Here are answers to our most frequently asked questions. Please read these before sending in a question — sometimes it is difficult to answer all the emails quickly, but we try!

1. What was the TV show in which IDEO redesigned a shopping cart?
2. How can I buy a product from your website?
3. Will IDEO send someone to speak at my conference, class, or company?
4. May I tour an IDEO office?
5. May I have help with my report or research paper?
6. Is IDEO a public company? Do you have an annual report?
7. How can I get a job or internship at IDEO?
8. I have an idea for a product. Will IDEO help me develop it?
9. Will IDEO help me develop a new technology?
10. Can I get involved with IDEO somehow, even if it's just to observe?
11. What does "IDEO" mean?
12. What is your policy on other sites linking to IDEO.com?
13. I'm not in college yet, but I work want to work at IDEO someday. Where should I go to school?

1. What was the TV show in which IDEO redesigned a shopping cart?

In February 1999, the ABC News show Nightline with Ted Koppel aired "The Deep Dive," a 22-minute episode devoted to IDEO as we redesigned the shopping cart in four days. Though highly compressed, the show accurately captured our design process as we observed people, brainstormed, prototyped, and then rolled our conceptual shopping cart over to a local grocery store for a quick test.

Since then, the episode has been shown in schools and companies all over the world. Click here to purchase a DVD of this episode or search for "Deep Dive" at the ABC News website. We do not hold the copyright to this show, so we have no digital copy to share from our website.

2. How can I buy a product I found on your website?

IDEO is a design and innovation consultancy. We work with clients to develop their products, services, interactions, and spaces. We do not manufacture, sell, distribute, or service any products ourselves. Please contact our clients directly for information about their products.

3. Will IDEO send someone to speak at my conference, class, or company?

To discuss speaking engagements, please contact IDEO's marketing coordinator (click to email or call 650-289-3597).

Tom Kelley, IDEO's general manager and author of The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation, handles his own speaking engagements. To inquire, please contact (click to email or call 650-289-3608).

4. May I tour an IDEO office?

We get many requests from schools, companies, and other groups to take tours at IDEO, especially of our Palo Alto offices. Most of our offices have little or no publicly accessible areas due to client confidentiality. In Palo Alto, depending on availability, we can sometimes arrange tours for guest groups, but we receive too many requests to offer individual tours. Tours of groups larger than 12 require more planning, and we may not be able to accommodate all requests.

Further questions on tours can be sent to

5. May I have help with my report or research paper?

We're unable to keep up with the demand for requests like these. Articles on IDEO have appeared in most major design and business publications, and in many newspapers. These are your best sources for information about IDEO, in addition to the Media section of our website.

6. Is IDEO a public company? Do you have an annual report?

IDEO is not publicly traded, and we have no plans to go public. We do not share financial information.

7. How can I get a job or internship at IDEO?

IDEO focuses on finding the right people for our available positions. Most of our new hires have an advanced degree in a design- or business-related field, and have often amassed a portfolio of work. Internships are available in most disciplines, in most offices, throughout the year depending on need.

Please visit the Careers section of our website. If you think you might be a fit, please apply to the posted position. A longer set of answers can be found on our Recruiting FAQ and our Internship FAQ.

8. I have an idea for a product. Will IDEO help me develop it?

Our experience over the past 20 years has made us better equipped to work with organizations than with individuals or inventors. Our clients range from Fortune 500 corporations to well-funded startups that have in place most of the parts and processes involved with a product launch, including manufacturing, advertising, sales, distribution, and so on. IDEO is not in a position to help launch products or make introductions to our clients.

9. Will IDEO help me develop a new technology?

Again (see previous question), we are not a good choice to help bring a new technology to life, but we may be able to help "productize" a mature new technology. If your company has an innovative material, a patented mechanism, or some other unique technology you would like to share with us, and you can send us a sample, please let us know.

10. Can I get involved with IDEO somehow, even if it's just to observe?

IDEO's confidentiality agreements with clients prevent us from using non-IDEO employees in project work. We sometimes use contractors to provide skills that we don't have in-house, but these relationships are protected by the appropriate legal agreements.

11. What does "IDEO" mean?

Our name comes from ideo-, the combining form of the word idea (as in ideology or ideogram), which our cofounder Bill Moggridge discovered while browsing the dictionary. It is not an acronym, nor is it a foreign word. We pronounce it EYE-dee-oh.

12. What is your policy on other sites linking to IDEO.com?

We believe that the Web works best when people can link openly. Website editors and administrators, feel free to link to our site without a formal agreement, but please play fair. We request that you do not use our logo, and that you do not imply IDEO endorsement of your website, or related products, or services. Thanks for your interest.

13. I'm not in college yet, but I'm interested in your work. What should I study?

We like to encourage a passion for design in everybody, but especially junior high and high schoolers. There are many books about the fields of engineering and design. Here are some subjects you might want to learn more about.

Great inventors like Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, and Alexander Graham Bell are well known, and the real story of their successes may surprise you (for one thing, they rarely worked alone). And there are many other, lesser-known stories: Chester Carlson invented the modern copy machine; Douglas Englebart invented many aspects of the modern computer, including the mouse; Paul MacCready developed a human-powered flying machine, the Gossamer Condor; and Burt Rutan developed Voyager, a plane that flew nonstop around the world. Their stories illustrate how a determined visionary with an idea can change the world.

Architecture and industrial design have had a tremendous impact on society, and you should learn about such people as William Morris, Raymond Loewy, Henry Dreyfuss, Frank Lloyd Wright, an influential design school called the Bauhaus, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Harley Earl, Charles and Ray Eames, Ettore Sottsass, and more.

There are also many books about design: Donald Norman's books (including The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design) explore how design affects our lives when it's done well; Henry Petroski's books (including Invention by Design and The Pencil) tell the stories behind everyday objects like aluminum cans and paper clips; Edward Tufte's beautiful books (including The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Beautiful Evidence) address communication and graphics.

IDEO employees have written books and articles that discuss our history, process, and culture of innovation. Links to these can be found in our Media section.

For the current design scene, Core77 is an excellent website and blog that follows designers, companies, schools, and publications, exhibits, competitions, conferences, and more.

If you still have a question, e-mail and I'll try to answer you.

Updated March 14, 2008.