Sanchi Bhardwaj
Research & Strategy Lead, Founding partner, Crossed Design
New Delhi, India
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Sanchi Bhardwaj is a Strategic Designer and Design Advisor working at the intersection of governance, public systems, and social innovation. Currently Research & Strategy Lead and Founding Partner at Crossed Design, she has spent 13 years working across the Global South and APAC, advising governments, international development agencies, and multilateral organisations on embedding human-centered design into policy, programs, and institutional thinking. A postgraduate in Strategic Design Management from NID, Sanchi brings a rare combination of design research, systems thinking, and strategic communication to some of the most complex development challenges of our time.
Her work spans behaviour change, sustainability, and social impact — often in contexts where design has never had a seat at the table. She has worked in senior advisory and leadership capacities with organisations such as GIZ, British Council, and Adobe, shaping how design thinking is applied to governance and development at scale. Known for translating complex, multi-stakeholder realities into clear strategic frameworks, she works closely with policy makers, educators, and community leaders to ensure that interventions are not just well-designed but genuinely inclusive. A committed advocate for design-led governance, Sanchi continues to push for design to move from the margins of public systems to the center of decision-making across India and beyond.
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Design as Governance: Rethinking the Role of the Designer in Public Systems
Government is perhaps the most human-facing institution that exists — shaping lives through policies on education, safety, climate, and beyond. Whether it is preparing students for an AI-driven workforce at a national and APAC scale, running campaigns to address gender-based violence in rural India, or designing games to spark climate dialogue in Africa, the stakes of getting design right are extraordinarily high. And yet, human-centered thinking continues to sit at the fringes of this sector. Designers are still largely treated as aesthetic resources — brought in to make things look good rather than think better. This talk makes the case for design as a systemic thinking tool: one that maps multi-stakeholder realities, surfaces the perspectives of those most affected, and builds policies and interventions that do not exclude the very people they are meant to serve. Countries like the UK and UAE have already moved design to the center of governance and planning — it is time India does the same.
Drawing from firsthand experience working across non-profits, government bodies, and Indo-German collaborative projects, this session is an honest experience share — not a highlight reel. It will explore what genuinely works when design enters the policy and development space, where it consistently falls short, and why Indian designers and design education are often ill-equipped for the complexity this sector demands. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of what it takes to practice design at a systemic level, and why the conversation around design's role in public life can no longer remain a niche one.
Sanchi Bhardwaj
Research & Strategy Lead, Founding partner, Crossed Design
New Delhi, India
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