Shyamsanker Sachidanandan
Designs product systems that earn their place. Built the Atlas Design System from token to component. Returned to design after two years in product management roles.
Senior product designer with design systems as the anchor. At Al Arabiya I built Atlas across four languages and multiple platforms, with a first working model in about a month and a year of validation behind it. The two years in product management roles (2016 to 2018) changed how I read design problems: what ships first, and what we measure to know it is working, arrive as design inputs. That argument is what earned Tokens Studio adoption for Atlas before it was a design decision.
Senior Product Designer · MBC Group (Al Arabiya)
- Built the Atlas Design System for Al Arabiya's digital products, from token architecture to component library, across four languages (Arabic, English, Urdu, Farsi) and multiple platforms. Validated in Figma, then ported to GitHub-managed token repos via Tokens Studio. First working model in about a month; matured over roughly a year of validation and testing. Design lead, with one other contributor. Adoption metric pending product launch.
- Led design for Al Arabiya's first in-house, AI-powered Editorial Suite for journalists, editors, and freelancers.
- Led design for Ask Alarabiya, an AI-powered conversational interface, part of the current product revamp. Both AI products ship in the 2026 cycle; adoption data follows launch.
- Design ops sat outside the org's formal mandate; ran it informally through advocacy, design-tooling setup, best-practice research, and the design-system roadmap.
Product Designer · MBC Group (Al Arabiya)
- Designed Al Arabiya's first full rebrand of its main website and native apps, partnering with IBM iX on a consulting engagement that ran from mid-2019 to late 2020; the rebrand launched in early 2021.
- Took the product's first design system from an early-stage style guide to the shipped product: after iX stepped away in late 2020, continued as the solo designer, maturing the system and the UI through to the 2021 launch.
Product Manager · JRD Group
- Launched PropSpace GO, the first mobile app for PropSpace (a MENA real-estate CRM): a lightweight interface agents could use while working away from the desk, which lifted agent adoption 5x. Led inception, strategy, and execution with design and development.
- Promoted to Product Manager in June 2018; carried the PropSpace product line through to the return to design at Al Arabiya in September 2018.
Associate Product Manager · JRD Group
- Launched RealSpace, a re-engineered version of the PropSpace web CRM built for the international market.
- Owned roadmap and strategy across the PropSpace and JustProperty product lines, for audiences spanning developers, asset managers, and facilities managers.
- Worked with sales and support to run customer meetings, surface needs, and shape the product around them; grew the UAE customer base by about 15%.
- Ran requirements negotiation with top-tier clients (Gulf Sotheby's, Asteco, Engel & Volkers, Coldwell Banker) for complex custom builds.
UI/UX Designer · JRD Group
- Ran UX research for the JustProperty portal redesign.
- Designed the JustProperty mobile app, launched with the rebrand.
- Ran field studies and focus groups for PropSpace CRM research.
- Designed multi-channel marketing material for JustProperty and PropSpace.
UI/UX Designer · Magnetyz
- Researched and designed digital products and websites for local and international brands.
- Worked on branding, print, and packaging design across several brands.
UI/UX Designer · foOfy's Solutions
- Researched and designed digital products and websites for local and international brands. First design role.
BA, Journalism & Communication · Manipal Institute of Communication · 2010 to 2013
Trained in reporting and observation across cultural systems before moving into design. That training is where the habit of treating cultural context as a design input comes from.
Foundations in Design Thinking · IDEO U · April 2022
Claude Code 101 · Anthropic · April 2026 · Credential ID xx4dabo29a9j
Design tokens · token architecture · component libraries · multi-language theming (RTL and LTR) · cross-platform systems · Tokens Studio · GitHub-managed token repos
Product design · interaction design · UI design · prototyping · accessibility design reviews · user personas
UX research · field studies · focus groups · usability testing
AI product design · conversational interface design · prompt design
Product roadmap · product strategy · requirements definition · client and stakeholder negotiation
Design ops · design-tooling setup · design-system roadmap · cross-functional delivery (design, engineering, sales, marketing) · Agile and Scrum
- B2B SaaS · B2C · real-estate technology · news and media
- Figma · Tokens Studio · GitHub · Sketch · Principle · Flinto · JIRA · Adobe Creative Suite
- English (native or bilingual) · Arabic (beginner) · Malayalam · Hindi · Urdu