Nasscom partners with Facebook to launch product design initiative

To evangelise the product design ecosystem in India, Nasscom on Thursday announced its partnership with Facebook to build a 'Product Design Initiative' in the country. This will be a flagship programme of the Nasscom Product Council and will aim to support over 500 product startups on product design and train over 5,000 product designers over a period of two years.

R Chandrashekhar, president, Nasscom, said: "Design as a tool for innovation has developed rapidly in recent years. Design thinking, methodologies and tools enable solutions for complex and challenging issues and help re-imagine systems. With this initiative, Nasscom plans to scale up the focus on product design and engage young entrepreneurs into becoming problem solvers and solution builders."

India is at an interesting inflection point — there is increasing focus on building technology products and solutions that enable innovation and access. At the same time a key gap to spur innovation is the focus on design — product design that is simple, yet builds a powerful product and exemplifies customer experience. This initiative stems from the need to build design skills that will propel innovative thinking and approaches to build solutions in key sectors where technology can play a transformational role, said a statement from Nasscom.

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Ravi Gururaj, chairman, Nasscom Product Council, said: "India's product landscape is rapidly maturing and innovative solutions are getting built across a spectrum of verticals and business needs. The Product Council has been running design workshops and an annual design summit to create awareness on product design and its imperatives. The Design Initiative will aim to build and diffuse a design culture across our ecosystem, link up with academia, recognise outstanding designs and overall ensure India's software products deliver delightful customer experiences."

This nationwide initiative by Nasscom will offer focused programmes to build awareness around product design, training on design tools, design lab, awards, design sprints and mentorship.

Julie Zhuo, VP, product design, Facebook, said: "The Product Design ecosystem is evolving swiftly and to seize this growth we need to solve a few challenges such as a growing need for skilled designers and better design tools to produce great designs more effectively. At Facebook, we are passionate about design and would like to work alongside industry to foster innovation in product design in India, a country known for great technology and engineering talent." She further added: "We are pleased to join hands with Nasscom and through this initiative support and mentor the design community in India."