How previews, scope and local operating decisions shape responsible changes to a series of reservations.
A leadership conviction
I want the product to expose a disagreement early enough for people to resolve it. A tidy calendar is not useful if it conceals the work between one booking and the next.
Design and product work
26 years
Career begins July 2000
Product colleagues
46
Research and design included; four leads
Annual function expense
₹12.6 crore
Engineering under separate leadership
Make room for the work between bookings
I am chief product officer at Oshveri Venue Software in Ludhiana. Our customers manage rehearsal studios, cultural venues and shared event spaces. A coloured rectangle on a calendar can represent several different commitments: the time a group uses a room, the preparation before they arrive and the work needed before somebody else can enter. My team studies those differences and turns them into product decisions that operators can explain to their colleagues and customers.
I lead forty-six product, research and design colleagues through four leads, with ₹12.6 crore annual operating expense. Engineering is a separate function led by our CTO, Gurmeet Valsheni. I report to CEO Anita Sernethi. That division matters: I am accountable for the product problem, the evidence behind priorities and the behaviour we propose, while delivery depends on a shared plan with engineering and the operational decisions remain with each venue. Software cannot decide whether a physical space is safe or properly staffed for a particular event.
My career began in interaction design in 2000. Work on scheduling systems taught me to look beyond the person who first enters a booking. Reception, technicians, cleaners, instructors and event organisers may all read the same screen while needing different information. Since becoming CPO in September 2023, I have tried to make those differences part of our product choices rather than treat them as exceptions that customers must remember outside the system. The cases here show specific changes, their costs and the limits of what their tests established.
18 conflicts hidden between 240 test bookings
Across twenty-six spaces, a prepared set of 240 bookings exposed eighteen conflicts involving setup or clearing time. A ₹58 lakh change made those windows explicit. Retesting addressed the known examples; it did not certify every venue's operating arrangements.
Keyboard work deserved its own product evidence
Thirty venue staff attempted representative booking tasks using a keyboard. Twenty-one were blocked and nine completed them. We funded ₹44 lakh of interaction work, then repeated the tasks with the same group: twenty-seven completed and three still needed assistance.
Recurring bookings needed a visible exception
A review of 140 recurring series found twenty-three whose holiday exceptions did not match the operator's intended dates. A ₹36 lakh preview-and-confirm change helped staff inspect affected occurrences before applying a series edit.
Current focus
I am improving the way a product explains the reach of a scheduling change: which occurrence moves, who needs to know and what remains a local decision. I want operators to see consequences before a confident click alters somebody else's working day.
Conversations I welcome
I am considering a first external board appointment in a business where software coordinates a service delivered by people in physical places. I can provisionally offer twenty days annually, subject to employer consent, relationship review and the actual preparation required.
Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective.
Formation
BDes in Interaction DesignNarsheli Design Institute · 2000
Harjit brought the three unfinished keyboard tasks into the review alongside the improved completion count. It helped us discuss the next investment with a more honest picture of what the product had achieved.
Anita SernethiChief Executive Officer, Oshveri Venue SoftwareThe full record ↗
Contact
I am considering a first external board appointment in a business where software coordinates a service delivered by people in physical places. I can provisionally offer twenty days annually, subject to employer consent, relationship review and the actual preparation required.
