Founder Institute Cohort 5 held a session at National Incubation Center Islamabad focused on product development, challenging participating founders to rethink what it actually means to build a product that customers need rather than one that simply demonstrates technical capability. The session centred on the idea that founders should build because a customer genuinely needs a solution, not because building itself is possible, with the discussion aimed at pushing participants to reconsider their approach to product decisions.
Mentors Mahnoor Salman, Mohammad Mansoor, and Kamran Taufiq Khan led the session, sharing practical insights on moving from initial problem validation toward minimum viable products, testing underlying assumptions, learning directly from real users, and continuously iterating based on the evidence gathered from actual customer behaviour rather than internal assumptions about what a product should look like. Their guidance focused on giving founders a structured way of thinking through the earliest and often most difficult stages of building a product.
The conversation also addressed the growing role artificial intelligence plays in modern product development, with mentors noting that while AI tools can meaningfully accelerate prototyping, testing, and execution, founders remain the ones responsible for the core judgment involved in building a successful product. This includes understanding users deeply, making the right strategic decisions, and validating that what has been built actually solves the problem it was intended to address, a responsibility that mentors emphasised cannot be outsourced to AI tools regardless of how much they speed up the technical process.
Beyond the technical aspects of building a minimum viable product, the session pushed founders to think about broader questions tied to product roadmaps, customer onboarding, traction, distribution, adoption, and differentiation. Mentors encouraged participants to look past individual features and instead focus on more fundamental questions, including who they are solving a problem for, what that problem actually is, what value their solution creates, and what evidence exists to prove customers genuinely want what has been built.
The session’s central takeaway centred on a simple sequence, validate, build, listen, and iterate, with mentors stressing that customer evidence rather than internal assumptions should be the primary force shaping how a product evolves over time. The event was supported by Ministry Of IT and Telecommunication, Tech Destination Pakistan, and Ignite National Technology Fund, reflecting the continued institutional backing behind Founder Institute’s cohort based mentorship programming at NIC Islamabad.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
