Kanhika is a Lead Experience Designer at Springload, in Aotearoa New Zealand. She leads design research on cross-disciplinary projects for the Ministry of Education, Health Promotion Agency, and Ministry for Primary Industries, amongst others.
Kanhika’s happy space is in early stage research, ideation, and testing — working in the social impact and environmental sustainability space.
Prior to Springload she worked at PwC NZ on projects for ACC and the Ministry of Health. Kanhika is an alumni of Stanford University where she received a fellowship to study in the Graduate Design Program. She’s run a mobile dating startup in the San Francisco Bay Area and developed preschool educational tools with Mumbai-based IL&FS Education.
Creativity is in Kanhika’s blood. She makes ceramic jewellery and short films. To refuel, she’s never far from a cup of tea. Or a dram of whiskey.
Everything we experience from day one — our upbringing, cultural background, colourful life experiences — shape who we are, identify with, what we choose as our careers, and how we bring ourselves into our work.
There’s incredible merit in having an unbiased point of view as a design researcher. Have you ever wondered if there’s merit in bringing in your personal point of view on a project? Or is bias always bad?
Hear Kanhika’s experience in battling these questions in her practice. Walk away with a framework to identify your own worldview, and help decide what part of it you bring into projects and what you leave out.
Question the place of your worldview in your design research practice, to enable you to honour the worldview of others.
