India’s first Fellowship program that helps Product Managers build inclusive products that serve diverse users & explore untapped markets.

10+ Companies

20 Fellows

Impact 5M users

Expert classes & prototyping support

May - October 2024

Apply Now
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Inclusive design is about engaging with people that can be completely different than you, it stretches your imagination of what’s possible.
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Dr. Victor Pineda

Globally recognized investor, social impact entrepreneur,  and activist. 

Fellowship Overview

Inviting mid-career product managers passionate about building inclusive products.

The Fellowship is a pioneering program that seeks to drive inclusive product innovations within the Indian tech ecosystem. 20 Fellows – practicing product managers in leading tech product companies – will learn about inclusive product management and, through a structured process, create new features within their own products that are inclusive and drive more value to underrepresented users. 

A group of global experts will provide insights and mentorship and the IPMF core team will provide key support –  immersion with underrepresented user groups, prototyping design support, and business case modeling – to the Fellows through this process. 

For companies, the Fellowship offers a structured process to  build effective features that address the needs of underrepresented users. Thereby growing their market and brand. 

For participating product managers, who join as Fellows, the program represents a career-defining opportunity to learn inclusive product skills, network, create impact through these features, and generate value for their companies.

Learn

Expert classes on inclusive design principles, inclusion diagnostics, user immersion, and interactive games to simulate diverse experiences.

Ideate

Develop ideas for inclusive features, shortlist based on business potential and impact

Build & Test

Design and build prototypes for inclusive features; testing sessions with underrepresented users; ongoing mentoring

Refine

Refine features based on feedback; prepare business case and pitch for internal stakeholders

Value Proposition For Companies

Unlock New Markets

IPMF enables your company to discover and serve new markets by developing products that meet the needs of diverse communities, driving growth and expanding your customer base.

Drive Inclusion & Impact

Collaborate with IPMF to integrate inclusive features in your products, enhancing accessibility for all users and making a tangible difference in their lives.

Professional Growth

Your team gains top-tier training in inclusive product design from IPMF, earning recognition for their enhanced skills and bolstering your company’s expertise.

Lead the Change

Joining IPMF positions your company as a frontrunner in promoting inclusivity within the tech industry, enhancing your brand’s reputation and appeal.

Value proposition for Product Managers

Learn & Access Global Network

Fellows will learn cutting edge approaches to build inclusive products, experience immersion with underrepresented users, prototype and test rapidly. Finally, they will gain access to a global expert network and peers who are passionate about product inclusion. 

Unlock Business Potential

Fellows will discover the vast business opportunity that inclusive products present. The Fellowship will provide market intelligence support enabling the Fellows to design features that can create significant business value for their companies. 

Create Impact & Gain Recognition

Fellows will also drive significant social impact by addressing crucial needs of users with marginalized identities in terms of gender, disability, sexual orientation, caste, and other related dimensions. They will receive significant recognition and will get certified at the end of the process. 

Experts & Mentors

The Fellowship will feature entrepreneurs, product leaders, and experts in inclusive design from both India and outside. The Fellows will have a chance to engage deeply with these experts and mentors through both expert talks as well as 1-1 mentoring sessions within the ideation and prototyping stages. Some of the confirmed experts include: 

Mansi Gupta

Mansi Gupta

Founder of Unconform. Helps organisations embed a women-centric lens in their products, programs and processes.

Pavni Diwanji

Pavni Diwanji

Former VP Instagram and Google leading key products. Deep experience in building inclusive & responsible products & applying a diversity-lens at scale.

Anuj Rathi

Anuj Rathi

Chief Product & Marketing Officer at Jupiter and former SVP at Swiggy. Passionate about building inclusive products for India.

Vikrama Dhiman

Vikrama Dhiman

Chief Product Officer at Gojek with deep experience in running 200+ person product teams. Deep interest and experience in product inclusion.

Srinivasu Chakravarthula

Srinivasu Chakravarthula

Director of Product Accessibility at Freshworks and renowned expert in making products inclusive for people with disabilities.

Rohan Arora

Rohan Arora

Cofounder of Evolve, the world's most inclusive mental health app. Passionate about LGBTQIA inclusion in products and services.

Hemanshu Jain

Hemanshu Jain

Founder & CEO at Khyaal: India's #1 app for senior citizens. Passionate about product inclusion especially for seniors.

Abhishek Ghosh

Abhishek Ghosh

Digital Strategy at Pandora, ex-Swiggy & ex-McKinsey. Founder of Qonnect, a global professional networking platform for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Priya Ajmera

Priya Ajmera

Chief Evangelist at Societal Thinking and former Head of Strategy at Yahoo. Passionate about scaling gender inclusive products.

Rahul Bajaj

Rahul Bajaj

Lawyer, founder of Mission Accessibility, Rhodes Scholar. Passionate about disability inclusion in technology products.

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Dr. Ruha Shadab

Founder, LedBy Foundation Passionate about increasing the representation of Indian Muslim women in India's private sector

Partners

The Fellowship program brings together a carefully curated set of organisations that bring expertise and depth in different aspects of inclusive product management.  

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Mission Accessibility works towards dismantling the barriers faced by persons with disabilities in accessing apps and websites in India. Registered as an NGO, it has been setup by two blind lawyers and works with leading product companies in India to make their products more disability inclusive.

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Qonnect is a global LGBTQIA+ professional networking platform with 2,000+ members. It operates across more than 6 countries and seeks to create and support the next generation of LGBTQIA+ role model leaders within startups and corporates. Qonnect is seeking to promote greater queer inclusion in tech products.

The Product Folks

The Product Folks is among the world's largest PM communities with over 200k+ members. TPF helps PM grow their skills and careers and also helps people break into PM careers. TPF is keen on helping embed inclusive product management practices in the Indian tech ecosystem.

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Women In Product seeks to support women in the product ecosystem by giving them a safe community to network, grow and thrive in their careers. It's a women-only community led by amazing women product leaders and is keen on driving gender-inclusive product management practices in India.

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Omidyar Network India is a leading impact investment firm investing in entrepreneurs who are tackling India’s hardest problems.A key focus is to enable every Indian to feel empowered and safe and derive value from digital products through the use of inclusive tech practices and products.

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Belongg is a social innovation venture focused on driving intersectional inclusion within technology products and global development programs. Belongg conceptualized IPMF and is keen to make this the leading program for product inclusion in India.

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Dalberg is a leading global advisory firm focused on social impact and works leading organisations on key strategy and impact projects. It has been a core part of the IPMF journey and is bring key strategy and program support.

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Nasscom Foundation is a non-profit with a vision to empower lives through technology and work towards creating a truly inclusive India. It works with member companies of NASSCOM along to meet the technology needs of non-profits and underserved communities across India.

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LedBy Foundation is the first leadership incubator for Indian Muslim women and provides experiential leadership training, mentoring to high-potential Indian Muslim women. LedBy was incubated at and pre-seed-funded by Harvard.

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Interweave is a consulting company focused exclusively on helping organisations build equitable & inclusive workplaces. As pioneers in this space in India, Interweave prides itself on being at the cutting edge of designing DEI solutions that bring out the best of India's increasingly diverse workforce.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Inclusive Product Management Fellowship is a specialized program designed to equip product managers and designers with the skills and knowledge necessary to create products that are accessible and valuable to a diverse range of users. It emphasizes professional growth and learning in the realm of inclusive product design. The fellowship does not offer a stipend, underscoring its focus on the long-term career benefits of participating, such as acquiring invaluable knowledge, networking opportunities, and experience in the field of inclusive design. The aim is to foster a generation of product leaders who can integrate inclusivity into the core of their product development processes, thereby addressing the needs and preferences of underserved users.

The Fellowship is primarily based in Bangalore, known for its vibrant innovation and technology scene. It uniquely blends virtual activities with in-person sessions to foster deeper connections among participants and facilitate hands-on learning experiences. Spanning five months, the program is thoughtfully structured to balance in-depth learning with practical application, requiring approximately 60 hours of commitment. This part-time structure is designed to accommodate professionals who are balancing other obligations, allowing them to immerse fully in the program without compromising their current roles.
The Fellowship’s training program covers a wide array of topics, including the foundational principles of inclusive design, user research methodologies with marginalized communities, prototyping for inclusivity, and strategies for scaling inclusive products. It is highly interactive, combining expert-led sessions with practical workshops and collaborative projects. Fellows are expected to engage actively in discussions, participate in hands-on projects, and collaborate with peers, ensuring a dynamic and comprehensive learning experience. Direct interaction with marginalized user groups is a critical component, offering real-world insights and fostering empathy-driven design perspectives.
Direct engagement with users from marginalized communities is a cornerstone of the Fellowship. It facilitates these interactions to provide fellows with a firsthand understanding of the challenges and barriers these users face. This approach ensures that the solutions developed by fellows are grounded in real user needs and are designed to be genuinely accessible and inclusive. Through such engagements, fellows gain valuable insights that inform the development of products that truly meet the needs of underserved populations.
The Fellowship is underpinned by the principles of inclusivity and a focus on serving underserved users. “Underserved users” refer to individuals or communities that have historically been overlooked or inadequately served by technology, including people with disabilities, those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and individuals in remote areas. “Inclusion” in product design means creating products that are accessible, usable, and valuable to as wide a range of people as possible, actively considering the diversity of user needs. This approach ensures that technology advancements benefit everyone, especially those who have been marginalized or excluded in the past.
The Fellowship provides extensive support and resources for fellows to develop and implement inclusive projects. This includes mentorship from industry experts, access to a global network of professionals, and resources for prototyping and user testing. Additionally, fellows receive guidance on market intelligence and business case development to ensure that their projects are not only impactful in terms of inclusivity but also commercially viable. This comprehensive support framework is designed to enable fellows to bring innovative, inclusive products to market, thereby making a significant social impact.

The Inclusive Product Management Fellowship is a structured product development program designed not merely as a training initiative but as an incubator for creating inclusive features in tech products. It equips Product Managers with the skills to think critically about inclusivity, and also provides prototyping support, user research sessions, access to a panel of experts and users with underrepresented backgrounds. All of this, thus, adds significant business value to participating organizations. 

The inaugural cohort of the Fellowship program is priced at a highly subsidized INR 100,000 per Fellow or INR 200,000 per participating organization (two Fellows). This goes towards supporting the comprehensive suite of resources, expert mentorship, and prototyping support provided, ensuring participants can make tangible progress in their inclusivity goals within the program’s timeframe.

We are also offering complete and partial scholarships, particularly for companies & Fellows working on products that promise deep social impact at scale. This flexibility ensures that the Fellowship is accessible to a wide array of organizations committed to enhancing inclusivity in their products and services. For those interested in exploring exemption options, detailed instructions are provided within the application process, facilitating a straightforward approach to apply. 

There are four key dates for the Fellowship:

  • Application deadline: The Fellowship applications are due 9pm India time on the 26th of April 2024
  • Cohort selection announcement: Selected Fellows and companies will be informed on the 6th of May 2024
  • Commencement: Fellowship activity will start on the 20th of May 2024 
  • Conclusion: The Fellowship will conclude in the second half of October 2024 with demo-day

The application process is explained in detail on the “Fellowship Details” page on the website. It involves filling an application form thoughtfully and also getting senior management buy-in from the participating companies. 

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Connect With Us

We are looking to collaborate with companies, innovators, experts, researchers, and funders focused on inclusive products. Please write to us at contact@ipmf.co to discuss ideas. 

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