Making A Difference

While public health design is a professional passion, Siddhartha Joshi is equally keen on pursuing his love for travel writing and photography

- Siddhartha Joshi

Give us a glimpse into your design journey.

SJ: My interest in design was ignited by hanging out with all the designers at my first job as an engineer at TVS Motors. It was their passion in their work that eventually convinced me to study design instead of doing an MBA. I studied Industrial Design at the National Institute of Design and I think NID changed my life forever, and in many wonderful ways. Just being among so many creative and open minds changed the way I looked at the world. My mind opened and with that also the possibilities of things that I could do later in life. Everything technical that I learnt at NID can be learnt anywhere else, but the softer aspects of design were my key takeaways. I went on to Stanford University for a Biodesign fellowship program.

What were your top five takeaways from the Biodesign fellowship program?

SJ: The program focused on a specialized field (medical product design) and a process of doing that. Designers didn’t work with designers – but with doctors, engineers and business students. We worked on projects which could become companies and that really also helped me look at how design plays such a significant part not just in products, but also processes. The key takeaways are:

The need is everything – if you identify the right need and convert it into a simple need statement, half of your work is done!

You can’t design a product by yourself – and collaboration is the answer.

Clinical immersion is the core of medical product design – along with extensive desk research (reading journals, papers, and interviews). It’s similar to field research, but very focused.