u/Manasgb

I'm from Kanpur. I study B.Des at CSJM University — not exactly a name that opens doors. This summer, through a design community I joined last year, I got referred into a Continuing Education Programme run at IIT Delhi. The program is called Designpreneurship. It costs ₹49,800. The batch has 30 people. It's invite-only.

Everyone else is either a working professional, a master's student, or a PhD researcher. I'm 18 and just finished my second semester.

I want to share this not to flex but because I think a lot of people from tier-2/3 cities don't realise these rooms exist — and that you can get into them without a premier college background if you're in the right communities.

Some things I've learned that genuinely changed how I think:

— Portfolio ≠ pretty UI. It's impact + ROI.

— AI is everywhere but most AI projects look identical. The edge is in finding a problem before everyone else does.

— The economy is shifting from internet bandwidth to token-based AI systems. This affects every product designer.

— UX is part of CX. Customer experience is the bigger picture. Most design courses never teach this.

I'm building a product this summer as part of the program. Will share updates as I go.

If you're from a tier-2/3 city and want to know how to get into these networks — happy to talk.

'm from Kanpur. I study B.Des at CSJM University — not exactly a name that opens doors. This summer, through a design community I joined last year, I got referred into a Continuing Education Programme run at IIT Delhi. The program is called Designpreneurship. It costs ₹49,800. The batch has 30 people. It's invite-only.

Everyone else is either a working professional, a master's student, or a PhD researcher. I'm 18 and just finished my second semester.

I want to share this not to flex but because I think a lot of people from tier-2/3 cities don't realise these rooms exist — and that you can get into them without a premier college background if you're in the right communities.

Some things I've learned that genuinely changed how I think:

— Portfolio ≠ pretty UI. It's impact + ROI.

— AI is everywhere but most AI projects look identical. The edge is in finding a problem before everyone else does.

— The economy is shifting from internet bandwidth to token-based AI systems. This affects every product designer.

— UX is part of CX. Customer experience is the bigger picture. Most design courses never teach this.

I'm building a product this summer as part of the program. Will share updates as I go.

If you're from a tier-2/3 city and want to know how to get into these networks — happy to talk.

Background: I'm a B.Des student at a tier-2 college in Kanpur. Through a design community, I got referred into a Continuing Education Programme at IIT Delhi called Designpreneurship — invite only, 30 seats, referral-based. Everyone else in my batch has years of professional experience or is doing a master's/PhD. I was the only bachelor's student.

I want to share some things that genuinely shifted how I think about design, in case it's useful to others here.

**1. A portfolio is not about UI quality. It's about impact.**

The mentor framing was: portfolio value = impact + ROI. Not how polished your screens look. What problem did you solve, and what changed because of it? This reframed everything for me.

**2. Find trends before they peak, not after.**

We learned to use Google Trends + open-source data (World Bank, NASSCOM, RBI reports) to identify rising problems before they become saturated markets. The analogy: creators who catch a trend early get 10M views. Those who follow it get 100K.

**3. The difference between a project and a product.**

A project = someone else's goal. A product = end-to-end ownership from research to delivery. This sounds simple but it completely changes how you approach your work.

**4. Information → Insight → Knowledge → Skill.**

Most of us (me included) stop at information. UX forces you all the way to skill — you have to apply it with real users or it doesn't count.

I'm currently building a product as part of the program. Won't reveal it yet, but I'll post updates here as I go — research process, Figma files, testing findings, what broke and why.

Happy to answer questions about the program or the learning process. Just a student sharing what's been useful.