Aniket Patole is a product designer and design strategist whose approach is anchored in engineering and behavioural science. He began his academic journey with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, followed by an M.Des from IIT Kanpur focusing on Human Factors and HCI. During his post-graduation, he was selected to be part of an international cohort of students at Aalto University in Finland, called Design Factory, an experience that broadened his global perspective on collaborative design.
Over the past decade, Aniket has built extensive industry knowledge designing and shipping products end-to-end across a wide spectrum of environments—from early-stage startups requiring extreme ownership and rapid 0→1 execution, to complex Fortune 500 enterprises operating at global scale. His work has spanned sectors including healthcare, enterprise operations, supply chain, and conversational platforms, with a focus on high-density systems and human-in-the-loop AI workflows.
At MIT Institute of Design, Aniket translates this hands-on industry experience directly into the studio. His teaching philosophy centers on first principles: while AI unlocks unprecedented speed, it challenges designers to look deeper into the fundamental mechanics of design and human-centered problem solving. Rather than approaching technology purely in theory, his current inquiry focuses on actively building and experimenting with AI—understanding its practical limitations, failure modes, and methods to overcome them—to help students master the evolving craft of product design with clarity and conviction.
Pr
