Akshan Ish

Shaping products people love & leading design teams that do great work together






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I've spent 12+ years at IDEO, Babbel, Spotify, and PowerUs learning that good design leadership is context-dependent. What works at Spotify doesn't work at a Series B startup. 

Work Experience

My approach: understand the terrain, figure out how & where design adds the most value, then build the teams and systems to deliver it, or roll up my own sleeves to push things forward. I write about the messy reality of making good design work happen on my newsletter.

The Politics of Product Design

I'm a dad to two kids, play pickup hoops every Thursday, and every year I pick one thing to learn deeply. Last year was personal finance, this year is learning to build & distribute apps with AI agents as an indie maker. I recently shipped 3 products in 6 months.

Building with AI