Srishti Sehgal

I came across Srishti for the first time in the L&D Shakers community, and she was one of the people who made me consider that community one of the most vibrant I know. And that’s saying something; plenty of fascinating people over there.

I can’t recall our first one-on-one call, but I’ll never forget Srishti’s beaming smile when she talks about her passions — especially learning, a shared interest.

I’ll also never forget how she accepted without hesitation when I invited her to present at The Talent Protocol Learning Festival — a crazy idea I had to create an online learning festival for 200 people in a couple of weeks. And we delivered what we promised with the help of great contributors like Srishti, united by their love for learning.

We feel Srishti’s passion for learning in every conversation. It’s not just what she does but how she engages in every conversation. In her case, learning runs in her veins; she comes from a four-generation education legacy.

Whether you’re a lifelong learner, a learning designer, or just a curious mind, you’ll get something new from her newsletter, Learning Nerd’s Diary. Not only are her editorial choices great, but I’m also a big fan of her engaging and accessible writing.

Srishti says learning gives her a rush like nothing else. By reading this interview, you’ll feel the energy she gets from it.

Bird’s Eye View

Can you give us a glimpse of your life story?

My parents were very intentional about how we were learning, and I don’t mean this in the ‘what is my child doing in school’ way. We did a capitals of the world quiz while waiting for our school bus to arrive, my father took quizzes after visiting museums and at the end of every vacation we would reflect on the days that went by. I used to hate parts of this growing up, but looking back — these have been pivotal in shaping my journey.

I went to what most people would call an ‘alternate’ school. Learning was multidimensional — with academics being only one part of it. From stitching to cooking to writing and so much more — those 14 years allowed me to try & fail so many times. The exploration and exposure to different things made self-discovery easy.

As a child, I loved crafts and building things with my hand. From slippers made out of newspaper to greeting cards made from dried flowers — I explored different mediums. I was 12 years old when I set up my first exhibition for friends and family. Craft was not just a hobby, it was a way of life.

My decision to pursue Industrial Design in college seemed like a natural extension of my love for craft. I moved across the country for college and this new environment allowed me to discover new parts of myself. I loved design school!

I realised early on that while I loved building things, the traditional Industrial Design — building objects that can be manufactured at scale did not excite me as much. I focussed on trying to figure out what I wanted to do and being a problem solver that could work across mediums.

I was in my second year when I worked on a project designing toys for kids. The best part? Through the project I allowed kids to build :) I know I found my niché!

Over the next few years, I tried to explore different facets of learning — from designing a government program to building a manifesto for the future of learning, from working with a very early-stage toy company to researching how people learn. My second-year college project kick started a quest for life.

For almost a decade now, I have been working in the learning space wearing different hats — that of a researcher, of a designer and now a founder. I am fascinated by how people learn and work towards making the process of learning more engaging, meaningful & fun.

How did your family’s four-generation education legacy shape your choices?

Three generations in my family before me were academics — professors and teachers in schools and colleges. Learning was something that was spoken about a lot at home. This legacy influenced the way my parents brought us up and their focus on learning growing up

My decision to pursue Design initially met with some resistance. “Why not study further and get into academics?” This was a question I got asked when I was just finishing school. Little did I know that I would come back to learning in a whole different way!

There is a quote by Steve Jobs — “You can only connect the dots backwards” That’s pretty apt for my life.

I was in my second year of college when I decided that I wanted to work in education for the rest of my life. At the time, I couldn’t really explain that conviction. Maybe I still can’t. But I’d like to think there was something about learning that just felt like home.

Learning and Reinvention

What does learning mean for you? And how do you learn?

For me, learning is fundamentally just about change. If there is any change in thought, action or behavior, there is learning.

Learning is also ubiquitous and ephemeral — it’s around even if we think it’s not. We might not identify something as learning but it’s still there. Everyone is constantly learning at all points in time.

If I were to look back at my most enjoyable and transformative learning, there were 3 ingredients to learning:

1. A clear goal: On what we were trying to learn and why
2. A tangible action: A path to get to that goal e.g., write an article, present to a group, build a project
3. A supportive community: A group of people — peers/ mentors to help me in my journey

What can we learn from how kids learn?

I think the best thing we can learn from kids is not being discouraged by failure.

Everything kids do — from learning how to walk to learning how to ride a bike is something that takes time and is filled with them first failing multiple times. But kids are relentless! They fall and get up again, over and over again till they get there. They don’t think that they are looking stupid or maybe they will never get there — they just do.

As adults, we become conscious of our failures and look at failures personally. If all adults started looking at failures as a process rather than an outcome, the world would look SO different today.

How has your perception of learning evolved in this era of artificial intelligence? Can you describe how you integrate AI into your learning?

Like all big revolutions, I think AI has transformed HOW we learn. When the printing press came, books and the print medium allowed more people to access information. With the internet, suddenly all information was accessible at the click of a button. With AI, how we discover, process and make sense of information is changing.

For me personally, anything new I want to look for — ChatGPT or Gemini is where I start my journey. I start with a prompt and kind of go from there. It’s almost like having a debate with technology — you clarify, you ask, you question. Compare this to how we used to consume information through books, articles or blogs — AI allows for learning to be way more active! This will fundamentally change how we learn.

Craft, Geekiness, and Community

How does your passion for crafting things manifest at an early age? How did it evolve?

My journey started literally with craft — the paper and glue type of craft. It was something tangible and visible. I loved making things for people — birthday cards, personalized gifts, and holidat home decorations. Craft was not just about myself but what it could do for people around me.

Design school brought forth the whole art vs design debate and made me a lot more intentional about what I was building and who I was building it for. I learned more and more about how I build different things — metal, wood, 3D printing became materials I was comfortable with. The evaluation system — juries at the end of a semester where we would present our work to a faculty panel also made me more conscious about how I communicate my craft to others.

I started my career as a researcher and a large part of my job was to be able to absorb behaviours and patterns and build compelling narratives and patterns to share with others. Craft took the lens of storytelling. Writing and photography seemed very natural extensions to the work I was doing.

Now as a learning experience designer, I feel like my job is like a juggler — being able to balance different aspects of an experience. The craft is about getting better at everything but also about figuring out what and how much is just enough.

How geek can you be?

I am a full-blown geek! I run a newsletter called Learning Nerd’s Dairy and am a self-proclaimed learning nerd.

I love visiting museums and galleries, meeting new people, reading books and articles, taking courses, reflecting, building things and writing. Learning new things gives me a rush like nothing else!

How have communities influenced your personal and professional development? Could you give a couple of vivid examples?

Communities have been pivotal in shaping my personal and professional journey. There are 3 specific instances that I can think of:

1. College When I went to college, I was living away from home and in a new city for the first time. That can feel pretty lonely. I found my tribe in college and they allowed me to truly come to my own. I was an introvert in school and it was in college that I started becoming a lot more confident and outspoken. The people I met in college allowed me to become the person I am today.
2. Covid After 3 years of working as a researcher in learning, I decided to become a learning experience designer. As someone who had not formally studied learning or education, this was a big shift. I was navigating this right at the beginning of the pandemic and thankfully for me, online communities at the time were thriving. Communities like L&D Shakers and Offbeat allowed me to connect and learn with people across the globe. These interactions have shaped my practice and led me to find friends and collaborators for life.
3. LxD Lab In 2023, my friend and I started LxD Lab — a community of learning experience designers in India. We started with a very simple goal — how can we learn from some of the best minds in LxD in India and in the process how can we build an LxD Handbook that we can share with the world? In ~6 months, we ended up publishing Motivation Matters, a handbook of case studies and tools on learner motivation. This process of bringing together this community and being a part of it has been a jet fuel for learning and our company.

I say again and again — that learning is not a solo sport, it is a team sport. Communities are great levers of learning and growth.

Past and Future

Can you share some of the major lessons you’ve learned in life?

1. Intuition defies logic. We can’t explain everything in the world with logic especially intuition and it’s okay!
2. Overdo >> Overthink When it doubt, do more. Don’t think more. Have a high bias for action.
3. First who, then what. With the right people (who), the what doesn’t matter — everything is fun.
4. Compounding works like magic. From habits to learning to money — compounding is a magical law of nature.

Which big questions do you have on your mind currently?

3 Big questions that I’m currently exploring in one way or the other:

1. How might we document learning experiences and how they evolve?
2. How might we prepare learners for jobs that don’t yet exist in an ever-changing world?
3. How might we help people across the world fall in love with learning?

How do you face the future? Do you make plans for it?

I face the future with intention and hope.

I am a planner who trusts in serendipity. I make plans but I am also okay to ditch them and trust what has emerged in the process. I didn’t plan to do the work I am doing today.