Thoughtcast

In this edition of Business & UX Story, Divanshu is joined by Akshit Bansal, the co-founder, and CEO of Statiq. Akshit and his team are into the EV space, but not in the way you may think. Statiq is India’s largest EV charging network. Functioning on a hosting model, similar to franchising, Statiq allows any landowner to host an EV charging station, providing for a totally unique and innovative user experience for hosts, and consumers alike.

The conversation shines a light on the challenges being faced by Statiq, as well as hundreds of other EV centric startups across the nation, with the industry being so young and newly regulated. Being an environmentalist at heart, and has a personal stake in the success of EV’s not just in India, but the world as a whole. On the design side, we delve into how UI/UX design helped merge the functionality of multiple apps into one, creating a single solution for so many EV-power related issues.

To hear all about Akshit’s journey as a founder, and the impact he wants to make in the world through Statiq, be sure to tune in-to this episode of Business & UX Story.

In the season 2 premiere of Thoughtcast by Onething, Divanshu, sits down with Manik and Venky from the team to discuss a crucial topic in the world of design; that being ethical UX, and the use of dark patterns. We run through various examples, including Netflix, and talk about how the laws of UX are sometimes exploited to achieve business objectives and KPI’s. We then discuss the process of finding a balance between the business side, and ethical side of things, with Venky bringing to the table some real-world examples of where this decision had to be made, including Lokal!
All told, the discussion of ethical design is an important one. UX designers do hold a certain responsibility to deliver honest products to users, and the solutions discussed in this podcast may just help you on your own UI/UX design journey! Tune in to this episode of Thoughtcast by Onething now!

On the latest edition of Thoughtcast by Onething, Sonakshi has a chat with Karthik Hariharan, a counselling psychologist to discuss mental health implications of the modern-day workplace. They chat about mental health awareness, and social media misinformation. Furthermore, a large portion of the discussion speaks specifically to the Covid-19 pandemic, and how the work-from-home culture change augmented our schedules for the worse.
The podcast also suggests tactics and strategies which individuals can employ in their daily lives, with relative ease, to reduce the burden of burnout and lead mentally healthier lifestyles. We also get into what companies can do for their employees in the same regard, and some real world examples which have worked wonders.
Catch real world mental health insights, from a professional, on this episode of Thoughtcast by Onething.

In the newest episode of Thoughtcast by Onething, Divanshu and Manik, co-founders at Onething, sit down for a walk down memory lane! This podcast revolves around the 3 biggest mistakes they made in starting their business, but encapsulates so much more. From the turmoil, to triumph of taking a startup to the next level, the founders remember how their journey to the top has been.

From personal insights, to advice for young entrepreneurs, there are far more than 3 lessons to take away from this podcast! Be it lessons on delegation, trusting others, and punctuality, to culture, scaling, and more. Lastly, Divanshu and Manik also unlock what they would do differently today, and how they realized how to change their ways from just half a decade back!

Don’t miss this nostalgic episode of Thoughtcast by Onething!

Jani Pasha is an entrepreneur and CEO of Lokal. The IIT Kharagpur alumnus was featured alongside his co-founder Vipul Chaudhary in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Asia.
In conducting UX research for a previous project, Jani discovered that emulating mental models experienced in rural settings could be an effective UI/UX approach to bring modern technology into the hands of millions of unexposed individuals in India. Thus, the seed to create a hyper-local news application, an often-overlooked feature of vernacular languages was planted. This vision birthed the Lokal app, which now features not only local-language news, but classifieds, real estate listings, and many more use-cases. The app currently has more than 5 million downloads and has an average 4.5-star user rating on the Play Store.

In our discussion with Jani, we delve into his life before and after Lokal and discuss the app in far more detail. One of the big talking points is how exactly Jani isolated the need for a product such as this, and the various transformations it underwent before taking its current form. We discuss his team at Lokal, and how the fact that most of them belong to tier-two and tier-three cities helps build a natural affinity and empathy with the product. Lastly, Jani also goes into how he came across Onething, and why he ended up reaching outwards to fulfill his UX/UI needs, and the impact it has had.

The podcast shines a light on how crucial UX design-based research is to target a new audience, as Jani discusses how it helped Lokal better achieve their KPIs. Jani also imparts further knowledge on some of the barriers he and his team had to overcome in the forms of technology, and language especially, and talks about what exactly goes into targeting a sleeping-giant esque market of millions. Another one of the biggest takeaways from the podcast would be the nature of startup funding in a modern context as well, and how Jani went about securing a Y Combinator investment.

To learn more about Jani Pasha, Lokal, and the nature of creating a digital product for unique and untargeted audiences, check out the Business and UX Story podcast!