Meet LISA Design Thinking Facilitators
Design Thinking Facilitation is one of the key value-add of the LISA Stanford GSB LEAD Incubator & Startup Accelerator program. Dedicated, passionate and proven Design Thinking Strategists are paired with the founders in this rigorous 12-week journey of incubating ideas to MVP and scaling ventures globally.
LISA’s Design Thinking Strategists help the founders incorporate the Design Thinking process at various stages of the product innovation and development — from understanding the customers and their pain points to then ensuring that the product is aligned with the customer needs throughout the development and marketing process. Here are amazing Design Thinking Strategists that have helped the Cohort 5 founders.
Amy Pragel has spent the last 15+ years in the FinTech space in Sales, Product, and Strategy.
She previously worked at Bloomberg and S&P Global focusing on strategic accounts and investment management. Amy subsequently started the Financial Services vertical at a startup later acquired by Rakuten. After several successful years, she ventured into the blockchain space to work on Product Management, and is now a Solutions Specialist on KYC compliance products at Moody’s Analytics. Amy is the Founder and CEO of Pago, which aims to be a leader of kindness-centered social impact.
Ana-Maria Manda is an entrepreneur at heart and a start-up mentor, she is also a Design Thinking coach and trainer. She believes the success of a sustainable and profitable business relies upon the strong understanding of the problem and a good match of the solution with the persona. Personalizing the Customer Experience and solving the root cause of users’ problems is a win-win approach in a challenging ecosystem. A well-designed product can make a change and allow us all to live in a safer and sustainable tomorrow.
Anupma Mangla is a LEAD alum from the Gamechangers Cohort, a Design Thinking Strategist, and a Technical Product Manager with a passion for building data-driven consumer-facing products. She has extensive experience in tech with startups and Fortune 500 companies, building and launching engineering products from conception to market. Through her coaching, consulting, and thought leadership she has helped startup founders move their ideas forward using design thinking and turn user needs into human-centered solutions.
Jasleen Singh is an AI Product Manager. She believes in a design led approach for product development and likes to use a creative lens alongwith techniques to help entrepreneurs build a product that the market needs.
Nick Lamela Is a product designer with expertise in UX research and UI design across XR, web, and mobile technologies. Nick is passionate about working with novel technologies that will push humanity forward such as XR, AI, and Blockchain technology. Nick is also part of LISA’s Core Executive Strategy Team.
Petero Wamala is a Design thinking strategist.His focus is to use human centered design and to help entrepreneurs build products and services that are focused on the needs of the users. He is an entrepreneur in the petroleum distribution sector and has founded mopetro Ltd,which operates in Uganda. Before that he worked in the branded beverages sector as head of sales reporting to the CEO. A holder of an MA from Makerere University in social planning and management, he completed the one year Stanford Lead program in Sept 2022. Major areas of interest and engagement are strategy, design thinking and transitions coaching. Petero is also involved with Stanford seed as a consultant in East Africa.
Pratul Sarma is a Technical Program Manager. He helps drive engineering programs with strategic global partners and customers, resulting in successful adoption of Cloud Computing technologies. He is a Stanford LEAD graduate, holds an MBA and M.S. from Santa Clara University, Silicon Valley, California. He is a proud father of two sons, both software engineers and he lives with his family in Seattle, Washington.
Raghavan Chetput incubates and leads software development teams to create winning products that are more customer-centric than previous offerings. He has done this for both startups and large enterprises, in both India and the US.
Sandeep Padhye is a digital strategist and thought leader in the digital transformation and has helped organizations across industries to enhance their customer experience . He has mentored various startups and is on board of advisor for companies looking to scale in North America and Indian markets. Sandeep is also part of LISA’s Executive Leadership Team.
Shankar Mallapur is an experienced Program Manager, with over 30 years of experience in IT services and Change Management in global Technology and Consulting Companies. He is interested in new technologies, AI, Environment and Design Thinking. He is a Life Coach and has coached and mentored senior and mid-level executives in professional development and career growth.
Tiago Francisco Pereira is a digital product designer. His focus is on helping entrepreneurs build unique products through design thinking and user experience techniques, always putting the final user at the center of the process.
urther reading:
Trailblazing Founders: Breaking Through Invisible Boundaries
LISA Cohort 5 kick-off: It’s already the 5th time!
Passion for Helping Make a Change: Mentoring Cohort 5 Founders
Contributed by:
Zankar Thakkar, Emmanuel Moreira, Chris A. Vogt, Valérie Andrey, Poornima Gopi, Deepti Pahwa, Edward Mundt
