Manisha Dewal
Behavioral & Cultural Researcher

Manisha
Dewal

10 Years bridging behavior, technology & culture
3 Disciplines: Design × Research × Engineering
4 Industries: Healthcare → Logistics → Social → AI
25+ International markets influenced at Meta
The Trifecta

Design × Research × Engineering

In an era where AI is collapsing disciplinary boundaries, having lived fluently in all three has proven to be a rare strategic advantage.

01
Engineering

Built production software before studying the humans navigating it. Understands systems from the inside — which changes the questions you ask.

  • B.E. Computer Engineering
  • Software Engineer, Tavant Technologies
  • 5/3rd Banking App, iOS & Android
02
Research

A decade leading foundational and strategic research — from HCI labs to Meta scale. Studies human behavior, not just user behavior.

  • M.S. Human-Computer Interaction, UF
  • Senior UX Researcher, Meta (5 yrs)
  • 12 studies · 25+ markets · $3M TPV
03
Design

Practiced UX design across healthcare, logistics, and social platforms. Bridges insight and artifact — knows what it costs to ship a wrong assumption.

  • UX Research & Design, Optym
  • Design Intern, Hologic
  • 18% → 52% feature adoption

Where all three meet: systems thinking that operates at the level where the most consequential decisions live.

Most researchers choose one lane. The rarest — and most useful — are the ones who have earned fluency in all three and can translate across them in real time.

Philosophy

"The most revealing moment is not when people describe what they want — it's when they reveal what they assume."

My background is unusual in this field. A computer engineering foundation. A graduate focus in human-computer interaction. Years of design practice. Then a decade of research across healthcare, enterprise logistics, and the metaverse. That combination means I operate across layers that most people choose between: technical, behavioral, strategic, cultural.

I came to research through emerging technologies, not traditional usability. The problems I was drawn to were never about whether someone could find a button. They were about whether a system matched the mental model people brought to it — and whether, if it didn't, we had designed a bridge or just a cliff.

Across Healthcare, logistics, and Meta — the through-line has always been the same: understand what people are really navigating beneath the surface complaint, and build the kind of shared organizational understanding that makes the right decision feel obvious to everyone in the room.

Research, at its best, doesn't tell you what to build. It tells you what you're actually choosing between.

Working Principles
01
Research is not a phase. It's an ongoing relationship with organizational uncertainty.
02
The most important moment in any study is when the question changes. That's when you've found something real.
03
Behavioral contradictions are not noise. They are the signal. I build frameworks around the contradiction, not past it.
04
Influence without authority is still influence. It requires better evidence, better narrative, and better timing.
05
The future is already present in the most extreme users. Study the edge cases first.
06
Insight that doesn't travel is a failed artifact. Design for the room, not the document.
Beyond the Resume
Indian
#Indian
Antelope Canyon
do you see a face? #perspectives
Latin Dancer
cha cha cha through life
Avid Reader
avid reader
Go Gator
Go Gator! Grow Greater!
Based in NYC
NYC. home base.
Traveller
lost in all the right places
Yogi
mind before method
yes, and...

Get in touch

Let's think something through together.