Hi! I am Manahil, a designer passionate about bringing positive change in the world through the power of design, research & systems thinking.
Having about seven years of work experience in systemic design, design for social impact, service design and UX design in Italy, Canada, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey; currently I am on the look-out for PhD or research opportunities, specifically in Europe or Canada.
Education
MSc. Product Service Systems Design (PSSD)
Politecnico di Milano, Italy (2022 - 2024)
Grade: 110/110 cum Laude (distinction)
Short course on Systems Thinking
Habib University, Pakistan (2018)
with Dr. Ahmed Ansari (Assistant Professor, NYU)
Bachelors in Industrial Design
National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Pakistan (2013 - 2017)
Grade: 3.56/4 cgpa (first position in academics)
Work Experience
Assistant Director
Institute of Design, Entrepreneurship & Leadership (IDEAL) at Habib University, Pakistan (Sep 2025 - present)
Leading the curriculum development, academic and non-academic offerings, operations and space stewardship at IDEAL at Habib University, including developing and executing courses, workshops, trainings and events for the university students & faculty, and corporate trainings for the industry.
Lecturer
Communication & Design (CND),
School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (AHSS),
Habib University, Pakistan (Sep 2025 - present)
Teaching various courses related to systemic design, service design, participatory design and design research to undergraduate CND students. Also contributing to the development of the design curriculum for CND students as well as students of other majors.
Freelance Service Designer
Pakistan & remote (Jan 2025 - Aug 2025)
Worked on various freelance service design, designer research and UX research projects both from Pakistan and Italy, Turkey, Singapore & Spain.
Lecturer
Al Akhawayn University, Morocco (Aug 2024 - Dec 2024)
Teaching one graduate course and three undergraduate courses about human-centered design, sustainable design and design history.
Service Design Intern
DESIS Lab, Politecnico di Milano (Jan 2024 - Jul 2024)
Worked on various service design projects such as the Service Design Identities and StudMiHome project. Conducted primary & secondary research, co-design activities, grant-proposal writing etc.
Lecturer & Dean’s Fellow
Communication & Design (CND),
School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (AHSS),
Habib University, Karachi, Pakistan (Aug 2020 - Jul 2022)
Taught various design courses to undergraduate design and engineering students, and also served at the university’s Faculty Senate.
Service Design Consultant (remote)
MobileLive, Toronto, Canada (Feb 2021 - Aug 2021)
Service design consultant for the Investor Experience Excellence at the town of Innisfil (Ontario).
Head of Innovation Design Research
Radical Disruption, Karachi, Pakistan
(Jan 2020 - Apr 2020)
Led the design research team for the primary & secondary research for various fintech, mobility, ed-tech and e-commerce projects.
Service Design Lecturer (part-time)
Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) Karachi, Pakistan (Jan 2018 - Aug 2019 / Jan 2020 - Aug 2020)
Taught a service design course to communication design students where they were given actual clients to work with to learn service design methodologies.
Service Designer
Designist, Karachi, Pakistan (Jan 2018 - Aug 2019)
Worked mainly on social innovation projects in the fields of healthcare, agri-tech, fintech etc. Also conducted workshops for clients on various design topics.