Crafting meaningful experiences through human insights.

A quote that resonates: To listen is to lean in softly with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.

Beloved brands are those that listen to people’s needs, align with their purpose and consistently create experiences that delight. It’s this desire to build products, services & experiences that make people’s lives meaningful that drives me.

My name is Lavanya and I am a senior researcher, strategist & service designer. I have worked in the research, brand strategy and communications world for over 13 years across four continents. I call Sydney & Vancouver my 2 homes, and I currently work with clients across the US, Canada and Australia. My expertise lies in qualitative research, brand strategy, UX and customer experience/service design.

My work has taken me around the globe where my milestone projects have included:

• Led service design for the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) to enhance the pre-surgical screening process for patients, mapping workflows across health authorities and developed a service blueprint to streamline patient experiences and inform system-wide improvements.
• Conducting exploratory research & prototyping in generative AI for lululemon to identify the role AI can play in the world of health & fitness coaching.
• Re-designing the CX Strategy for Scholastic in North America, which led to the creation of a data-enabled, 360 degree, integrated experience.
• Exploring a day in the life of doctors conducting high-risk procedures, in key markets around the world, to develop a meaningful member value proposition for RACGP, leading to a double digit growth in monthly membership.
• Creating a user-centric platform for the Australian Government for residents seeking aged care & disability services, which was a catalyst for change modeling the design of services, products and roadmaps for service delivery.
• Gaining insight into the lives of commuters in Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Philippines to identify opportunities for new product design for snacks on-the-go for Nestle.
• Accompanying Arab housewives in their kitchens to explore breakfast rituals in the Middle East for Le Groupe Bel.

My Experience

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Featured Work

The Challenge

PHSA wished to redesign and streamline the digital pre-surgical screening (PSS) experience to improve patient flow, reduce clinical burden, and enable earlier interventions for prehabilitation. The fragmented process required consolidation to create a smoother, more transparent journey for both patients and healthcare providers.

Key challenge:

Ensure all stakeholders across the surgical pathway have clarity on their role, improve data flow, and align the system with compliance (GDPR, HIPAA).

Key Objectives

• Improve early identification of patient risk factors through digital PSS.

• Clarify responsibilities for patient support across the journey.

• Map the end-to-end patient journey, identifying pain points and opportunities.

• Design workflows that improve tracking of prehabilitation and patient readiness.

• Ensure secure, compliant handling of patient data and communication between systems.

Role & Methodology

• Led qualitative research, facilitated stakeholder interviews and conducted co-creation workshops with surgeons, pre-admission clinic (PAC) teams, admin staff, and clinicians to map current and ideal state workflows.
• Synthesized client-provided transcripts, notes, and journey maps to identify system-wide pain points and process gaps.
• Developed a comprehensive end-to-end journey map covering referral, consultation, pre-screening, booking, surgery, and post-op stages.
• Conducted thematic analysis to surface key insights and opportunities for improved patient communication and clinical validation.
• Guided the team on data privacy standards, anonymization, and secure data flows throughout the research process.
• Delivered actionable recommendations through iterative co-design sessions validated with stakeholders.

Outcome/Impact

• Delivered an actionable, detailed patient journey map clarifying roles, data flows, and patient touchpoints.
• Identified high-impact improvements, including timing for sending digital PSS questionnaires, clarifying responsibilities (PAC, surgeon offices, 811 support line).
• Provided recommendations for system integration points to streamline patient record updates and prehabilitation tracking.
• Enabled client teams to proceed confidently with digital solution development, reducing ambiguity in the patient screening journey.
• Ensured recommendations were aligned with data privacy and compliance standards, reinforcing patient data protection.

Led exploratory research across business areas including future innovations, educator experience and membership teams to explore implications of AI in scaling particular services.

Project 1: Future Innovations team

Key Project Questions:

• Do people prioritize support in their fitness Journey?
• Can a fitness support system encourage engagement beyond exercise content?
• What is the technical feasibility of implementing a fitness support system?
• The brief: Enhance wellness outcomes for Guests (Lululemon customers) by supporting them throughout their “Fitness Journey” beyond just exercise.
• Methodology:
  • Led a 6-week in situ study, including goal setting, ideation, and rapid prototyping.
  • Conducted qualitative field research including in-depth interviews and workshops with Guests & Educators (Instructors/Staff) coordinating A/B split tests with 40+ Guests and analyzed findings to validate the effectiveness of the AI-powered “Pal” prototype.
  • Developed an interactive AI-powered ‘Pal’ to support guests throughout their Fitness Journey and continued to assess against success metrics.
  • Oversaw the project from methodology design, strategy development to AI-powered prototype development, collaborating closely with the tech team, to support Guests throughout their journey, focusing on motivation, accountability, trust-building, and progress tracking.
  • Compiled comprehensive insights & key implications into a project report.
• Outcome: Demonstrated evidence for the value of support in the entire ‘Fitness Journey’, identified integration opportunities for Lululemon membership experience, outlined technical feasibility and expansion potential.

• Project 2: Membership & UX team
  • The brief: Conceptualize a community-driven platform, while developing a comprehensive loyalty experience to enrich the lululemon membership experience and strengthen relationships with Guests.
  • Methodology: Conducted 1:1 interviews with Guests (members & non-members) to grasp community and loyalty-related pain points, expectations, and preferences. Also, facilitated ideation workshops, designed storyboards, and conducted directional concept testing with Guests. As project lead, I designed research methodologies, executed research, developed strategic frameworks, supervised teams, crafted a comprehensive project report and presented findings to the C-suite at lululemon.
  • Outcomes: Gained a deep understanding of lululemon Guest needs, provided strategic recommendations, and developed innovative event concepts to foster organic relationships and stimulate creativity. Identified key features for the Loyalty Engine, recommended a roadmap for future exploration, and outlined short-term and long-term goals to drive greater ROI, brand recognition, and member engagement.
  • Next Steps: Continuously evolve expertise in qualitative research, brand strategy, and service/experience design to deliver impactful solutions for varied lululemon business units. Focus on iterative building, testing, and scaling of initiatives to meet evolving guest and educator needs & preferences.

The brief: Enhance the customer service experience for customers, agents, sales teams and business leads. Ultimately, transforming Scholastic Customer Service into a data-enabled, 360 enterprise view, end-to-end experience.

Methodology

Used mixed methods research (qualitative and quantitative) to craft customer experience journey maps for Scholastic, encompassing interactions with customers, agents, sales, and business unit leads. This approach aimed to review and innovate public-facing programs across various Scholastic offerings, including Book Clubs, Book Fairs, Magazines, and Teachables. Conducted comprehensive research which included employee surveys & group discussions, in-depth interviews with customers, and immersed in Scholastic’s warehouses in the U.S. to understand the manufacturing and distribution processes better.

Outcomes

• Identified & crafted 6 unique customer portraits and journey maps with key motivations and pain points. Mapped themes to address root causes for staff, agents, and customers.
• Established ‘One Scholastic’, an ideal customer service framework. A transformed customer experience model for Scholastic that is data-enabled and grounded in the needs of its customers. This led to a revised website design for online self-service.

The brief: RACGP aimed to significantly increase its international membership base over the next three years, focusing on enhancing value propositions for International Medical Graduate (IMG) members, expanding the overseas audience, and establishing itself as a premium GP education provider.

Methodology: As client lead, I directed the project lifecycle, ensuring it aligned with client objectives. Crafted a robust research methodology incorporating qualitative research, workshops with key stakeholders, and usability testing. This involved conducting in-depth interviews with GPs around the world to understand a day in their life, key motivations & pain points, co-designing value propositions, testing them out in the real world and facilitating collaborative ideation workshops.

This led to the development of brand strategy, actionable recommendations and creation of a comprehensive roadmap for international growth.

Outcomes:

• Clear Path to Growth: Equipped the team with actionable insights, assets, and communication guides to effectively engage international audiences and drive membership growth.
• Growth in membership registration: International membership registrations doubled every month since the launch of the renewed membership strategy a year ago.
• Enhanced Organizational Capabilities: Accelerated understanding of the value of international members across RACGP, inspiring new ways of working and value creation.

The brief: The Department of Human Services (now, Services Australia) is launching Service Connect, a whole-of-government platform to connect Australians with trusted service providers as part of their Digital Transformation Strategy. The challenge is to define a brand framework for Service Connect to create clarity about its role, ensure consistency in application, and optimize the user experience.

Methodology: Conducted usability testing with Australians seeking aged care, child care and disability services to understand how they navigate through finding and choosing services. Also conducted workshops with 50+ stakeholders within the government to understand their vision and co-design possible approaches to the Service Connect Framework. Redesigned and restructured the main website, refining content hierarchy based on different customer personas’ value preferences.

Outcomes:

Creation of an online platform: Where residents could connect with government accredited service providers, and development of new roadmaps for service delivery within the department.

Defined Service Connect’s role in a Government context: Resulting in a single-minded proposition actively shaping service design, products, and new delivery roadmaps. This process facilitated rapid growth, doubling monthly users accessing Service Connect.

Equipped the team: With insights, assets, and writing guides to effectively communicate and address the nuanced needs of three distinct customer types: those seeking aged care, child care, and disability services.

About Me

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Key Clients

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Speak with me

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