Meet the Magnopians: Daksh Sahni
Daksh Sahni, Senior Product Manager at Magnopus, is a successful leader with 16 years in AR/VR and game development. His experience includes contributing to some of the world’s best-selling AAA games at Activision, the first FDA-approved Virtual Reality therapeutic product, and working on AR hardware at Samsung Research of America.
Tell us more about your role at Magnopus
I lead the Product Solutions team, working on our technologies OKO and CSP. The team operates at the intersection of business development, technology feature development, and user experience design. We interface with potential customers and clients by providing product demos and onboarding sessions. We constantly prototype new cutting-edge product use cases. Additionally, we serve as the voice of the user within the product ecosystem. By collaborating closely with other users across the studio and third-party entities, we gather feedback and translate it into actionable insights, creating UX flows and writing product requirements.
For those who don’t know, can you briefly explain what OKO is?
OKO enables users to easily create and share cross-reality experiences – connecting people, places, and things across physical and digital worlds.
OKO is a suite of apps and plugins that operate across game engines, connected to a comprehensive set of cloud services, accessible across many devices. It’s built on the open-source Connected Spaces Platform (and as many other open-source and industry standards as possible).
What moment has had the most significant impact on your life?
The most impactful moment of my professional life occurred when I made a significant career pivot from traditional architecture to game development. While attending the graduate program at UCLA School of Architecture, I seized an opportunity to intern at a video game startup in Santa Monica. My role involved conducting architectural research to create a digital twin of the City of Los Angeles for a project intended to rival the mega-blockbuster Grand Theft Auto (GTA). This opportunity proved to be transformative, ultimately resulting in the acquisition of the studio by Activision. From that point on, there was no turning back.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?
There are too many. But from my experience, I've noticed that while companies and projects may change over time, cultivating relationships and friendships with the people you collaborate with daily can have a lasting impact.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not working?
Hiking / walking / being in nature. Appreciating art/design. Hanging out with friends.
If you had unlimited resources and funding, what project or initiative would you launch?
I'm already working on a version of the product I would launch! 😀 As an immigrant in this country with family all over the world, I deeply crave a connection to the people and places that have shaped my life and memories. While nothing can replace real experiences, the ability to use technology to connect and meaningfully engage with diverse cultures, people, and places is something I am deeply passionate about.
If you could wake up in the body of another person (just for one day) who would it be and why?
Without getting into the politics of it - I’d love to be the person who can influence the end of these crazy wars !
How would your friends describe you?
Loyal, honest, reliable.
