Ankur Sardana is a prominent Design Leader, Educator, and Improv Coach based in Gurugram, India. He is currently the Head of Design and Research at Tata Digital, where he leads the design strategy for the Tata Neu super app.
Professional Career and Leadership
Sardana has nearly 20 years of experience leading creative teams at major global corporations:
Tata Digital: Head of Design & Research (2022–Present), focusing on integrating diverse brands into a unified digital experience.
OLX Group: Previously served as Director and Head of User Experience.
Amazon: Senior UX Designer (2017–2019).
Samsung Electronics: Held leadership roles, including Group Leader at Samsung Design Delhi.
Other Roles: He has also worked with Zomato, Honeywell, and Philips.
Innovation and "Play Thinking"
Ankur is known for merging design principles with improvisational theatre. He recently introduced "Play Thinking," a concept he shared at a TEDxSJU Bangalore talk, which adds a layer of structured play to the standard design thinking process. He holds four patents for his design innovations, some of which are displayed at the Samsung Museum in Suwon, Korea.
Improv and Theatre
A pioneer of improvisational theatre in India, he founded the Nautankibaaz Improv Collective in 2017.
Training: Certified in six levels of 'Improv' at The Unexpected Productions, Seattle, and further trained at Magnet Theatre and PIT in New York.
Impact: He has coached over 2,000 students and performed in more than 150 shows.
Corporate Training: He brings improv toolkits to workplaces to improve collaboration and spontaneity for clients like Google, KPMG, and Shell.
Education and Mentorship
As an educator, he is a visiting faculty member and workshop facilitator at several prestigious institutions:
National Institute of Design (NID)
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay & Roorkee
Ashoka University and Indian School of Business (ISB)
MIT Institute of Design and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIITD)
He is an alumnus of both the National Institute of Design and the College of Business Studies
