Trisha Santhanam

Director, Design

Trisha Santhanam headshot
Trisha is a strategic and service designer with over a decade of experience.
She has led research, design and development of customer-centric programs for established Australian and multi-national organisations. Having worked across different cultures and geographies, she is interested in tackling challenges of equity and working with organisations to envision more equitable futures for all.

Influential work

  • Designed and led engagement with 600+ young people, 150+ community members, service providers, councils and Aboriginal cultural authorities, to develop a community-led strategy to guide youth services investment across 26 remote Aboriginal communities in Central Australia
  • Conducted service blueprint mapping of the end-to-end experience of a government agency’s services, creating a shared understanding of the current state of service delivery and identifying opportunities to improve
  • Led a service design review for a state health government branch on the service response for people from multicultural communities, identifying implementable solutions in a complex service system
  • Conducted research to identify Melbourne multicultural communities’ city-related needs, informing opportunities for the city council to better understand and engage its communities
  • Led co-design and testing of ways to redesign the planning permit application process as part of a wider system reform, working with the state government and councils and engaging planners, applicants, citizens and community groups

Outside of Nous

Prior to joining Nous, Trisha worked at global digital, design and creative agencies. She has worked with global and Fortune 500 companies, leading research, strategy and design for customer experience and digital projects.

Trisha holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from National University of Singapore and has completed an RMIT Future Skills course in Design Thinking for Innovation.

In her spare time...

If not travelling, Trisha is most likely to be found curled up with a book and a coffee, out on a walk in nature, or practising or teaching yoga.