From SDM to Adobe: Tanvi’s path, portfolio strategy, and job search playbook
Tanvi returned to share what her job in experience research looks like, how she structured a portfolio that got attention, and the habits that kept her job search moving. It was honest, specific, and very usable for anyone aiming at product teams. Five takeaways to act on this week Apply fast on the company website. Use LinkedIn to find roles, not to hit Easy Apply. Treat your portfolio like a set of short books. Make each project easy to pick up and hard to put down. Prepare real stories for behavioral interviews. Memorize points, not scripts. Curate 4 to 6…
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Insights from Soumil Panwar: Navigating UX, Strategy, and Career Growth
We recently hosted Soumil Panwar, Senior UX Designer at Optum in Dallas, for an engaging alumni talk. Soumil, a Parsons SDM graduate (Class of 2023), shared his career journey, portfolio strategies, and reflections on navigating the UX and product design industry. Below are the key highlights and insights. Career Journey into UX Soumil’s design path began in India, where he ran his own design agency before moving into UX through client projects in software. At Optum, he started with execution-focused UX tasks but gradually expanded into leading UX research, managing teams, and bridging product strategy with technical feasibility. His journey…
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MS SDM Panel Discussion
Be comfortable being uncomfortable: Reflections from the MS SDM Peer-to-Peer Panel Starting a new academic year invites fresh questions about what strategic design looks like in practice. We opened the semester with a Peer-to-Peer Panel designed to meet those questions head on, pairing an opening conversation with Professor Edward Cardimona with a student panel that traced real paths through the first year of MS Strategic Design and Management. The brief for the session was simple, be specific, be honest, and share what actually helped. What emerged was a clear through line, growth follows discomfort, and strategic design is a practice…
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From Non-Linear Paths to Strategic Success: A Bain & Company Designer’s Journey
An in-depth look at how Carlos Salom turned a “non-linear” career into his greatest strength and landed at one of the world’s top consulting firms.Last week, our Strategic Design and Management community had the privilege of hearing from Carlos Salom, a recent SDM graduate who now works as a strategic designer at Bain & Company. What unfolded was an honest, practical, and inspiring conversation about navigating career uncertainty, building authentic stories, and leveraging the unique skills we develop in our program.Carlos opened with a striking visual timeline of his journey, describing it as “very non-linear path”. What initially seemed like…
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Carelab – Visiblize-ing Care Festival
Participate in the Visibilize-ing Care Festival The Visibilize-ing Care Festival, organized by the Parsons CareLab, will be a multimedia, multidisciplinary festival that will kick-off in Fall 2025. Students, faculty, alumni and staff are invited to showcase projects that creatively and critically explore all forms of care – between individuals, within communities, families and organizations, in cities, across the world, in relationship to our environment, and with ourselves. Attend Information Session: Wednesday, April 30th at 10am – 11am EDT. Link: Zoom Meeting | Password: 354360 RSVP here, if you would like to attend and/or be informed when the application is open in Fall 2025. Learn more about the Parsons Carelab here.
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Parsons Festival 2025: Narwhal Tank Impact Ventures Showcase
Join Parsons School of Design’s Entrepreneurs Lab, in partnership with The Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative, for the first-ever Narwhal Tank, a unique venture pitching event designed to showcase The New School’s most impactful student and alumni ventures from across our ecosystem that are addressing pressing social and environmental challenges. Developed to create more just and verdant societies, come to support our budding entrepreneurs, give audience feedback, and help vote on the awardees “most likely to create impact.” ORGANIZERS: Parsons ELab: Founded in 2014, Parsons Entrepreneurial Lab is a design-led research lab dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship. Nurtured within the School of Design…
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MS SDM Capstone Symposium Spring 2025
The MS Strategic Design and Management program proudly celebrates the achievements of its 2025 Graduating Class at the MS SDM Capstone Symposium Spring 2025. We invite you to join students, faculty, alumni, and industry leaders for an evening of insightful project presentations, dynamic dialogue, and community celebration. The MS Strategic Design and Management Capstone Symposium showcases the culminating work of graduating students in the Spring 2025 cohort. Held during the weeks of April 29th and May 13th, the Symposium features final capstone presentations developed through months of research, strategic exploration, and design-led problem-solving. The MS SDM program, housed within the School of…
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MS SDM Students Win First Place at the Rotman Design Challenge 2025
MS SDM Students Win First Place at the Rotman Design Challenge 2025 We’re excited to share that five students from the MS SDM took first place at the 2025 Rotman Design Challenge (RDC)—an international competition focused on applying design thinking to complex business problems. The challenge, sponsored by Intact Insurance, invited students to reimagine the future of insurance by designing services that go beyond the standard claims experience to create deeper, more meaningful customer engagement. Meet Team North Star , Team North Star included: Ananya Harshini Alana Rhodin Yash Sonwaney Youngjun Shin Meenu Jain The team was supported by their mentor,…
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The Ethics of AI 2025 Conference
Parsons Students probe AI’s Ethical Crossroads at 2025 Conference In a bold fusion of design and ethics, the Ethics of AI Conference 2025 invited students and scholars alike to reimagine the future of artificial intelligence—not through policy papers or code, but through speculative artifacts that raise pressing socio-ethical questions. Held at Parsons School of Design, the exhibition was a thought-provoking journey into tomorrow’s dilemmas, curated entirely through the lens of critical design. Guided by designer and educator Andrew Shea, the exhibition showcased immersive, interactive projects by graduate students that explored some of AI’s most pressing ethical challenges—from memory manipulation and…
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Navigating Change: Museums, Nonprofits, and the Future of Cultural Institutions
On February 27, 2025, Jennifer Rittner facilitated a discussion with Dr Sharon Counts and Sruthi Sadhujan on how nonprofits and cultural institutions navigate change while maintaining their core mission and values. Sruthi Sadhujan, a brand strategist for nonprofits, shared her journey into organizational change, emphasizing that branding in the nonprofit space extends beyond logos and taglines—it’s a transformative process that affects culture, power dynamics, and institutional identity. She introduced a four-part framework for evaluating change: Treasures – Legacy practices and traditions that hold enduring value and should be preserved. Baggage – Outdated ways of thinking or operating that no…
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