LIVE Design Podcasting - Yogendra and Sanjay

Okay. Welcome, welcome. Here my friends. I am here with my friends Sanjay and Jagdish. So today is all about starting our new series knowing your coach. And today we have Jagdish here on the hot seat. So Jagdish is from one of my favorite state in India, Tamil Nadu. And Jagdish story is today we are going live. So let us start with Jagdish. Who are you and why are you we interviewing you? What are you? Tell us your story.

Super excited and very nervous also. Thank you Yogendra for coming to this channel and asking me and doing this interview. So this is going to be a great opportunity for me also to tell about myself. Though I have a lot of videos in my channel, this is a very, very special podcast I'm doing with Yogendra and Sanjay. So glad that you, you have taken and encouraged me to do this. So. So my name is Jagdish. I'm from a mechanical engineering background. I'm basically from Tamil Nadu, Chennai. But I was born in the state of Bikani, Rajasthan. When I was, when my father was there in military posting. And after that I did my schooling till first standard there in Rajasthan. Then my father had multiple cities as military people do like. And after that I got into KV school. I went into this school, that school, Hindi medium, English medium. And finally I settled back in Singapat San Jose school. And then I've completed my schooling there. After that I went for bachelor's in mechanical engineering in IRT college. After that I worked for five years in a company called tafe. So this is where my engineering phase started. So most of my knowledge, soft skill, the discipline, everything was during the engineering phase. So I was a manager over there, next to the manager. But I was last when I retired the company, gone out of the company. It was a managerial position. And after that engineering feels very monotonous. I took this decision to go for a creative career. I explored many fields like mba, this gate government exam. Just that I mean it is not very much attracting and the values are not totally aligned for me. But this creativity and product design was completely hitting me hard. I did not know much about architect and all these things but what Sanjay is normally doing. So what happens is I got this understanding that product design, sketching and all these things is one of the field where I can be better placed there. So I took this education called nid. I took this exam and I went to this college. And yeah, after that totally, totally everything changed and I went to get the best scholarship award go to exchange education in Germany. I stayed there for six months. One of the best student from NID got selected. And second is after coming back to India I designed this medical product called Numo which is a ventilator. Which has really given me the confidence to build myself as a medical product designer. So this is where my face of contribution and service started. So I got selected in Indian Navy. I came to Delhi for Commander Aditya for the interview. He hired me for naval ship interface design. The user experience and design interface for the ship which is for the Indian army. So Indian government. So what happened is during that pandemic time government was also not having that facility to bring the designers over there. So that offer got hold. But I was interested in going to this defense healthcare service field maximum. So this defense is now getting little bit blocked away. So I took this medical device and then I started working that project gave me the better leverage. I got the when that product what I designed as a team, we got best product of the year. That became one of the great encouragement for me. And then I stepped into HCL and started working as a medical product designer. In fact because of this project only I got this. And after that lot of things happened. I'm here becoming a coach to help the students reach there. So that's the second innings. But I would say this is a introduction I could give for the how.

How this coaching happening. And how Was this year 2025 for you?

Super amazing question Yogendra Ji. I'm very happy to say my top 50 students are generating 6.2 crores in salary impact. And the 125 people in the hackathon are cumulatively generating around 11.6 crores in salary impact. So this is a community, what we have built, we have crossed close to 1,150 people in our community paid members. And we have around 20,000 people who are learning actively and inactively through our lead system, through our emailing, through our YouTube, Instagram, all these places. So in this year I would say top achievers, I would say 46 people got the high top awards and placements and everything. We gave them recognition on the stage, we gave them awards and in fact in this year I gave three iPads. I'm very happy to say that for our students and this year has been very phenomenal. We completed four hackathons. We also did something called accelerators which is a much faster way of hackathons. So that has been also a very phenomenal journey in this last one year. And yeah, that's the big Thing and we had our live first event which is called Design for Change retreat. And I've also shared the video also in our YouTube. So yeah, that has been 2025.

I would like to take you back in history, Jagdish and please tell me how did the interest in product design begin in your life and towards your entry point? Did you take any specialized training for the entrance exams of UC, NID, etc.

Or.

Or whichever other exams that you give?

This is a beautiful question. So actually this innings particularly what we are discussing this started at a very early age so I could not able to track back this. But my parents and relatives used to always say if any product is given to me, like let's say as a kid I was always fascinated to find the mechanism behind this braking is fine that every kid breaks the product but I used to always check how the wheel works, how does that mechanism really works. So that curiosity was there inside me. My parents used to tell that at the 12th standard many people around me said you have to take ECE Engineering, Electronic and communication which is one of the growing field when I was in 2013. So don't take any other field. You will go jobless. That's the kind of environment we are surrounded with. No arts, no design. You will go broke. Don't go for this BSc college and BA only these people go. This what you call low mark people will only go. That's the association. Doctor, engineer. That's like a big hierarchy in the parenting. What I had. But I told my mom when I have to choose the college mechanical, I will go because this is interested to me. I honestly did not know there is a field called design. If it is there, I would have definitely gone before that. But anyway life takes its own turn. So I went to that college. I was very interested in the first year, second year I was very interested in these mechanisms. I was not interested in design but I was interested in mechanism. Eventually what happened is I also thought what if we could design something which could change this people's life which could impact the society. I participated in one competition called this radio controlled car. RC cars, okay. Used to have this remote control. I was very fascinated. I went for one college, nine university where I observed this guy is operating. It doesn't feel like a remote car that students has to fabricate. That car product is available in the market. But each and every college will have a specification. They have to revamp all the design, build it on their own. Mechanical and automotive students can participate in this game in this competition. First price is 25,000 and all these things. So this particular car was actually 15,000 rupees. Me and my friends, we took this money shared and then we got this. That is where this journey started. Sanjay ji. Mind blowing. Till till day I have designed more than 80 plus projects. Some of the project got real time implementation, crores of revenues, national award. All these things happened because. But that journey started and sparked because of that RC car.

And which year was that?

Which 2011. So it's been 13, 14 years to realize that full and thank you for asking me that question. The DOT is connecting.

Now I want to ask you very simple question. A layman. If you have to explain a layman. What is ux? What is UI and how does the design design itself. The concept impacts UX and UI and I'm just la manu watching you first time. Can you explain it to me?

Good. Now let's take this glass. Okay. This glass is there. This has a milkshake. When you hold this material you have a feeling like let's say oh, this glass is very soft. Oh, this glass is very heavy. This glass looks dirty. This glass doesn't feel premium like when I see this logo, it feels little premium Starbucks glass. Yeah. You have that experience, right?

See every product now it is premium when you saw the logo.

So it's not only that when you say it is premium and when you perceive it as premium, I'm also feeling little different. So the experience doesn't come only in aesthetics or visual. It also comes in the emotional thing, what you have with the other person and then the self pride, what you say. And second part, when you touch this glass, your lips touch this. The material is textured. All the Starbucks coffee mugs are very special. They have a very special coating which is very unique. It's not glossy or matte. It's very different. You get that feel. And when this kind of a juice and when this kind of a cup and the material has, you tend to see wow, today is a wonderful shake. Rather than that if you just have it in one small glass. If you just are going, there is no user experience there. So Starbucks charges 200 rupees for a coffee. People pay for that. It's because of the user experience, what they brought. It's nothing. We are all having this nava rasas in our life. 9 emotions. When a product evokes each and every emotion in a human life, they tend to remember that for a longer time. And they buy this product again and again and again and again and again. It's not only the texture, it's not only the weight, it's not only the premium. It's not. It's not only the taste. It's about the overall holistic Navarro sauce which creates and the product which takes maximum Navarro sauce that becomes a universal. That's why people keep buying iPhone and MacBook because they understood this aesthetics principles, user interaction, experience everything Very minimal buttons, very minimal interactions. IPhone has only one button. One no button. Like let's just swipe. So all of the companies benchmark that one button screen in MacBook. Nowadays the power button is also not there when you open the Mac. It's on close off. Why do you need to switch put on button if you're opening that means you're going to use it, right? Why do you need. I have to one more time on. So it was a very new when the interaction and experience is there in the micro level of the humans not only in glass or interactions or previously. People take 10 years Yogendra to do a transaction stand in the line bank. They have to do the transaction check whether the money is received. Now people can do it in 12 seconds. Even the 65 age people can do. It's because of user experience designers and interaction designers. Intuitively people can know that I'm adding a beneficiary entering the OTP safely. It is going confirmation tick is coming. My mind is satisfied that reward is there. Cashback is there. I'll keep using GPAY again and again. See. So this is what is user interface and experience. There are many deeper concept towards building these products. UX laws, heuristics. It's not required. But you ask the question layman this example should be sufficient. Were you able to understand the example?

Totally. When you mentioned Starbucks. Even the. The decor, the surrounds the interior designing space, the space design all that counts.

Yeah, architectural.

Yeah, yeah, architectural.

Starbucks has a high ceiling. It's not a low ceiling. High ceiling. The brown color. The. The.

And it is painted black. The. The ceiling is painted black. So all the services, the ducting, the AC ducts etc all the things that they have applied on the ceiling is completely not. Not as visible. So it's completely.

This is amazing. I did not observe this part. Wonderful G. Superb. Yeah, thank you.

So I remember reading the book about Steve Jobs where you know, he openly says that I did not do anything, but I designed the product. Now the picture is coming clear to me. Okay. Yes. John Ivey designed iPhone. Somebody has designed iPad. What this guy designed Steve Jobs. Now I understand. Okay. He was the consolidated product Design had who actually innovated the method to, you know, get these creative geniuses together. Now when we design something, there is a creative brain which you know, has to be activated and otherwise you can't think of the design itself. Right. Like one of my friend is a Maruti Suzuki dashboard designer. So he goes to Hills and he switch off his phone and he designed for example Swift. Swift is a very famous international car. He is the designer. So so he will go to Hills and he will just switch off. He will not contact people, not even eating food, whatever, but nobody is, you know, there. Same story I have over John Ivey that John Ivey is also not meeting, was not meeting anyone when he was designing and all that making it up. Now what part of Jagdish does it when you get into designing mode, what is your rituals?

Okay, I'm not that isolated guy. I'm a collaborative guy. I'm exactly opposite to that. I get into mode of discussing, understanding, exchange ideas, build on top of it. Because I strongly believe the innovation can happen in only diversity. Culturally different people having a different experience. An engineer is there on the room. A doctor is there on the room. A housewife is there on the room. A salesperson is there on the room. An architect is there on the room. If I'm asking one question, hey, if a fire happens in a house, what are the first thing you will take out? Everybody answer is different individually. If I ask, housewife will say I have to take care of my kid. Architect will say something. Some people will say money gold answers are very different. But when I put everybody in one room and I ask this question now, people will have debate, people will have discussion. But at the end everybody can commonly arrive. This is a top priority things which we need to take. This is called protocols. Fire management department has established that considering all the user Personas, this is what we have to do. In terms of images, there is no talk. I am an architect, I am a mother, I am a dog. This is called universal design. I wanted to be in that position. That part of Jagdish is what I'm really thinking and I'm doing that. And I'm also helping students to do Individual is fine. At a certain point is okay, but after that you have to come back, understand, empathize, solve and then flourish.

That's my next question that it's okay, you can be creative. You know, there is a beautiful book also written on it, surrounded by idiots. So if you're, if you are going to teach people that how to be creative. Or you know in the coaching when you wear this, that of coaching how difficult it is and what kind of challenges you are finding or is it easy you are able to coach?

Not about challenge or difficult, it's about results. The coaching journey for me can only be measured based on result. If a student is able to either get the job or implement a project and make it live or get a client project based on the concepts what we are discussing and everything, that's exactly success for me because it is not about completing chapters or completing hackathon or completing. It's not a conventional education what we are all going through. Right? So the measure of the results of the students is the key metrics for me in order to make that happens. Definitely I need to do whatever it takes to reach there. If I have to give more one to ones if I have to teach more sessions. Every single day we are having sessions Yogendra Sanjay for that information. From Monday to Saturday we have early morning session.

Wow.

Monday we have hackathon calls. Tuesday we have Tuesday UX calls, user experience tactical UX date people will implement tactical calls. Wednesday is inner circle where we all meet common just we had a inner circle call and came back. Now we discuss about mystery guest. We had a surprising on college student got the offer for 4.5 LP. I was very happy when she came into this community two months back she was having no salary. Now she's earning at least 30 40,000amonth. According to me that is success. Thursday we have a leadership council call for entrepreneurs designers who are transforming their Friday we have figma. Friday it's a tools day. We used to do yantra tools as you said tools. And Saturday we have a squadron. This is where we have a very deep connect in squadrons. We connect more deeply into job. We have fractal sessions every 15 days. It happens. We have 15 days once momentum sessions which successful people come and share. We have something called mixer session where different personality people will come and mix and we will bring some creativity out of it. So this all happens on Saturday. One of the most important calls in our community is on Saturday. Sunday is a detox day morning we do a 30 minutes of meditation. Anapana Goenka ji's meditation. We'll play in YouTube. We'll sit and meditate. After that 15 minutes we will write ideas and then we'll do one hour of yoga. One of our community members, she teaches yoga for all. She's also now part of the Internet lifestyle hub and she's also now teaching to all of our Community. So yoga plus mind detox is going to be the detox on Sunday, Monday reset happens. So this is the modules, this is the complexity, this is the lessons I've got through which if somebody is going through they'll become success. So it's a process. It's not how difficult or easy I have to do it. That is my karma. I have to do it.

And are there any milestones that you have defined so that students aspire for that?

So I have designed something called Creative Finisher who completes all the basics three months. I've designed something called Young Designer. First job, 6 LPA. I've designed something called Creative Lifestyle Award. Somebody got 15 LPA. Creative lifestyle means they have a enough money to spend for their life. That's a very good decent level in our community. Then I have something called 1cr. Either through business or through design job. They have to reach close to 1cr. And anybody who's crossing 3x salary after they come inside the community and gets 1cr, they'll be getting the abroad trip with me 3 days fully sponsored. I'll take them. But they have to get 3x. It's not like they already coming with 70 LP and they're getting one share. No, that's not my full contribution. Also if somebody is coming with 20 LP and then they got this salary next level and 15 LPA people, we give them the award trophy on the stage. We pick them for stories of transformation, interview based and all this is the rewards levels, recognition and all wonderful.

So from my side last question is how this year 2026 is looking forward to you. What kind of missions you have.

Super exciting question. One of the most exciting. It's not your last question. This is your most, most important question. This 2026 is going to be a complete theme for my community as solar system. Okay. I've started this Hackathon 7.0 with celestial bodies. I'm taking nine grahas, nine missions, nine archetypes and personalities and nine different planets. And then I'm mixing this and I'm creating the mission. So do our thinker strategies. The archetypes is there, right brand archetype. I'm going to mix this planet as well as this archetype and then the nine missions of Hackathon. We are going to start this year with a super super kickoff. And next hackathon it's going to be Milky Way galaxy. I'm thinking how to do it. So complete year is going to be Solar system. And the retreat event theme is going to be five elements of nature. So everything is based on the nature. So people has to become ready for the 2027 AI war which is coming already. Everybody knows it. Every field is now going through the AI change. Whether it be architect or insurance or sales. AI is disrupting all the places with respect to any small tools or anything. So now people are sensing that 9 to 5 job is not going to change. They wanted freedom, they want entrepreneurship, they want to do anything from the comfort of their home, family, time, freedom. So all these things are important. So 2026 is a preparation year for my Design for Change students as well as the design community people itself across the world to get prepared for a 2027. Everybody has to become entrepreneurs in the 2027 or else you will be burnt out, you will be left away. So that is the planning for 2026.

Actually I will finish with saying this that the same theme I have for my community that they are going through rebirth and we are designing their new Kundali because they are rebirth. Their means has to be new Kundali and our event is same. You know it's based on Galaxy and their Grahas are there. So fantastic. Good, great to know this and we wish you great great success ahead. You're doing greatness.

Coming from our squadron only Yogendra and Sanjay and Ganesh because we had this discussion about this astronomical dots and the connect right Each and every day there is a significance in the in the calendar. So that dots also connected with me and my team when we are discuss that if I'm not part of this accountability, I would be a lone warrior, lone wolf or something. So thank you so much.

I have. I have one question before we close is since you run Anapan meditation on Sundays, how do you see the spiritual connect with us? Like what actually happens and how do they become better designers or what all are the effects of Anapan on the way they design, on the way they function, on the way they perform. And also has anyone gone ahead and taken a 10 days Vipassana course and how what has have been their experiences?

Many of the students have taken Anapana 10 days course and all before that and after coming into this community also they have done the one word which I will tell students get result is slow. They come into the community 90 days. 90 days. I need to get job. I need to learn learn hackathon. But once they go through this Anapana they slow down. They understand hurrying or rushing doesn't yield any result. You got to focus, you got to slow down, you got to watch the breathe a human when they watch the breath, they don't become oscillated here and there. They don't get success happy, they don't get depressed. When they're sad, they get that neutrality, they get that balance. And that's what I could able to see inside me. First of all, more than I'm telling about a students. I would say the transformation has started from me and that practice. When I do this anapana, I used to have the iPad next to me have a complete notes. So whichever anapana sessions they had, I used to put online, write the date insights. Next session I would see all of that thing. Everything is coming from the deep space, the ideas. I completely changed my morning sessions because of this. Because after that calmness, if you sit more ideas will pop up. In fact, I would recommend for all of our coaches as well whoever is watching this video and for all so the 30 minutes of space if you just give a stop to your thought process. 60,000 thoughts per day we get. But when you give a pass for 30 minutes and then you think you get only dominant thoughts. See, I designed my L2 curriculum based on this. My goal membership one of the premium plan and I'm designing my diamond membership also based on that and my yellow one. I have reconfirmed this is a perfect syllabus. Beyond this we cannot go so that conviction and what do you call? I don't know Sanjay. You are calling it as a spiritual connect. I am calling it as connecting with myself. We can put it in different language but end of the day the context and the meaning is same and many people even realized it after the anapana they shared. Jagji, thank you for making us do or else we would be Sunday sleeping and one hour we will be wasting our time but we are sitting for 30 minutes along with you. Thank you so much for this accountability. I'm getting a lot of ideas. One of the girl in the last Sunday she said that she wanted to solve one society problem which nobody has taken. She got that idea after this anapana. She's restarting her career after nine years after having a baby pregnancy career gap. She's from Coimuth so the results are immeasurable. That's what I could able to see.

Beautiful, beautiful. Fantastic. Thanks. Thanks Jagdish.

Super, super, super.

I'm not having words to really thank because no one has ever encouraged me to come into this podcast. You could even see in my YouTube I've recorded my own videos. Thank you Yogendra because you are in a very different level of coaching. And Sanchay is a very different architect. There is no need for us to even connect in this space. But thank you so much for that greater questions what you asked which made me also connect some of the memories which rs.

I would love to invite you to my community since they are architects and some of them are preparing for their design entrance exams also.

So very happy. Immediately next week itself I'm coming to your inner circle recharge. Let me talk to the people. Let me blow their minds away. I have a lot of pencil, sketch, pen, paper activities for this architect. So I'll make them do some activities. I'll reflect their personalities also. So thank you so much, Sanjay for this opportunity. Thank you, Yogendra.

Thank you. Happy New Year. All the best.

Yes. Yes.