Nike India
Designing nike.in for India's biggest commerce transition
CONTEXT
In February 2026, Nike India handed over its entire digital commerce operation to Nykaa - India's leading fashion and beauty platform with 50M+ customers, 2B+ annual visits, and a 83% CAGR in fashion GMV. Nike.com/in became nike.in, fully powered by Nykaa's enterprise stack.
This was not just a domain change. Nykaa took end-to-end ownership of Nike's digital presence in India - consumer experience, commerce infrastructure, operations and fulfilment, data and analytics, marketing channels, and governance. One of the deepest brand-platform partnerships executed in the Indian market.
As Lead Product Designer, I led the end-to-end design execution across app and web, collaborating with Nike’s global stakeholders, marketing, and product teams to deliver a seamless, pixel-perfect experience aligned with Nike’s global standards and Podium Design System.
THE CHALLENGE
One of the biggest challenges was the timeline. The project was handed over in October, with a hard go-live deadline set for February, giving us just four months to transition and launch the entire Nike India app and website on Nykaa’s enterprise ecosystem.
What was initially planned as a month-long handoff and alignment phase was compressed into just three weeks, accelerating every stage of the design and delivery process. This meant balancing rapid execution with uncompromising adherence to Nike’s global standards and approval processes.
Beyond execution speed, the real challenge was balancing global consistency with local relevance. While aligning closely with Nike’s global teams and approval processes, we also redesigned and optimized key user flows to better suit Indian consumer behavior and expectations creating experiences that felt localized, intuitive, and user-centric without compromising the global brand language.
The scale and pace demanded intense collaboration across design, product, and marketing teams. Multiple designers worked in parallel across platforms and journeys, supported by daily war rooms, rapid feedback loops, and highly coordinated execution. It often felt like orchestrating a perfectly timed performance - where every detail, decision, and interaction had to move in sync to deliver a seamless, pixel-perfect launch under extreme timelines.
MY ROLE
As Design Lead, I managed a team of five designers across app and web, driving end-to-end execution under aggressive timelines. I worked closely with internal teams and Nike’s global stakeholders to ensure seamless alignment, timely delivery, and consistency across every touchpoint.
My role focused on maintaining execution quality through regular reviews, war rooms, and detailed design QC — ensuring every experience was pixel-perfect, aligned with the Podium Design System, and tailored to Indian users while staying true to Nike’s global standards.
War-room collaboration model
EXECUTION
Parallel design and development
We didn't wait for the full design to be complete before development started. Screens were distributed pod-by-pod - developers picked up completed flows while design continued on others. QC began while implementation was still live.
This overlap compressed the timeline without losing visibility into quality.
We ran a daily live working session between design and development - not a standup, an actual working session. Developers raised implementation questions in real time. Decisions were made on the spot. No ticket-and-wait cycles, no async delays on blocking questions. This single structural change removed the biggest hidden cost in fast-moving projects: the gap between a design question being raised and being answered.
War-Room Collaboation Model
We ran a daily live working session between design and development - not a standup, an actual working session. Developers raised implementation questions in real time. Decisions were made on the spot. No ticket-and-wait cycles, no async delays on blocking questions.
This single structural change removed the biggest hidden cost in fast-moving projects: the gap between a design question being raised and being answered.
Continuous QC, not final-stage review
Quality assurance was built into the workflow from day one. Multiple rounds of design QC, iterative UI validation, and real-time escalation fixes ran throughout the build - not as a final gate. Issues surfaced during implementation were resolved immediately, keeping the delivery timeline intact.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Parallel design and development
We didn't wait for the full design to be complete before development started. Screens were distributed pod-by-pod - developers picked up completed flows while design continued on others. QC began while implementation was still live.
This overlap compressed the timeline without losing visibility into quality.
We ran a daily live working session between design and development - not a standup, an actual working session. Developers raised implementation questions in real time. Decisions were made on the spot. No ticket-and-wait cycles, no async delays on blocking questions. This single structural change removed the biggest hidden cost in fast-moving projects: the gap between a design question being raised and being answered.
War-Room Collaboation Model
We ran a daily live working session between design and development - not a standup, an actual working session. Developers raised implementation questions in real time. Decisions were made on the spot. No ticket-and-wait cycles, no async delays on blocking questions.
This single structural change removed the biggest hidden cost in fast-moving projects: the gap between a design question being raised and being answered.
Continuous QC, not final-stage review
Quality assurance was built into the workflow from day one. Multiple rounds of design QC, iterative UI validation, and real-time escalation fixes ran throughout the build - not as a final gate. Issues surfaced during implementation were resolved immediately, keeping the delivery timeline intact.
OUTCOME
Rebuilt the complete nike.in experience using Nike's official Podium Design System - homepage, PLP, PDP,
account migration, and checkout
Delivered Desktop and App experiences within a two-week window, following a mid-project direction
reset from Nike's global team
Designed the account migration flow to retain existing Nike India users through the Nykaa platform
transition with zero friction
Surfaced India-specific improvements - 2-day metro delivery, free shipping, free exchanges - as first-class
design elements, not afterthoughts
Maintained continuous development alignment through daily war-room syncs and real-time query
resolution across multiple platform teams
Shipped a production-ready, large-scale experience on time - with no downtime and no customer
disruption during the platform transition
