Founder @ Syqi Lab | Design Agency |🎤 Podcast Host | Lifelong Apprentice of Design | 📚🎨

With over seven years of experience in various design roles, I am a passionate and versatile creative entrepreneur and design strategist. I founded Syqi, a design ops agency that helps create meaningful customer experiences with a high level of empathy.

Our mission is to bridge the gap between the business and design worlds with effective design strategies that deliver value and delight. I have a master's degree in Design Management and skills in Creative Direction, Brand Building, and Business of Design.

I also host Groundbreakin Podcast, where I share insights and stories about design, entrepreneurship, and creativity.

Dipaq S

Hey folks, our team at Syqi growing bit by bit, and we're on the lookout for a few good people to jump in.

We mess around with fintech AI stuff, building brands, products, and just nice things overall. Supporting enterprises in solving important problems.

We handle client work, plus we're starting up an R&D side.
Not huge yet, but getting there brick by brick.

Hiring:
2 Design Manager: 3+ years under your belt, comfy with AI processes, up for digging into case studies and shaping fintech AI bits.

2 Junior Visual/Graphic Designers: Newbies with AI smarts, jazzed about ai agent builds, case studies, and growing with our R&D crew.

2 Design Generalist Interns: Journalists who get AI flows, keen on telling stories through design and building cool stuff.

Everything's fully remote!

If this vibes with you, hit me up in the comments, DM, Email: dipaq[at]syqi[dot]design
or shoot over your resume. Let's chat.

PS: We're looking for folks with killer taste - elegant, thoughtful design sense that shines throughout.

#Hiring #Design #SyqiStateOfMind #AIPowered #Remote

Dipaq  ⭐️

Founder @ Syqi® | We work with teams and enterprises on fixing design chaos as they scale |🎙️ Groundbreakin® Podcast

At Syqi, we have a specific ritual for staying sharp.
It involves inviting builders to our table to tell us the truth, not the PR version.

No agenda.
No pitch.
No performance.

Just someone who's deep in the work, sharing how they're thinking about it.

This week it was Nikita, PMM at Pine Labs.

She came in to talk about the Bharat Yatra Card - India's answer to a unified transit card. Metro, bus, parking. One tap. Zero KYC. The kind of product that sounds simple until you realise how hard simple actually is to build.

But what I'll remember most from the session wasn't the product.
It was the way she opened.

"When I was handed this product, I had zero conviction in it."

And then she told us about her college days. A ₹15 bus ticket. Taking turns with a friend to pay the conductor because neither of them ever had ₹5 change.

That's it. That's the whole product brief.
A small, unglamorous friction that millions of people just quietly accept as part of their day.

The best builders always find that moment. The thing nobody complains about because they've stopped noticing it.

Nikita noticed it.

She talked about how the distribution was the quiet smart move - Pine Labs already had the B2B network, RuPay already had the infrastructure. Instead of building from scratch, they just connected the right dots and launched through platforms people already open every day.
Blinkit.
Zepto. Literally with your groceries.

She talked about the organic Instagram wave that changed her own mind about the product.

No paid push.
Just real commuters, real reactions.
That's when she knew something was actually working.

By the end of the session the room was buzzing. That specific kind of energy where everyone's talking at once because something actually sparked a thought.

That's the kind of conversation we love having at Syqi.

We're a small, sharp team that works at the intersection of design and strategy. And we genuinely believe that the most interesting ideas don't come from conferences or keynotes.

They come from people who are actually in the middle of figuring something out - and are willing to talk about it honestly.

So we keep the door open. We keep inviting people in.
Clients, collaborators, builders, thinkers.

If you're doing something interesting and want to sit with us - you know where to find us.

Thank you Nikita for bringing this to the Syqi table. And for keeping it real the whole way through.

Your first critic is no longer human.

Everything you know about creative approval is backwards.

Last week on The State Of Mind, I broke down how do we move with this dual-layered reality: https://lnkd.in/g46ru-GZ

We used to design for the eyes of a mentor, a creative director, or a client. We optimized for the "gut feeling" and the human spark.

Today, your work passes through a machine before it ever touches a person.

An algorithm ranks it.
A search model interprets it.
An AI assistant summarizes it.

If the system doesn't understand your intent, the human never gets the chance to.

// The invisible gatekeeper
Machines don't feel inspiration; they classify and score.
Execution used to be about aesthetics. Now, it’s about signal.
If your work is misinterpreted at the structural layer, it effectively doesn't exist.

// The new dimension of craft
We are now designing for two distinct audiences simultaneously:
• Systems that decide exposure.
• Humans who decide impact.

One requires precision, naming, and clear metadata.
The other requires emotion, tone, and distinctiveness.

// The shift in responsibility
Ambiguity used to be a stylistic choice. Today, it’s a tax on reach.
The modern designer must be a systems architect as much as a visual storyteller.

You have to ensure the work survives the translation through the feed.

Clarity determines if you are seen.
Meaning determines if you are remembered.

The environment has quietly reshaped the job.

#BusinessOfDesign #SyqiStateOfMind #AgencyLife #DesignLeadership #CreativeStrategy #AIInDesign

Legacy brands can afford to look like they are from 2005.

You cannot. 

When a legacy giant ships a janky, outdated interface, it doesn’t kill their business. 

They have decades of institutional trust and a captive market. 
The friction is annoying, but the user stays because the risk of leaving is higher than the cost of a bad UI.

For a startup, that same jank is a death sentence.

-- The Trust Gap
New B2B brands start at a deficit. 
Nobody knows if you’ll exist in eighteen months. 
Nobody knows if your security is tight or if your backend is held together by duct tape.

In this environment, design is about the proxy for stability.

-- Execution as Evidence
When your product looks polished and functions seamlessly, you are sending a signal.
You are telling the market that you have the resources, the intent, and the discipline to sweat the details. 

If you can’t get the padding right on a landing page, why should a CTO trust you with their data?

-- The New Standard
Design is how you bridge the gap between being a "risky bet" and a "strategic partner."
Incumbents rely on their past. 
You have to design for the chapter ahead.

The business grows into the quality you project. 
Don't let a "minimum viable" interface create a maximum trust deficit.

#BusinessOfDesign #SyqiStateOfMind #AgencyLife #BrandBuilding #ProductDesign

Your next loyal customer might not be a person.
Everything you know about brand loyalty is about to be tested.

For years, brands fought for hearts.
Points programs.
Emotional campaigns.
Brand mascots. 
Anniversary emails.

The entire game was built on one truth:
Humans are creatures of habit. We return to what we know.

But a quiet shift is happening - and most brands haven't noticed yet.

AI agents are beginning to make purchase decisions on our behalf.
And agents don't get attached.

They don't remember your ad.
They don't feel nostalgia for your packaging.
They don't forgive inconsistency.

They just check: does this product do what it promised, every time?

// The loyalty structure is changing

Here's what most people miss: a lot of what we called brand loyalty was never emotional.
It was structural. Friction. Habit masking preference.

Changing took effort, so we didn't.

Agentic AI removes that friction entirely.
And when the friction disappears, so does passive loyalty.

// Two types of loyalty now exist

Emotional loyalty asks: does this brand make me feel something?
Algorithmic loyalty asks: does this brand consistently deliver what it promised?

• One has been the entire strategy for most brands.
• The other has been an afterthought.

That balance is about to shift -- fast.

// The relationship is moving

If an AI agent learns your preferences, tracks your satisfaction, and keeps making accurate choices for you — where does the real brand relationship actually live?

With the brand? Or with the agent that knows you better than the brand ever did?

The brand that used to own the customer relationship may now be one layer removed from it.

The future question isn't: do customers trust your brand?
It may be: Does their AI keep choosing you?

But in an agentic world, getting picked comes first.

-- I went deep on this in this week's The State Of Mind: https://lnkd.in/gR6sxN7H

Founder & Head of Rewards at RewardBig | Innovating Rewards for Better Engagement

🚀 E-Commerce Professional with extensive experience in Buying & Sourcing. Passionate about innovation and relationship-building.

✨ Current Role: Leading the way at RewardBig, where we optimize redemption catalogs for loyalty platforms. We offer a diverse array of rewards from top brands, supported by robust catalog and delivery APIs.

🌟 Key Achievements:
•	Optimized redemption catalogs for leading loyalty platforms.
•	Established strong relationships with top-tier brands.
•	Implemented efficient last-mile delivery solutions, ensuring exceptional customer satisfaction.
	
🌐 Interests: E-commerce trends, loyalty programs, supply chain optimization, and building strong partnerships.

Connect with me to explore opportunities and discuss industry insights!

Pankaj Chahal

Everyone knows Nike.
Few are noticing what’s happening to Nike.

In 2021 → $260B brand
Today → ~$98B
That’s $160B erased.

Not drama. 
Not hate. 
Just facts.

Here’s where things started slipping:

➡️ Innovation slowed. Old hits still selling. Few new icons.

➡️ The brand moved from culture-first to category-first (men, women, kids).

➡️ Heavy D2C push upset long-term retail partners.

➡️ Local Chinese brands are winning on speed, pricing, and relevance.

➡️ Big emotional campaigns cut. Performance marketing took over.

➡️ Short-term conversions replaced long-term brand love.

Nike didn’t lose customers overnight.

It lost edge.

No thinkpiece here.
Just a reminder:

Brands don’t die from competition.

They fade when they stop standing for something.

Can Nike make a comeback?
Or is the golden era officially over?

Let me know your thoughts 👇

#nike

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