For product managers, designers, builders and leaders

Stay valuable
in the AI era.

Product Innovators Foundation (aka pifo) is a continuous learning platform for product people. Learn AI, product and design. Build the habits that make it stick. Do it alongside peers.

A continuous learning platform

Build a product career that compounds.

More information won't make you better. Direction will. pifo is built on how adults learn, with structured learning for every stage of your career, at the depth and price you choose.

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Inner Circle

Track your habits privately, see your trends and stay accountable with peers.

Run for two years with 150 members.

Join Inner CircleBeta now

Shots

One idea at a time, learned by doing: AI, product, design, leadership, data and career.

Notify meFrom Jan 2027

Sessions

Learn live from practitioners who do the work. Ask your questions, and watch again later.

Notify meFrom Feb 2027

Courses

Learn step by step, at your pace, and finish with something you built.

Notify meFrom Apr 2027

Signature

Go deep with a group and a teacher, and earn a certificate.

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Why continuous

Learn at the speed of your work.

Hit a problemLearn itUse itGet betterrepeat

Solve today. Learn today.

Master skills by applying them to the real problem in front of you.

Stack your skills.

Build broad problem-solving power, not just isolated tool skills.

Never build alone.

Driven peers and mentors who adapt alongside you as things change.

Zero waiting time.

Get unblocked instantly with real-time AI and expert feedback.

Learning isn't an event. It's a habit.pifo helps you build it.

Why holistic

You are more than your skills.

A tool is only as good as the person holding it. How you think, act and communicate decides how far your skills take you. pifo builds the whole person, not just your skills.

Grow your craft

The skills your work runs on.

AI

Build with it, solve with it, know what to trust.

Design

Master systems and craft the AI-native way.

Product

Decide what to build, and why it matters.

Data

Make sense of data, and turn it into better decisions.

Leadership

Lead people, systems and teams through constant change.

Management

Turn strategy into clear, repeatable execution.

Growth

Find your audience and scale what you build.

Career

Plan your next move with clarity.

Grow yourself

Skills are what you can do. These are who you are while you do it.

Mindset

Treat change as a chance to grow, not a threat.

Judgement

Make good calls when the answer is not obvious.

Taste

Know what good looks like, and hold the bar.

Composure

Stay calm, clear and moving when it gets hard.

Ownership

Take responsibility for your work and your growth.

Communication

Say what you mean, clearly and simply, so it lands.

Influence

Bring people with you, even without authority.

Habits

Daily routines that keep you growing.

Your problem is your curriculum.A skill problem, a people problem, a you problem: bring it. Mentors and material help you tackle it head on. That is the best way to learn, and to grow as a whole person.
Inner Circle

Build the habits that compound
your work and life.

A yearly membership for building and breaking habits. Track your progress privately, see your trends, and stay accountable with peers.

Run for two years with 150 members.

Why habits matter?

Master your habits. Master your life. Learning habits compound your career skills, so build them first and everything you learn later pays back more. Inner Circle gives you a system for your life and work, and keeps you accountable even when life gets busy. Doing it with like-minded peers keeps you going.

Private tracking and trends

Track your work and life habits in the platform, and see your trends over time.

Quarterly challenges

A 21-day challenge each quarter, done together with your circle. Pick a habit and see it through.

Saturday AMA

Every Saturday, a Q&A where your questions on work and life get answered.

Weekly Pifobytes

Each week, one idea explored in depth, plus a playbook to put it to work.

Active community

Your tracker is private. You choose what to share with your circle, on WhatsApp where you already are.

Habits Masterclass

A structured course on building and breaking habits, with actionable steps and templates.

Inner Circle
₹1,999per year
Join Inner Circle
One yearly membership, billed once a year. That is less than ₹6 a day. You pay securely through Instamojo, sign in with Google, and get access right away.
Your habits and notes are encrypted and private by default. They are available to you only, and you share only what you choose. See our privacy policy.

Inner Circle FAQs →

pifo Shots (in beta) · Open to all in mid-December

Learn complex subjects
in a way that sticks.

Shots is a platform for learning AI, product, design, leadership, data and career, one nugget at a time. Each nugget is one idea you apply as you learn it, so it makes sense.

Why Shots matter?

AI keeps changing, and nobody has hours to spare. Shots turns learning into a daily practice: one nugget a day, one idea you apply as you learn it. Your brain learns something new by hooking it to something it already knows, so each idea builds on the last. Small steps, every day, is how you keep up.

Daily nugget

One idea a day, shared with everyone. We all learn the same thing, the same day.

Learning streak

Learn as many nuggets as you like, and watch your streak grow.

Challenge week

Every month, a challenge week for everyone. Apply what you learned to a real use case.

Office hours and mentors

Weekly office hours, and mentors who answer your questions.

Active community

Learn alongside peers. Share what you built and see what others made.

Choose what you learn

Your friction is your curriculum. Pick what you need, and tell us what you want next.

Focus areas

AI FoundationsHow AI really works, from the math to the model.
Prompt engineeringAsk clearly, and get better answers.
Context engineeringGive AI the right information to work with.
AI agentsAI that plans and acts on your behalf.
AI productivityFit AI into your everyday work.
and more AI Shots
Writing a product briefSay what you are building, for whom, and why.
Prioritising what to buildChoose the few things that matter most.
Talking to customersAsk questions that get honest answers.
Defining success metricsKnow how you will tell it worked.
Running a discovery sprintLearn what to build before you build it.
and more Product Shots
Design systems in practiceBuild once, reuse everywhere.
Giving and taking critiqueMake feedback useful, and easier to hear.
Prototyping with AIGo from idea to clickable in an afternoon.
Designing for trustMake AI features people feel safe using.
Writing for interfacesWords that guide people through a product.
and more Design Shots
Giving feedback that landsSay the hard thing so it helps.
Running a good reviewKeep reviews honest and useful.
Leading through changeKeep your team steady when things shift.
Managing upHelp your manager help you.
Building a team cultureShape how your team works together.
and more Leadership Shots
Reading a chart honestlySee what the numbers show, and what they hide.
Metrics that matterTrack fewer things, and act on them.
Asking better questions of dataStart with the decision, not the dashboard.
Running an A/B testTest one change, and trust the result.
Dashboards that get usedDesign for the decision, not the display.
and more Data Shots
Preparing for a promotion talkMake your case with evidence.
Making a switchMove to a new role with a plan.
Telling your storyExplain your path so it makes sense.
Negotiating an offerAsk with confidence and facts.
Building in publicShare your work and grow your audience.
and more Career Shots
Try it free

AI Foundations

Five Shots on how AI really works. Open one and see what a Shot feels like.

Try Shots free →
Notify me when Shots and the rest open to the public.

Shots will be a monthly or yearly membership.

pifo Labs

We try things. The good ones stay.

pifo is a learning platform that never stops learning. We test new ideas with our community, in small and honest experiments. Some become part of pifo. Most don't. That is how we stay useful.

  1. 1
    TryA small experiment. A few weeks. Real members.
  2. 2
    LearnWe watch what works and ask you what doesn't.
  3. 3
    Keep or endThe good ones join pifo. The rest stop, with no fuss.

70+ experiments over 7 years.

Each one helped us understand what our fraternity needs and wants, and what we could give that is sustainable.

Community

Makers Guild

A paid community for makers. Learn hours on Tuesdays, build hours on Thursdays, with active mentor support.

Content

Conversations

Podcasts and LinkedIn Live sessions with builders, leaders and trailblazers across design and product.

Mentorship

Circles

Mentor circles and coaching circles designed to give members tailored 1:1 guidance and group problem-solving.

Skills

Viber

A playful way to learn AI inside a large community, paired with hands-on weekend masterclasses on key tools.

Cohorts

Career Streams

Structured cohorts that learned product and design together, while navigating career growth side by side.

Giving

Giving Back

Cohort-funded hearing support for someone in need, plus 3 years of school fees covered for 6 children.

A new pifo

AI era is making us rethink pifo.

2019
Community

Makers Guild, Product Book Club, Women in Product

2021
Content Hub

D+P, Job Boards, AMA, LinkedIn Live, Podcast

2022 to 2026
Design and Product School

Circles, Cohorts, Coaching, Workshops

From 2026
Continuous learning platform

AI, Design, Product, Leadership, Career and more

AI is rewriting how products are built, and learning can no longer be a course that ends. So pifo is becoming a continuous learning platform: learn from people who build and lead products, alongside peers who keep you going.

About pifo

Started in 2019, to give back.

Karthi Subbaramanlinkedin.com/in/skarthi

I'm Karthi Subbaraman.

25+ years building digital products, designing complex systems, and leading design in Fortune 50 companies. Products used by millions. Multiple ventures built from scratch. But none of that is why pifo exists.

pifo is my purpose project for this lifetime. My holy cow. It exists because leaving this world better than you found it isn't optional. It's a responsibility.

I spent years working at the intersection of product design, business design, and something I've come to call life design. The same principles that shape great products shape great people. How we think. How we grow. How we show up. I needed a system for all of it. So I built one for myself first. The frameworks, the tracks, the community. I kept building and refining for years. Then I shared it to find out if someone like me would benefit. My LinkedIn has always been that too: learnings and reflections to my younger self, shared with intention.

We build product innovators for the AI era. They give back. We build more, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where access to world-class learning is still rare. No complicated model. Just a flywheel powered by people who believe in paying it forward.

pifo is a Section 8 not-for-profit registered in India. There are no investors. No shareholders. No deadline. We plant this tree knowing we may never enjoy the shade. That's exactly the point.

That is how we leave this world a little better than we found it.

Karthi's signature
FAQs

Questions people ask us.

What is pifo?

pifo (Product Innovators Foundation) is a continuous learning platform for product people. It helps product managers, product designers, builders and product leaders stay valuable in the AI era. You grow your skills, you grow yourself as a person, and you keep growing as things keep changing.

Who is pifo for?

Product managers, product designers, builders and product leaders. Anyone who builds products and wants to keep up with the AI era, and wants to grow their career and themselves. It is especially for smart, time-poor people juggling jobs, families and life. Beginners overwhelmed by AI, mid-career people feeling stuck and senior leaders all fit. We start from where you are.

Who is pifo not for?

People who want someone to hand them answers, people who want theory without applying it, and people who only want a certificate. pifo works best for people willing to do the work.

Why does pifo start with habits and personal growth?

Karthi's background is in neuroscience, behavioral science and cognitive science. Her belief: how you are inside shapes what shows up outside. Habits run about 90 percent of your conscious day. So pifo starts with habits, then builds skills on top.

Is pifo a company or a not-for-profit?

pifo is a Section 8 not-for-profit company registered in India. It has no investors and no exit. Money earned goes back into running pifo and building more product innovators.

Where does the money go?

Into building and running pifo, and into helping more product innovators grow, especially people from smaller towns and cities across India who have the drive and the ideas but not the network or the funding. pifo calls this the Innovation Robinhood model: those who can pay help fund those who cannot.

How is pifo different from YouTube, Udemy or Maven?

You can learn a lot from those, and they are good at what they do. But you often get parts, with no community around you and nobody to ask. pifo gives you the whole: a structured path, a community, accountability, and a practitioner you can ask directly. Most platforms teach competence only. pifo also helps you build the habits and mindset that make learning stick.

I always drop off after week two. Will this be different?

Fair, most people do. That is the curse of self-paced learning. pifo is built around it. Content is practical and career-relevant, so you see why it matters. Learning is by doing, which keeps you curious. And the community and accountability keep you going. You take one step, and we meet you there.

Do I need WhatsApp?

No. The WhatsApp group is optional. The tracker, the Saturday AMA and the Habits Masterclass work without it.

Do I have to buy everything?

No. You can buy any one offering, or any mix. Nothing is gated behind another.

Where do I start?

Start with Inner Circle. It is one of the easiest things you can do, and it makes everything else work better. If you would rather try learning content first, the free Shots give you a feel for it.

Have a question we have not answered? Use the Ask button in the corner.