Surabhi Le Folio | Product Designer

Date: 18/11/2025

From Empathy to Interface:

A Designer’s Story

in Progress

In 2020 a former engineering student made an unexpected yet transformative detour in her career. What began as a passion for photography soon blossomed into passion for design leading her to become a self taught product designer.

Bangalore-based designer Surabhi is sketching trust into every interaction currently at Truecaller, formerly at Ather Energy and Squareboat. Her journey from engineering to design wasn’t linear, but it’s led to purposeful, user-centered work that values clarity, research, and emotion in equal measure.

featured

8% Users, 80% Impact:

How Truecaller

Turned a Broken Feature into a Premium Conversion Machine

In CallUI, once a largely overlooked feature with only 8% adoption, was hiding a surprising truth it powered Truecaller’s most valuable user behaviors. Users who engaged with it made 3x more in-app calls, were 2.5x more likely to be Premium subscribers, and contributed 4x more engagement than the average. Yet this critical surface was broken: slow, buggy, and inconsistent across call states.This case study follows a cross-functional effort across five Business Units who came together to rebuild this forgotten feature into a strategic powerhouse that redefined how verified calls are received, trusted, and acted upon.

“What seemed like a neglected feature was the hidden pulse of our most engaged users.”

From the EDITOR

On designing with clarity, data, and emotional intelligence because no interface can fix what’s misunderstood

Design for me begins with the why because when you get the problem right, the solution stops being a guess and starts becoming inevitableI care about data not just to win arguments with stakeholders (although let’s be real, it helps), but because it creates structure. It quantifies what’s often vague, and gives me altitude to see the full terrain of a problem before I start drawing lines through it.But design isn’t only rational for me. It’s also deeply emotional.

I’m obsessed with the layers of human behavior tucked inside every product problem. The tension between what people say and what they feel. The contradiction between their intent and their actions. If that tension isn’t addressed, the solution is cosmetic at best.That said, I still love to design for delight. For the small unexpected smile. For the moments of calm inside chaotic systems.

“You can’t solve what you don’t understand”

EDITOR’S PICKS

Subscription chaos ends:

Ather Energy

Ather Assure Redefines the User Journey for 100k+ Drivers

From quarterly plans to user-centric redesigns: A 2023 study revealed key insights - 24.8% of users underutilizing their plans, 0% usage as the largest bucket, and 16% of calls tied to service paving the way for a smarter subscription journey.

Redefining business calls:

How Truecaller’s

Verified Campaigns Increased User Trust

In a world where trust is paramount, Truecaller’s Verified Campaigns have set a new benchmark for buisness communication.This initiative introduced a seamless, user-centric design that allows buisnesses to personalize their outreach among users.

Through lens: A visual diary of people places and presence

From bustling streets to faraway travels, from intimate self-portraits to dynamic sports and fashion frames, Surabhi’s lens moves fluidly. Her work resists being boxed in it’s about catching life wherever it unfolds.

EDITOR’s last word

This little newspaper of mine was stitched together in the third person because nothing says “serious professional” like narrating your own life as if you’re a charming mystery novel. Yes, it’s wordy.

Outrageously word, but hear me out I know hiring managers often have just minutes (sometimes seconds) to glance through portfolios and I wanted to make every one of those moments count, not by shrinking my voice, but by inviting you into it For the rare kind soul who does pause to actually read: consider this a textual buffet, seasoned generously with design dilemmas, human stories, and an alarming amount of masala tea. If you’ve made it this far, your patience deserves a medal or at least a tea on me.