Diego Rodriguez
Diego is a pioneer, advocate, and practitioner of design thinking. He is a partner at IDEO and a founding professor and member of the board at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (a.k.a. the d.school). A leading thinker on innovation in business, technology, and design, Diego leads our studio in Palo Alto, Calif., working with colleagues who span diverse disciplines within the larger fields of engineering, design, and business. He works with clients on issues involving venture design, organizational processes, and marketing. He also pioneered a new discipline called Business Design, which has become a core part of our offerings.
At Stanford, Rodriguez created a paradigm for active learning in his class, “Creating Infectious Action,” in which business, engineering, and social scientists use design thinking to prototype disruptive new offerings and services. His influential blog, Metacool, is an opinion leader on design, business, technology, and “unabashed gearhead gnarliness.” Fast Company called the site “a must-read for anyone who wants to incorporate design thinking into their work.”
Prior to IDEO, Diego held operating positions at Nissan, Hewlett-Packard, a software startup that flamed out, and Intuit. He is the recipient of a Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award and holds multiple patents. Diego holds undergraduate degrees with honors in engineering and humanities from Stanford and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He is on the board at Boulder Digital Works, and is a member of the global advisory board at Harvard Business School.
Topics Diego speaks on:
- Consumer Experience Design
- Design Thinking
- Going to Market
- Innovation Strategy
Speaking engagements:
May 2010, “Innovation is a Process, Not a Flash”, panel discussion, Stanford Leading Matters
December 2009, “Product, Process & Software Agility”, panel discussion, Neoteny Labs Singapore Camp
October 2009, CIO Executive Summit, keynote
July 2009, "Education Next: No More Pencils No More Books," Fortune Tech Brainstorm, Pasadena, CA, panelist
May 2009, Keynote Address, “Create the Offering” conference, Intuit
October 2008, “Building Your Creative Confidence,” Stanford University
April 2008, Glass House Conversation with John Maeda
December 2007, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Organizations of the Future Conference, Harvard Business School
October 2007, “When Design Thinking Meets Marketing,” Marketing Science Institute conference
December 2006, “Finding Customer Zero,” Guidewire Group Fall Leadership Forum
November 2006, “Innovation in Traditional Industries”, Roads to Innovation conference
October 2006, “Innovation Measures”, International Design Management Conference
September 2006, Fireside Chat with John Maeda, Signal Vs. Noise
September 2006, “Innovation Environments”, AMD Global Vision Conference
July 2006, “Creating Infectious Action”, AlwaysOn conference
June 2006, “Products and their Ecosystems”, Design 2.0
Published works:
July 2010, “The Smartest People in Tech,” by Fortune Magazine
February 2010, “Why Design Matters,” Bloomberg Businessweek
April 2009, “How Consumer Brands Can Thrive in the Years Ahead,” Harvard Business Review Online
October 2008, Quoted in “Creativity and the Role of the Leader,” Harvard Business Review
Winter 2007, “Growth, and Getting to Where You Want to Go,” Design Management Review
Fall 2007, “What is Strategy?” DigitAll
Summer 2007, “Leadership and Innovation in a Networked World,” innovations
June 2007, “Turning Green into Red,” Neue Zurcher Zeitung
Spring 2007, “Embracing Risk to Learn, Grow, and Innovate,” Rotman magazine
Blogs: