropes of a more holistic design process. For example, Jain designed for JetBlue’s physical, digital, and service-oriented pain points.
Jain also attended graduate school at Stanford University, studying product design and strategy. She’d always wanted to work within “a digital space” (Medium) but hadn’t yet had the opportunity. In 2013, she made what she calls her first “intentional career decision,” joining Hot Studio (a design agency). Part of Hot Studio’s appeal was its abundance of female leaders; Jain wanted to experience their direction and work within their practices. Her phrase “intentional career decision,” I think, is a big takeaway because of its implications of intention. As designers, we must always have intentions, designing for not just to, and from this moment onward, Jain held this point of view close to her design practices and processes. Of course, intention isn’t the only force of nature out there; there’s also just plain luck. A mere four months after joining Hot Studio, the design agency was acquired by none other than Facebook. The change was so sudden, Jain calls it an “abduction” rather than an “acquisition” (Medium).
Despite this, Jain flourished at Facebook, climbing the ladder to become a Manager of Product Design within a year. The move into tech gave Jain the digital experience she’d been looking for, as well as the connections that would take her to greater heights. She recalls attending an event hosted by Dropbox in South by Southwest and being introduced to Dropbox’s Head of Design, Alex Castellarnau. He asked her what she thought about Dropbox’s design, and she responded honestly: that it felt “bro-y.” This type of honesty is something we students tend to fear (as we’ve been more or less trained to accept the realities presented to us by those “higher up” in the industry) and yet it’s the foundation of design – specifically with the discovery of problem spaces. Thankfully, Castellarnau seemed well aware of this. As Jain says in an interview with Hiring Guild, “He could have left the conversation at that and sort of let me go. Instead, he chose to use that moment as an opportunity to acknowledge something that had been a challenge at Dropbox…that was such a powerful moment from the recruiting perspective because it showed me that A) he was willing to admit some of the weaknesses that existed and it also meant B) we could have a conversation about what having a more balanced design team would mean.”
Jain became a Product Design Manager at Dropbox in 2015, then the Director of Product Design two years later. Her main area of focus while at the company was collaboration, working on tools like Dropbox Paper. Given how many perspectives there are within collaborative settings, it was a challenging problem space: Jain cites the importance of prioritizing use cases and aligning with your teammates on the foundational purpose of a tool, not just the dozens of ways it can help users. More than anything else, Jain advocates for advocacy. As seen in her conversation with then-Dropbox Head of Design Alex Castellarnau, speaking up is an essential part of a designer’s toolkit. It will improve the space you’re in, guide you to new ones with potential, and help you avoid ones that have bad intentions.
Today, Anisha Jain is the VP of Design at Cruise, presiding over Product Design, Brand Design, and Content Design. The self-driving car service is at the forefront of new technologies, automating transportation without dehumanizing it, and it is there that Jain continues to make an impact.
WORKS CITED
DM 18 • Interview • Dropbox • Anisha Jain, Design Matters, 9 Jan. 2019,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpsg2akIFFU. Accessed 4 Apr. 2022.
Hoy, Greg. “Greg Hoy & Anisha Jain: Intentional Career Decisions.” Medium, Hiring Guild, 29 Mar. 2019, https://medium.com/hiring-guild/greg-hoy-anisha-jain-intentional-career-decisions-4069b566bac7.
Naji, Cassandra. “How Dropbox Solves Design Problems: Q&A Design Manager.” Justinmind, 15 Nov. 2016, https://www.justinmind.com/learn-ux-design/how-dropbox-solves-design-conundrums-qa-with-design-manager-anisha-jain.
