In 2019 I supported a lighter backpack prototype because its empty weight fell from 900 grams to 700 grams. That was a real change in the object, but I treated it too quickly as evidence of a better carrying experience. In an exploratory study with thirty adult participants using the same agreed contents, sixteen preferred the heavier version and fourteen preferred the lighter one. Their accounts pointed to the strap arrangement and how the load sat, not simply the empty weight. The exercise was not a health assessment or a claim about every traveller. It was enough to challenge the priority I had given one attractive specification.
I now lead product at Nerqeshi Travel Goods in Panaji. Twenty-six colleagues work through three leads within ₹6.2 crore annual function expense and a separately approved ₹2.3 crore development programme. Our seventeen shops and 284 employees serve a business with ₹138 crore revenue in FY 2025–26. Research head Nima Delqavri helps us understand the task before deciding which feature to improve. CEO Rohan Zelqavni retains enterprise commitments, while quality, safety, manufacturing and sourcing colleagues own their specialist decisions. My role is to connect the traveller’s situation with a product choice that those teams can support.
Recent decisions have concerned access to a rain cover without unpacking the bag and support for buckles across product generations. Both exposed work that a polished packing demonstration had left outside the frame. I would consider another consumer CPO mandate with authority to revise a product proposition when that missing work becomes visible. A first outside board contribution is also a future possibility after further preparation and assessment. I have presented product decisions to directors but have not been appointed as one. I would bring the habit of asking what a specification leaves out, while learning the wider financial and sector questions that collective oversight requires. A product should be explained through its use and its continuing obligations, not only the feature that makes its launch easy to describe.
Lower empty weight did not settle preference
Reopened a design priority I had supported after participants described the loaded experience.
The rain cover had to be reachable during the journey
Changed access without assuming that a tidy packing sequence would remain convenient outdoors.
A replacement part needed a supported match
Separated a modular promise from the compatibility and service work required to honour it.
Current focus
Travel goods whose use, access and repair arrangements survive contact with an ordinary journey.
Conversations I welcome
Consumer product leadership and a prepared first non-executive contribution with a defined customer-use perspective.
The leadership record
Trusted with consequential decisions.
Formation
Bachelor of Design in Product DesignVelqerni Design College · 1996
Elena made the cost of a narrower product promise visible and explained why the original feature could not settle the investment question.
