Student Spotlight: Broadening Design Skills to Drive Innovation

How Krishna Pranav (MIIPS ‘25) is building off of his previous design knowledge with his MIIPS education to build better solutions

Krishna Pranav (MIIPS ‘25) felt lucky to have parents who let him decide what he wanted to do with his future. This freedom allowed him to explore design, at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology to pursue his Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design. At times, Krishna felt that studying design was a leap of faith, but knew that it aligned best with his interests and skills as a creative person. 

However, Krishna always knew he wanted to explore design and physical products more after his undergraduate degree. Krishna gained experience working at both a fast-paced design studio and an in-house design company. There, he realized how critical business and engineering are in bringing products to market. With a long-term goal of building his own design agency, Krishna sought to broaden his skill set in these areas, which led him to the Master of Integrated Innovation for Products and Services at Carnegie Mellon University.

“Now at MIIPS - More than methods, I’ve learned to thrive in ambiguity, and balance diverse perspectives into collective progress.”

The Fast Facts: Krishna’s Journey at MIIPS

Learning more as a Designer 🎨

• Undergraduate thesis on tribal women’s financial empowerment in India
  
  
• Sparked a strong interest in physical product design

Growth within Industry 💼

• Fast-paced studio design work experience at Desmania Design.
  
  
• Joined a Fortune 500 subsidiary driving mixed reality innovation in India at Jio Tesseract.
• Contributed across the development cycle, from idea to smart wearables on shelves.

At the Heart of MIIPS📚

• Expanding beyond industrial design to learn how business and engineering shape innovation.
  
  
• Proposed a new product development initiative for Canon Virginia Inc in Nutraceutical Domain.
  
  

• Currently designing an AI solution for people recovering from injuries, bridging technology, business, and human experience.

The Internship Experience 💡

• Industrial Design Intern at Ubicquia Inc
  
  
• Led an accessory project from concept to production in three months.
  
  
• Supported design team in research, concepting, prototyping, and visuals.
  
  
• Produced nearly 1,000 realistic renders for company assets.

What’s Next 🎓

• Drawn to innovation in wellness—how design can support recovery, balance, and better living.
  
  
• Narratives and real needs remain central in shaping the solutions he will build.
  
  
• Excited to graduate in December 2025 and take the next steps in his design journey.

Increasing Scope as a Designer

Krishna felt like his undergraduate experience was a  “well-rounded learning experience of my people skills, project skills, and technical skills.” Additionally, he felt like there was a lot of experimentation in discovering his domain of design. 

During his undergraduate years, his thesis project, Dhatri, was focused on women's financial empowerment in the Baliguda forest range of Odisha India. This part of the forest had a tribal group and the women of the tribe would make leaf plates. During this, he observed how the women in the tribe would make the plates and then go out to the market and sell them. He described this as his “first experience in understanding the core needs of people and translating that into a business.” 

Previously, his scope as a designer did not move beyond simple aspects of a product, and his thesis project helped him realize this. “It was such an eye-opening experience for me in terms of understanding how a product is made, regardless of what the product is, what it takes to source the product, get this done, and get it out into the market.”

His intervention was to design an efficient bag for the women to collect the leaves in. This gave him exposure to all the various inputs that go into designing a product. The project gave him perspective he didn’t have previously, and he began to understand the product development process holistically. 

Growth within Industry 

His primary work experience prior to MIIPS was working in a design studio and an in-house design agency. These roles allowed him to travel across India, learn about diverse subcultures, and grow both as a designer and as a person.

At the studio, Desmania Design, the high-paced environment was at times overwhelming due to the sheer volume of projects, but it was equally rewarding—he contributed to 35 projects and led 4 of them. This was a turning point for him as he got to understand a wider view of the product development life cycle. During that time, he also developed interest in physical wellness solutions, inspired by his own injury recovery.

Getting exposure to the development cycle  was great, but Krishna knew that he wanted more. He wanted to build a product from its inception to its completion. This desire for change was a cue that it was time to switch to another role at a different company that afforded him that kind of opportunity as a designer. That’s when he found Jio Tesseract, a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 Company, Reliance. 

His time at Jio Tesseract was valuable because it gave him time to explore working with technology and to work outside of his previous design silo, gaining exposure to the different disciplines it took to bring products to life. 

He knew that his next step was learning more in a formal education environment, which led to researching master’s programs. For Krishna, “The MIIPS program felt like the perfect program for me, bringing together engineering, design, and business perspectives in one collaborative space.”

Aligning on Context and Understanding to Build Better Solutions

After spending a few semesters at the iii, he learned that everyone brings their unique experience and perspective to projects, and that many people can be “right”. “I learned that when you bring together people from different domains, they are also “right” according to the context of their domain.”

He began to understand that aligning on context was crucial, and taking the time to understand everyone’s perspective instead of prioritizing your own was pivotal for successful collaboration. After this realization, Krishna and his peers were able to innovate more effectively because they understood each other and valued the unique perspectives each person brought to the table. 

Carefully listening to those around him and learning from their perspectives has been an important process for Krishna. Prior to the MIIPS program, he felt that he did not have those listening skills because he only knew the process of designing a product and now he has learned that from better alignment come better products. 

The Internship Experience

Students in the MIIPS Advanced 16 month program are required to complete a summer internship. Krishna has spent his summer as an Industrial Design intern at Ubicquia, a company that specializes in smart city infrastructure solutions located in Florida. Krishna’s role within the organization is to support the design team as they complete projects. 

Krishna has had to walk into a fast paced environment at Ubicquia, quickly adjusting to their current product timeline. His goal when starting was to learn as much context as possible to be a better decision-maker. He knew from his experience in MIIPS that he needed to understand the context of challenges, decisions and products as best as possible to design better solutions.

Currently, he leads an accessory project from start to finish and supports the design team across multiple stages, including conceptualization, research, prototyping, and visuals, while producing close to 1,000 realistic renders.

“Being comfortable with the uncomfortable is the environment that MIIPS encourages and I love that.” 

Off the Clock

Outside of work, Krishna’s creativity is always in motion. He has been a beatboxer for seven years, exploring rhythm and performance as a personal passion. He also volunteered at multiple wellness workshops in India, helping others focus on physical and mental well-being. Though untrained in drama, he enjoys acting for the storytelling and expression it allows. And then there’s photography - framing subjects is a process he finds endlessly intriguing. Whether through movement, sound, or the lens, these pursuits reflect his enthusiasm for exploring various experiences.

What’s Next

Throughout his time in the MIIPS program, he has loved learning new mindsets beyond design and expanding his creative arsenal. “I am developing these tools from MIIPS and my previous experiences. Based on the problem at hand, I need to select the right tool and apply it thoughtfully.”

With this creative arsenal, he is working on becoming an intuitive innovator—knowing not just how to solve a problem, but how to solve it well.

Krishna’s interests continue to evolve, with a growing pull toward wellness and how design can enhance quality of life. Yet, he sees this not as a destination, but as part of a broader pursuit, for him, MIIPS has expanded the lens through which he views innovation: as a space where creativity meets purpose, and where human stories guide the solutions yet to be built.