Lessons learned: Reflections on 2 years of growth and discovery at Flipkart
I’ll complete my two years at Flipkart in just a month, and I’ve been reflecting deeply on my time here. I joined in December 2021, and it was a significant change for me. I was leaving my permanent remote job and transitioning from a small startup to a large established company. The design team I was leaving behind consisted of four members. At Flipkart, I entered a completely different world with a huge multi-disciplinary team working across product, visual, research, content, and beyond. Not only was the team size new to me, but I was also shifting from working with B2B to B2C. To say that I was nervous would be an immense understatement.
Now, with two years behind me, I feel a great sense of accomplishment and personal growth. The experiences, challenges, and lessons I’ve witnessed have had a significant impact on my professional and personal development. Here are some of the most important lessons that I learned during this time:
1. Question everything
During the first few months at Flipkart, I felt a sense of uncertainty and unease, especially because I was transitioning from a B2B startup. Many companies, especially in B2B, tend to prioritize sales over product design. This can lead to decisions that overlook user experience. PRDs are rigid, with little room left for questioning their contents. You are expected to design features as specified without much opportunity to question.
But Flipkart had a completely different way of doing things. There was more emphasis on designing for the user than just executing requirements. At first, this was unnerving, as I was used to simply working based on requirements and specs. But I quickly realized that blindly following directions without deeper questioning leads to poor user experiences. My big “aha” moment came when a feature I designed based purely on the provided requirements completely tanked in user testing. I had no idea why users were confused and frustrated.
That experience taught me the importance of taking a step back to deeply understand user needs before jumping into execution. I now come to every project with a curious mindset — asking why this feature, why these specs, why this design direction. I’ve realized that questioning is not just part of my process; it’s foundational to how I approach design. Pushing with thoughtful questions has led our team to uncover better solutions and avoid costly rework.
2. Don’t wait for feedback — seek it early
Getting feedback in the early stages is crucial. This helps us avoid situations where our work ends up looking drastically different from the initial vision. At Flipkart, we regularly conduct critique sessions where we show our work to an extended design team for feedback. These meetings allow us to learn new things, see different points of view, and explore alternative directions for our designs. By the time we share our designs with other stakeholders, we have confidence in our work.
In the early days, I would present my designs in large forums and was pleasantly surprised by the feedback I received. The feedback often highlighted small oversights, like missing an empty state or unaddressed user flows. It also identified times when I hadn’t used the right components or diverged from existing design patterns. Receiving feedback early allowed me to address these issues effectively.
Seeking feedback early also subconsciously motivated me to anticipate questions about my design decisions, driving me to think more deeply. This led to more intentional choices and improved designs. However, presenting designs early can be a little intimidating, especially when feeling unprepared. In these situations, I learned to take a proactive approach by prefacing my presentations. I clearly communicate that the designs are at a preliminary stage and specify the areas in which I’m seeking feedback. This helps focus the discussion on the desired aspects while avoiding unnecessary scrutiny on areas that are still under consideration or require further exploration.
3. Constraints are real
At Flipkart, we design for an extremely large user base, which brings immense scale and impact. However, designing for an audience of this size also introduces real constraints. With so many customers relying on the product daily, there is little room for mistakes or major changes that could cause disruption. Every design decision needs to be carefully tested and validated before reaching hundreds of millions of users.
In the early days, I used to get frustrated when I would spend a lot of time working on a project, only to be told that it couldn’t be implemented within the given time frame. One project that stands out in my memory was a loading state that required a full minute to complete. We brainstormed various solutions, one of which involved animating the process to mimic the background operations, giving users a sense of progress rather than a stagnant screen. We dedicated days to perfecting this idea, and initially, everyone seemed on board. But then I found out it would take engineers a couple of months to build it. Since it would delay the launch, we had to scrap it.
The stakes are high with such a large existing user base. The constraints can feel limiting, but they force me to find creative solutions that fit within our schedule. I’ve learned to roll out changes gradually, reuse components, and avoid overly complex designs. This helps me focus on what users really need while working within the realities of a very large product. It’s a complex balancing act, but I also push the developers to be more ambitious and take some calculated risks on major projects. There’s always room for improvement.
4. Negotiation is an important skill
Working in a cross-functional team with Product Managers, Engineers, Business Developers, and Marketers, I quickly realized that despite our shared goal, we each have different priorities. While others may focus on strategy, implementation, profits, and advertising, my primary focus should always be on the users. In our design team, we have a saying that “you are your users’ advocate” and this mindset is reflected in our meetings. While others discuss increasing revenue, streamlining processes, or running marketing campaigns, we consistently bring the conversation back to the needs and experiences of our users. Naturally, this leads to disagreements, which occur frequently, and that’s where I’ve learned the importance of negotiations.
When I initially joined Flipkart, I struggled with negotiation because I hadn’t yet built that relationship with my team. Nobody thought they could rely on me, listen to my perspective, or be convinced by my ideas. To overcome this, I focused on building trust. During the design reviews, I would take my team through my thought process. I would show them how I arrived at the final solution. If I had more than one exploration to show, I would take them through the pros and cons of each approach. If there was a debate on user behaviour, I would reference research or data findings and discuss how certain decisions aligned with user psychology. These efforts helped me establish credibility and trust. My team knew that my decisions were backed by solid reasoning and data. Consequently, building this trust made negotiations easy.
However, compromise is inevitable — you won’t always get what you want. So it’s vital to prioritize the most important elements of your design and decide which aspects you’re willing to be flexible on. You need to strategically choose when to push hard on certain issues and when to make concessions. Negotiation is tricky, but my time at Flipkart taught me it’s a crucial skill for product designers. If you want your solutions to align with user needs and actually get built, you have to negotiate skilfully. By honing your negotiation skills, you can advocate effectively for your users, convince stakeholders, and arrive at a design that balances various viewpoints.
5. Everything goes for an A/B test
One of the things that surprised me the most was to see how extensively designers at Flipkart use A/B testing. We test everything, from the layout of the homepage to the colour of a button, even tiny details like the font size or placement of icons.
I remember one particular A/B test where we tried out multiple versions of a selection page that offered two cards for users to choose from. In one variant, we had a carousel where both cards highlighted their individual benefits, and scrolling below showed a section where you could compare the cards side-by-side. In another variant, we just had the direct card comparison upfront. The second variant performed noticeably better. One of the hypotheses we derived from this test was that users didn’t want to see the benefits of each card separately — instead they wanted to directly compare the cards side-by-side and decide which one worked better for them. Having the upfront comparison in the second variant made that choice easier and drove better conversion.
Before joining Flipkart, I only knew A/B testing as a theoretical concept. But seeing it in action first-hand taught me so much about the value and methodology behind it. After running and analyzing numerous A/B tests over the years, some of the key things I’ve learned are:
- A/B testing is not just about finding the statistically best performing version. It’s also about understanding user psychology and preferences more deeply.
- You need a sizable sample size and have tests run long enough before you can draw definitive conclusions. I’ve seen tests where a version started off performing better but was surpassed by another over time.
- The impact of minor details like colour, copy, icons can be significant.
- A/B testing teaches you to avoid assumptions. Things you think will work better based on intuition may not always test well. The users decide.
And with that, we’ve reached the end! I genuinely hope these lessons prove to be as beneficial for you as they have been for me. I’m thankful for the time I’ve spent here and the opportunities that came my way. As I look ahead to the coming years, I’m filled with anticipation for what lies ahead. Here’s to the future and all the exciting possibilities it holds. Cheers!
