Sumita Kunashakaran
Sumita is a service designer, inclusive leadership advocate, and keynote speaker working at the intersection of lived experience, systems thinking, and organisational change. Her work focuses on helping organisations move beyond performative diversity toward meaningful, human-centered inclusion that is embedded in how decisions are made and cultures are shaped.
The Situation
As Sumita’s role evolved, so did her need for a clear and authentic digital presence.
Alongside her work as Chief Inclusion Officer at Inclusive Creation and her growing role as a keynote speaker, she needed a platform that could articulate her perspective without diluting it. This was not about personal branding in the conventional sense. It was about finding a way to express complex ideas around inclusion, leadership, and systems change in a voice that felt unmistakably her own.
The challenge was subtle but important:
How do you present deeply human, values-driven work without turning it into a performance?
My Role
I worked as a strategic and digital partner throughout the process.
My role was to help translate Sumita’s voice, experience, and way of thinking into a coherent digital structure. This included shaping the narrative, defining the structure of the site, and designing a system that could support her work as it evolved, without locking her into a rigid or overly polished identity.
Rather than introducing external frameworks or heavy branding, the focus was on restraint, clarity, and authenticity.
The Work
The work centered on finding a metaphor that felt natural to how Sumita already spoke and taught.
Together, we developed a narrative structure rooted in food, ingredients, and shared meals. Concepts like “The Main Course,” “Potato Ideas,” and “The Perfect Blend” became ways to talk about inclusion, collaboration, and systems thinking without abstraction or jargon.
I designed and built the website, created a simple visual identity, and structured the content to support:
Keynote speaking and thought leadership
Workshops and service design work
A personal story that felt approachable rather than performative
The result was a platform that reflected her perspective without forcing it into a predefined mold.
What Changed
The website became a clear expression of Sumita’s voice and values.
Instead of presenting inclusion as a set of services or buzzwords, the platform allowed her work to be understood through lived experience, metaphor, and conversation. It supported her transition into a more public-facing role while remaining grounded in the principles she teaches.
The form stayed simple. The thinking remained intact.
Outcome
The result is a personal platform that supports Sumita’s work as a speaker, facilitator, and advisor without overstatement.
It functions as a place for clarity rather than promotion, helping organisations understand not just what she does, but how she thinks and why it matters.