Nasscom, the trade association of IT and BPO industry in India, has joined hands with Facebook to build a `Product Design Initiative’ in the country. The partnership aims to support 500+ product startups on product design and train 5,000+ product designers over a period of two years.
It will offer focused programs to build awareness around product design, training on design tools, Design Lab, Awards, Design sprints and mentorship.
Though the country is at an “inflection point with focus on building technology products and solutions that enable innovation and access,” NASSCOM analysed that there is considerable gap in design focus. The 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.
As said by R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, 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 the young entrepreneurs into becoming problem solvers and solution builders,” he added.
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.
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.”
Last year, Nasscom partnered with Facebook to create startup fund and new initiatives such as ‘Leaders Building for the Next Billion Program’, to support developers building apps and mobile websites for “new-to-Internet” users.
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