On May 30, 2026, the Institute Innovation Cell (IIC) and the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) Cell, in association with the Department of Information Science and Engineering (ISE) and the Department of Computer Science and Design (CSD), organized a workshop titled “Product-Market Fit: Prototype/Process Design and MVP Development.”

The session was delivered by Mr. Aakash Natekar, Procurement Manager, Pradvi & Co., for the students of the ISE and CSD departments. The workshop focused on helping students understand the process of transforming innovative ideas into validated products through product-market fit analysis, prototype design, and minimum viable product (MVP) development.

Mr. Aakash Natekar began the session by explaining the concept of Product-Market Fit (PMF), emphasizing that successful products solve real customer problems and satisfy a genuine market need. He highlighted that many start-ups fail because they build products without validating whether customers actually need them. Students were introduced to the importance of identifying real pain points, understanding customer behavior, and validating ideas before investing significant development effort.

The workshop covered key topics such as customer discovery and research, market segmentation and targeting, competitive analysis, product vision and strategy, and methods for identifying the right problem to solve. The speaker discussed techniques such as user interviews, surveys, observational studies, and focus groups to gather meaningful customer insights. He also explained the importance of understanding target markets through demographic, geographic, behavioral, and psychographic segmentation.

A significant part of the session focused on prototype design and development. Students were introduced to different types of prototypes including paper prototypes, wireframes, clickable mockups, and functional prototypes. The speaker explained how prototypes help reduce development risk, gather early user feedback, clarify product vision, and accelerate innovation. A structured prototype design process involving goal definition, user identification, planning, building, testing, and iterative refinement was discussed in detail.

The workshop also introduced students to UI/UX fundamentals and process design concepts. Participants learned about designing intuitive user interfaces, creating effective user experiences, maintaining consistency, ensuring accessibility, and using flowcharts to model system processes before development. The importance of designing systems from the user's perspective was strongly emphasized.

Another major focus area was Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development. Mr. Natekar explained that an MVP is the smallest functional version of a product that can validate the most important business assumptions. He discussed the Build–Measure–Learn cycle, demonstrating how start-ups can continuously improve their products based on user feedback and performance metrics. Students were encouraged to focus on core features, gather real-world feedback, and avoid unnecessary complexity during early development stages.

The speaker further discussed Agile and Lean Startup methodologies, highlighting how iterative development, sprint planning, continuous feedback, and validated learning contribute to successful product development. Guidance was also provided on selecting appropriate technology stacks, creating user stories, maintaining repositories, testing prototypes, and documenting innovation projects.

The session concluded with an interactive discussion where students actively participated by asking questions related to product validation, prototype development, entrepreneurship, and start-up execution strategies. The workshop provided practical insights into innovation management and encouraged students to adopt a structured approach to developing technology-driven solutions.

The program received strong support from Dr. Shrinivasa Mayya D, Principal, and Prof. Sudarshan K, Head of the Department, ISE and CSD. The event was coordinated by Dr. Praveen Shemoy, IIC Coordinator, with support from Prof. Sowmya, Staff Advisor, AISE, and Prof. Archana D, Staff Advisor, ACODE.

Overall, the workshop provided students with a comprehensive understanding of product-market fit, prototype design, process modeling, and MVP development. It motivated participants to apply entrepreneurial thinking, validate ideas systematically, and build innovative solutions with greater confidence.