Since its founding over a century ago, Tokyo College of Music (TCM) has trained countless world-class musicians. Despite its well-established reputation, however, the school was feeling a pressing need to reconsider its role in order to remain relevant in a changing world.

The college had plans to build a second campus in Daikanyama, a prominent area of Tokyo known for being a hotbed for new global trends. Taking advantage of this opportunity, TCM leaders asked IDEO to help them develop a new concept for the school, and to redesign the learning experience while preserving a focus on classical music.

To kick off the research phases of the project, IDEO designers interviewed TCM students, and traveled to London, New York, and Boston visiting educational institutions, music schools, and arts facilities.

The team observed that students at music colleges outside of Japan were giving serious consideration to their career plans at an early stage in their studies, acquiring a variety of skills and mindsets through a well-rounded education. By contrast, TCM students were focused on learning and performing classical music, but tended not to have a clear image of future career opportunities.

IDEO proposed four specific directions for TCM’s new campus, based on an overarching theme of “culture, fields, and people collaborating across boundaries.” The first aim was to foster a business mindset and entrepreneurial spirit among the students that surpassed their classical music training. Next was to increase opportunities for actual performances, collaborations with professionals outside the school, and joint projects. The third aim was to position the college as a platform that would encourage the spontaneous creation of communities within and outside the school. The final aim was to develop students who were digitally savvy and fluent in new technologies, enabling them to continue evolving in response to developments in the real world. These goals are reflected in the various spaces of the school, as well as in the design of the experiences that occur in those spaces.

The most symbolic of these spaces is the Creative Lab. Originally intended as a library, the space now functions as a platform where people from within and outside the school community can collaborate and generate innovative ideas. The open layout, which encloses a cafeteria for students and faculty, can be altered depending on programming needs. The Creative Lab provides a venue not only for live performances in which the students can polish their improvisational skills, but for holding workshops and other events on topics such as cultural exchange, business, and new technologies.

New furniture and objects were carefully selected to inspire spontaneous encounters and conversation between students from different departments and staff, creating a flow of activity.

Even the landings on the staircases, which tend to be dead space, were designed with this concept in mind. One student commented that the space facilitates meeting new people and creates “opportunities for deeper interaction with students from other departments.” This intentional, open design has transformed the space into a hub within the school and the local community.

Through the new environment and educational opportunities at TCM's Daikanyama campus, students now have stronger opportunities to apply their creative talents in numerous fields worldwide, creating impact informed by the various perspectives, skills, and relationships they have developed at TCM.

Georgia is among the most populous states in the American South. It’s a place with a storied past and promising future—on the rise economically, and continuing its powerful cultural impact on music, TV, cuisine, and tourism. Over 10.4 million people call Georgia home, and nearly all of these people will at some point navigate the state’s websites for securing everyday services. Ideally, this online platform would provide unifying and accessible government resources for everyone, whether they’re renewing their vehicle registration, seeking a fishing license, or looking up tax law updates.

Georgia’s Office of Digital Services (DSGA), part of the Georgia Technology Authority, was challenged with designing a platform to modernize the collective and individual online presence of 80+ state agencies, many of which used visually disconnected formats and color palettes that could leave the public feeling confused. DSGA recognized that they could provide more efficient and higher quality service to the public if they simplified the language, designed the site from the user's point of view, and created a more cohesive look and feel across agencies.

IDEO worked with the DSGA to identify the priorities of Georgia residents who use the various agency websites. On a road trip from Savannah to Atlanta, with stops in Macon and Dublin, the IDEO team immersed themselves in the rich culture of Georgia, connecting with social workers, low-income residents, state agency leadership and civic organizations to learn how Georgia’s digital properties could better address their disparate needs.

The design research underscored that there isn’t just one Georgia—it’s a tapestry of people, geographies and political orientations. Yet several common themes emerged, including:

Georgians want their government to “give it to them straight.” On the redesigned Georgia.gov platform, the people of Georgia can easily search popular topics to get the information they need. This includes learning how to apply for food stamps, renewing a business license, or simply finding out the location of a local office in their area. If a user has remaining questions, they can connect directly with a real human for further assistance, balancing direct information with warmth and a personal touch. User feedback on the site provides the opportunity for continuous design improvement.

Georgians want to take pride in the legacy and the future of their state. IDEO developed an entirely new design system with new navigational elements, fonts, and a color palette inspired by Georgia’s landscapes, all of which can be modified for individual agencies while remaining consistent with the state brand.

A distillation of the original Georgia seal adds authority, and new icons anchor the site’s menus and bring more clarity to the search function. The platform was designed to be Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 AA compliant, providing clear and accessible page content that adheres to federal laws and international web standards. To instill trust in Georgia’s online presence, each page also has a header that indicates it’s an official Georgia State website and outlines the uniform features constituents can use to identify this.

With improved navigation and easy-to-access prioritized content, Georgia.gov is a much more efficient platform for addressing requests from citizens. The site projects a happy-to-help, citizen-centered approach that aims to empower all Georgians so that they feel confident, informed, and prepared.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 30 million Americans have diabetes, almost 10% of the population. The vast majority of these diagnoses are type 2, which is commonly treated through a combination of medicine, diet, and exercise. Today, one of the major barriers to better outcomes is access to trusted information. As little as 15 percent of people with diabetes receive adequate education from their healthcare providers on managing their disease and making recommended lifestyle changes.

Ascensia Diabetes Care, a global healthcare company, has been a leader in diabetes treatment for over 70 years, known primarily for producing blood glucose meters. IDEO has worked with Ascensia for more than a decade, helping develop and design their CONTOUR NEXT ONE meter in 2016. In 2017, Ascensia engaged IDEO with a new goal of moving the company beyond physical devices. Ascensia envisioned a first-of-its-kind approach to educating and monitoring diabetes patients. In partnership with IDEO, they wanted to build a comprehensive solution—one that would not simply take glucose readings and document food intake, but would consider all factors that impact a person's health.

Through deep collaboration, Ascensia and IDEO built a powerful app-based service. The project began with a strategic vision for the experience and ended with the delivery of an all-encompassing health offering, including training of providers, packaging, app design, content creation, and visual design.

The patient experience married data and tracking, real-life mentorship, and personalized content. When a patient signed up, they were paired with a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) who created a tailored program based on their needs and linked them to relevant articles on topics like cooking, mental wellbeing, and sexual health. The IDEO team led the charge in hiring and training guides, crafting the educational content, and even designing the content management hub.

The data engine behind the app is another one of the program's stand-out qualities. The app pulled data from multiple data sources—exercise bands and glucose meters—to provide constant feedback, track progress, and continually refine the experience. To generate empathy, as well as build the app's initial data set, IDEO's data scientists tested the product on themselves. One designer wore a wrist full of exercise monitors around the office and tracked her blood sugar after every meal.

The app-based service was tested with 60 people and demonstrated remarkable early results. Only two participants failed to complete the study—a stunning success rate when adherence to therapy for chronic illnesses in developed countries averages around 50%. Additionally, participants reported drastic improvements in both physical and mental health. One recently widowed 70-year-old woman emerged from depression, returned to swimming, and started having regular blood sugar readings.

The project required Ascensia to embrace new ways of working internally, adopt a broader view of their offering, and ultimately expand the way they serve people with diabetes.

When Mr. Gordon told his fifth grade students they were taking a field trip on a bus, many of them envisioned the city bus that they ride each day to school. But when they saw the Verizon Explorer Lab pull into the school parking lot, they realized a unique experience awaited them. Painted in bright colors, this bus promised something very different from their daily commute.

“Climb aboard, explorers!” says the Lead Explorer. The students walk through the bus’ sliding doors and inside, where instead of rows of seats, they find a sleek research lab. Suddenly, the lights dim. The bus makes a rumbling noise as though it’s about to lift off. And on a large screen, a vision of Earth from space appears. The students listen and point as the video narrator briefs them on NASA’s ongoing search for life in space.

Science education isn’t always this fun. Some kids have a chance to learn through interactive games, immersive experiences, or engaging field trips; but many lack access to rich educational experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As a result, they can be less likely to pursue careers in STEM, though many future jobs will demand mastery of these subjects. This not only impacts a student’s potential and future, but reduces the diversity and number of qualified STEM job applicants.

In under-resourced schools, students are often limited to the scarce tools available for STEM learning in their classrooms. Many kids rarely have a chance to leave their neighborhoods. For these kids, mobile learning experiences that come to their school offer unparalleled exposure to cutting-edge, technologically advanced, and—most importantly—inspiring gateways into these critical academic subjects.

As part of its focus on digital inclusion, Verizon partnered with IDEO to share the excitement of STEM learning with middle schoolers. To facilitate access and discovery of STEM, the team designed a learning experience that takes place on a coach bus and can be scaled to reach kids across the nation.

The team set out to transform the bus into the Verizon Explorer Lab: a futuristic research lab that transports kids to new environments, from outer space to under the sea. As part of the larger Verizon Innovative Learning program, the Verizon Explorer Lab offers delightful and rigorous content that meets national science standards.

A multidisciplinary team comprised of designers across interaction, communication, environments, games, and software partnered with Verizon to bring the Verizon Explorer Lab to life.

To keep the student at the center of the experience, the team designed alongside kids. Their gravitation toward play, interaction, and technology inspired the digital game that students play onboard the bus. When developing the game’s narrative, the designers turned to popular kids’ books and movies. What began as a card game prototype eventually became a 360-degree video and virtual reality expedition to Mars—complete with a custom musical score—that introduces middle schoolers to engineering basics.

After stepping through the bus doors and taking a tour of the solar system, Mr. Gordon’s students receive an emergency call from NASA: They must rescue the missing Curiosity rover, which is dedicated to collecting evidence of life on Mars. Eager to save Curiosity, the students become immersed in the adventure at hand. And through the adventure, they become immersed in science.

Students use tablets to design their own Mars rover. Each rover appears on a large screen and traverses the planet’s extreme terrain. The goal is to collect data that suggests life on Mars, including ice deposits, photos, and more. Students iterate on their rover’s design—wheels, power sources, and sensors—to test if it can stand up against dust storms and craters. The team consulted a NASA planetary scientist to ensure accuracy, as well as educators to establish cohesion with classroom curricula.

During the game, students are encouraged to compare designs and learn from each other: One rover may be able to travel long distances and take various photos, while another can carry large quantities of ice and sediment samples but can’t go far because of its size. At the end of the mission, the group finds Curiosity and sends all of the evidence they’ve collectively gathered back to NASA to aid the search for life beyond Earth. Before departing the bus, students watch an animated video that explains various jobs in STEM and encourages kids to pursue one of these careers.

The Verizon Explorer Lab teaches students the engineering design loop, the value of collaboration and teamwork, and what a career in STEM might look like. The mission to Mars game is just one of many potential STEM learning opportunities for students and integrated, customizable learning modules for teachers.

Since launch, the Verizon Explorer Lab has traveled to various parts of the United States and reached thousands of kids. It continues to be managed by Learning Undefeated, Verizon’s nonprofit partner. By designing for and with students, it’s possible to create educational experiences that facilitate meaningful learning and genuine fun. The Verizon Explorer Lab represents progress towards a more inclusive future for employers and the STEM field.

Leaders dream of teams working together seamlessly, like a dragon boat crew rowing in unison. But in big companies, people often struggle to understand one another because of differences in roles, expertise, and motivations. This lack of mutual understanding can hinder consensus-building and make collaboration difficult.

Because navigating these internal dynamics is challenging, organizations often default to one of two extremes: either ignoring the disconnect and continuing with business as usual, or opting for drastic, disruptive change. We believe there’s a middle ground—a more thoughtful, human approach that can enable better communication and collaboration across teams.

Over the years, our work with large organizations has reinforced the value of applying human-centered design not only to uncover consumer behaviors but also to enhance ways of working within companies.

Here's one story of how we applied design thinking methodologies to find the middle ground and bridge the gap between leadership and product design departments in a prominent consumer products company.

“The design feels soulless”

Initially, our project appeared to be a straightforward product development assignment.

Our client, a well-known consumer productscompany, wanted to upgrade its high-end product line. The goal was to unify the aesthetic and experience, ultimately encouraging consumers to buy a complete set rather than individual pieces.

With the launch date set, it seemed to be a typical race against the clock to complete development and production.

But an initial round of internal interviews revealed a deeper layer of complexity.

Two separate teams managed the product suite, each overseeing its own independent product line while juggling daily responsibilities. Before IDEO came on board, the teams had tried to collaborate but fell short of meeting the expectations of Mr. Zhang, the project sponsor. His verdict: “The design feels soulless.”

Mr. Zhang wanted the teams to align and deliver a truly cohesive experience. But even with these directives, the teams interpreted his expectations differently, resulting in misaligned efforts.

By the time the IDEO team joined the project, it had stalled.

‍The soul-searching “why”

Mr. Zhang was a well-respected senior executive. His strategic oversight spanned multiple core product lines, leaving him far removed from day-to-day design details. While his teams admired him, an inevitable gap had formed between management levels.

To move past his “soulless” critique, we needed to get to the root of Mr. Zhang’s expectations.

What did he mean by “soul,” and why was it missing?

Instead of reliving the same conversation, we invited him to adopt a designer’s perspective. By stepping into a different role, we hoped to spark fresh insights and unlock honest dialogue.

We brought a designer’s favorite tool into his office: an oversized mood board filled with product details, material samples, and structural diagrams.

“Today, we’d like you to think like a designer,” we said. “Take a look at this board and choose the materials, textures, and structures you feel best represent the future of this product suite. Go with your gut—you don’t need to overthink it.”

The visual prompts quickly shifted his mindset, transforming a strategic discussion into a candid conversation. He shared his doubts about some concepts, his curiosity about others, and his alignment with certain ideas.

Breaking the ice in this way facilitated a sincere dialogue—one between people, not job titles.

As the session drew to a close, he asked pointedly: “Did the product leads also do this exercise? Let me guess—they probably each pushed you to prioritize designs that would make their own product line shine, didn’t they?” he said, laughing.

His intuition was spot on. They were each focused on their own wish lists for their product lines, rather than working together to create a cohesive narrative that would make the product suite appeal to customers, the “soul” he was looking for. That narrative was not only critical to the product suite’s success but also to the company’s broader strategic goals.

At that moment, we felt the shift from external consultants to trusted collaborators.

Mr. Zhang also shared more about why it mattered to him. With the market shifting from growth to saturation and consumer demand waning, the stakes were high. A compelling product suite could sustain growth in a challenging landscape, while fostering cross-functional collaboration would strengthen the organization for future innovation.

Connecting strategy and products through real consumer needs

In many large organizations, concerns and perspectives often fail to connect across roles.

In this project, Mr. Zhang was focused on long-term survival strategies, while the individual product teams were consumed by immediate development pressures. Swapping perspectives wasn’t realistic, but the shifting macroeconomic landscape demanded a solution.

Our immediate question became: How can we anchor the project in shared goals to propel it forward?

The answer: Focus on the product and its users.

We visited potential consumers in their homes to observe their interior design preferences and see how they combined various products.

One clear insight emerged: consumers see their homes as extensions of their identity. Coordinated home collections help them express themselves and create signature moments they’re proud of when hosting guests.

They weren’t just looking for beautiful, functional objects. They wanted a cohesive narrative—a product suite that would harmonize with their space, align with their lifestyle, and reflect their individuality.

When a collection comes together to create something more than the sum of its parts, we discovered, consumers are far more likely to buy into the entire suite.

These consumer insights resonated with the executive’s strategic vision and served as a unifying force for the teams. Quickly,  “1+1>2.”

Finally, the formerly stalled project had new momentum.

Innovating beyond the traditional “Made in China” model  

In an increasingly competitive landscape, many business leaders recognize the need to break out of existing frameworks to drive innovation. Yet the organizations they lead are often large and rigid, with complex hierarchies and functions that were originally structured around single-category production and sales goals under the ‘Made in China’ model. These very structures have now become major obstacles to innovation.

Design, by nature, is inclusive, open, and egalitarian. It has the power to transcend organizational silos and hierarchies, communicating effectively through a shared language that everyone can understand. By doing so, it creates a more open, collaborative platform for all participants in the innovation process—enabling tangible results and carving out new space for innovation within even the most entrenched organizational systems.

“The Making of...” is a series of behind-the-scenes articles written by IDEO Shanghai designers about our innovation methods and work with major clients across industries in China.

As businesses scale and grow, the emergence of internal silos often seems inevitable.

“If you look at TikTok and Insta, it’s fluffy ‘me’ content…that’s what people are watching,” he said. That tension—between commercial pressure and editorial purpose—was palpable. The organization needed to evolve without losing the very principles that make news valuable.

The news industry isn’t just undergoing a crisis—it’s grappling with existential freefall. News is increasingly commodified and polarized, with rampant misinformation and blunt-force efforts to blur the boundaries between propaganda and fact. Technology—and AI specifically—are cracking open how we experience news and how content is created. Algorithms are growing ever more ambitious in their quest to deliver information tailored to our every whim. At the same time, the zeitgeist pulls the strings, pushing news consumption toward shorter, snappier, more visual experiences, leaving readers with less incentive to pay for it. All while subscription fatigue deepens.

But it’s not all catastrophe! News organizations can rebuild trust and resilience by leading with core differentiators and using technology to deepen impact rather than chase trends. IDEO has worked with many outlets—from national newspapers to niche publications—and we’ve come away with some hard-won lessons for designing for what matters: trusted, viable publications that support the craft of journalism and the readers and listeners they serve.

Trust is earned, not engineered

The more crowded the landscape, the greater the demand for reliable information, and the more critical the integrity of those who deliver it. Successful brands build trust by owning what makes them unique, whether that’s a stalwart reputation for journalistic excellence or a tailored offer to a niche audience. That clarity builds loyalty. News outlets need to avoid trying to be everything to everyone and anchor in what only they can offer: trust, delivered with integrity and intention.

Humanity matters, too. Readers are more likely to engage with content when they feel a sense of connection—when it’s clear there’s a real person behind the words. That’s part of the appeal of platforms like Substack and Medium, which offer personalized, niche content alongside direct access to individual writers. In our work with a national news outlet, one reader shared that he often reached out to journalists, not expecting a response, but just wanting to connect. When he did hear back, the unexpected thrill deepened his loyalty to the publication. News organizations looking to build trust can design for those connections by creating new elements like newsletters from particular reporters or live digital events where readers can engage directly with their favorite writers.

AI is not a strategy

Despite the doomsday proclamations about AI becoming the death of journalism, it may be one of the most promising tools for keeping it alive. Deployed correctly, it’s an accelerant rather than a replacement—a powerful means to help journalists offset menial tasks like transcriptions and copyediting. It brings additional data-driven objectivity to content without adding to reporter workloads. The technology that supposedly threatens to replace us may free us to do the work only humans can do: investigate the facts and elevate what matters.

On a recent project, we were exploring how AI could unlock deeper, more layered storytelling by mining the client’s vast content archive. We imagined a digital experience where a story doesn’t just relay the facts of an event, but also shows how it unfolded over time, maps where it happened, surfaces the key players, and connects the dots to similar stories from the past. Some folks in the newsroom were admittedly skeptical, both in terms of maintaining editorial integrity and fear of overburdening busy reporters with new tasks. So we built a custom ChatGPT-based prototype: no third-party data, just their own archives, stitched together into a dynamic proof-of-concept. We won over our client by showing that the technology could augment their excellent reporting while streamlining the editorial review process.

But AI isn’t the solution to every problem. As we were prototyping, we created a custom chatbot that allowed readers to “talk to” an article, riffing on the rise of voice-to-text interfaces and conversational AI. It seemed promising, but it fell flat. Users found the interaction awkward and unnatural—even those comfortable with Siri or Alexa said it felt off in a news setting. On the editorial side, it felt like a poor replacement for journalist Q&As. Readers made it clear that even if a ChatGPT-powered AI can synthesize articles with dazzling coherence, it doesn’t beat a feeling of connection with real human reporters.

Don't shrink perspectives—expand them.

Everyone talks about personalization like it’s the panacea for all things digital. But personalization is often just an exercise in subtraction—editing things out until only the familiar remains. The result is a tighter feed, but usually a narrower perspective. In our many projects with news organizations, we heard again and again from readers and listeners that they come to the news because they want to learn something new, to broaden their horizons, and to have smart things to say to their friends and colleagues.

On a project with a U.S.-based media organization, readers told us that editorial curation was key; if they were only fed news that catered to their own interests, they were afraid they’d miss out on important stories. This sentiment was especially true for readers paying for news. They were willing to invest money because they trusted the outlet to tell them what they needed to know, not just what they wanted to know. One research participant told us that one of his favorite series chronicled the drama behind the acquisition of an elevator company. And yet, “if they’d asked me if that’s one of my topics of interest, I’d have said ‘no.’” Another noted they would generally choose to skip sports coverage, but didn’t want to miss big moments like Simone Biles performing at the Olympics. Many readers are wary of filter bubbles and want to be aware of what’s happening in the world.

Less feed, more focus.

Personalization isn’t just about which stories you get, but also about how you access them. News products must offer flexibility in format, shifting seamlessly from mobile to desktop, from text to audio, from immersive deep dives to quick AI-powered summaries. For a UK-based client, we identified three user modes—Skimming & Dipping, Exploring, and Chilling—and designed different ways to engage with different formats at key moments in the day. The goal was thoughtful curation that feels like discovery, not a narrowing of options.

Volume is also important. A few years ago, we worked with The Times of London as it struggled to stay relevant in a 24/7 news cycle. Our research revealed readers didn’t want more breaking news—they wanted perspective. They wanted The Times to be the adult in the room, not another endless feed. So we designed a product anchored in four daily drops—carefully curated digital editions that refreshed throughout the day. This decision freed up tremendous resources, allowing the newsroom to focus on big stories. By moving away from the churn and toward intentionality, The Times saw a 19 percent year-over-year increase in digital subscriptions.

The approach also fulfilled a need we heard about across these projects. People don’t want to doom scroll; they want to get informed, then get to the end of the news. Unlike social media, where personalization means serving more of what users already like, news algorithms need a different intention.

Silos are the enemy of innovation

Creating a great digital news experience requires untangling the messy process of how that news is made and delivered.

That starts with creating an ownable product vision that teams can rally around, and a strategy that’s authentic to the current organization and aspirational for the future. When we worked with a PBS member station, we developed a vision anchored in a shared sense of place that centered local voices, reflected the region’s cultural richness, and positioned the organization as a neighborhood pillar and a global voice. Their CEO called the work “a vision we can achieve,” noting that it was both inspirational and actionable, designed to galvanize the entire organization, not just leadership, toward renewed purpose, greater trust, and lasting impact.

It’s also essential to break down the silos that separate editorial, product, and tech teams, making it easier to communicate across departments, so people feel invited to bring their unique lens to major product updates. This is not an invitation to design by committee! Creating space for people to surface ideas and red flags early helps with product innovation (the best ideas can come from unexpected places) and organizational buy-in (as people are more inclined to support what they help create). One of our clients started a cross-functional design council to bring new voices to the table. As we worked with another client to build a new editorial product, IDEO led critiques with teams across its newsroom, subscriptions, advertising, and brand departments, and also hosted demo hours to let a larger group of stakeholders in on the creative process.

Once teams are united around a shared vision and working cross-functionally, they need a place to de-risk ideas. In such an evolving industry, it’s critical to learn what works (and what doesn’t) fast, putting ideas in front of the end user early and often. An experimentation sandbox allows teams to test new ideas in the wild. One of our clients built a beta app to test feature updates and rolled it out to the entire newsroom and a small panel of subscribers. By shipping and iterating quickly, the team got the app into the hands of readers fast and updated it in real time, building confidence in useful features and avoiding investment in the ones that weren’t working.

A more human future for journalism

The promise of news has always been to teach us something new—to expand our sense of the world and how we fit into it. At its best, it challenges our assumptions, sharpens our thinking, and gives us new reasons to engage with one another.

But that promise only works if we trust the process and the organizations behind it. If we believe the stories are the product of care, curiosity, and intention. That’s why how the news is delivered matters just as much as what it says. The best digital experiences don’t just inform; they reflect an understanding of who we are—our needs, our frustrations, and our desire for something that feels both technologically sophisticated and unmistakably human.

In one of our first workshops with a veteran public media organization, an editor told us they needed ways to bring in new viewers while maintaining their credibility.

For businesses navigating these turbulent conditions, the traditional linear “take-make-dispose” model isn’t just environmentally unsustainable—it’s becoming a competitive disadvantage.

At IDEO, we’re seeing this anxiety reflected in the briefs landing on our desks. Leaders from multinational organizations are no longer just asking us to help them optimize existing systems—they’re seeking fundamental resilience against mounting global pressures. They sense, correctly, that future success demands a shift toward systems that can weather disruption by design.

This shift isn’t just about “being green;” it’s about strategic necessity. It’s time to embrace the circular economy—not merely as an environmental initiative, but as a core strategy for building resource independence and business resilience in volatile times.

Closing the loop

By prioritizing strategies like reuse, repair, refurbishment, and remanufacturing (restoring products to their factory settings), businesses keep resources cycling within their control, dramatically reducing dependence on virgin raw materials and volatile global commodity markets.

Recent analysis from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reveals something telling: companies with higher circularity performance exhibit lower financial risk profiles and superior risk-adjusted returns. The numbers tell a compelling story—circular businesses are simply more resilient.

Furthermore, substituting imported virgin materials with secondary resources recovered closer to home directly reduces exposure to international trade disputes and supply chain disruptions. As the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act demonstrates, policy is increasingly focused on boosting domestic recycling and processing, creating new market opportunities for businesses ready to capitalize on this shift.

Embedding advantage by design

This isn’t just an operational pivot—companies must embed circularity into the very design of their products and services. As a European Parliament report highlights, design choices determine more than 80 percent of a product’s lifecycle impact and, crucially, its potential for profitable circularity.

On a recent client project exploring circularity in healthcare, we discovered a steep shift to single-use everything. Everything, everything. Not just the obvious, but complex items like endoscopes, which combine plastics and electronics, and often rely on imported components. Disposable tools may be convenient, but it’s easy to see how incinerating tens of millions of endoscopes leads to waste generation and supply chain vulnerabilities.

By redesigning these devices differently—creating a single-use-like experience that is hygienic and maintains practitioner confidence while enabling refurbishment and reuse—we discovered a path to cut dependency on virgin materials and volatile overseas electronics supply lines. Thoughtful designs like these can directly support business models resilient to external shocks.

The most effective circular strategies focus on:

• Designing for durability, repairability, and modularity: Creating longer-lasting, easily fixable products with interchangeable parts extends asset life, enables component harvesting for remanufacturing, and reduces total cost of ownership.
  
  
• Designing for disassembly and material selection: Ensuring products can be easily taken apart into constituent materials chosen for safe reuse or high-quality upcycling becomes fundamental for efficient recovery processes.
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‍New business models

Even the most circular design requires innovative business models to unlock its economic potential. As identified by the World Economic Forum and others, key models driving this shift include:

Product-as-a-service (PaaS): Retaining asset ownership incentivizes providers to maximize product lifespans and facilitates efficient takebacks for high-value recovery. PaaS shifts the profit focus from unit sales to lifetime asset value—a profound transformation in how businesses create and capture value.

Reverse logistics systems: Building efficient capabilities to collect, sort, and reintegrate used products and materials is the operational backbone of circularity. Innovation here involves interconnected software platforms, Internet of Things (IoT) tracking, and collaborative partnerships to manage complexity and cost.

Data management and collaboration: Successfully managing circular flows demands advanced data systems for tracking and traceability across multiple use cycles and partners. Digital product passports are becoming essential tools for managing these complex material networks.

Strengthening operational stability

The strategic logic of circularity aligns powerfully with the growing trend toward nearshoring and onshoring. Bringing production closer to end markets makes circular models like take-back and local refurbishment far more economically viable, reducing logistical complexity and cost. These localized material loops are inherently more resilient to global disruptions by mitigating exposure to geopolitical hotspots, international shipping crises, and tariffs. Building shorter, more adaptable value chains is a key priority for forward-thinking organizations, and we’ve been seeing it more and more with our clients.  

However, effective local loops require more than just relocation. They demand a fundamental rethinking of product design, supply chain infrastructure, and consumer engagement. To achieve this, organizations should consider:

• Evolving product ownership into a seamless user journey: What if user experience could be a continuous flow of value, with products that adapt to a consumer’s changing needs, can be effortlessly upgraded locally, and seamlessly returned for responsible renewal, creating a sense of ongoing connection and trust?
  
  
• Making reverse logistics effortless and rewarding: What if, instead of a chore, returning used products was as easy and satisfying as receiving new ones, integrated into local community hubs with engaging digital interfaces and personalized incentives, fostering a sense of participation and satisfaction?
  
  
• Creating thriving ecosystems of shared value with local collaboration: What if businesses, local artisans, and communities co-created circular products tailored to their unique context, with local makerspaces, repair cafes, and material marketplaces empowering people, generating local wealth, reigniting a strong sense of place and belonging, and attracting new forms of tourism?

By embracing design and innovation, businesses can create resilient and circular local economies, mitigating the increasing risks of long supply chains and unlocking local growth and innovation opportunities.

The new competitive edge: resource independence

Shifting a company’s focus to circularity does require investment in new capabilities, particularly in design, reverse logistics, and data management. It requires cultivating new collaborative ecosystems and partnerships.

But the rewards are substantial. Businesses that successfully integrate circular strategies build operational resilience by reducing reliance on volatile inputs, mitigating geopolitical and tariff risks through greater resource independence, ensuring greater supply security, and forging stronger long-term customer relationships.

As we navigate this uncertain landscape, one thing becomes clear: building circular capacity isn’t just adaptation; it’s the deliberate choice to forge a competitive edge in an unpredictable world. The future belongs to those organizations bold enough to design it.

The waters of global trade are choppier than ever. Tariff storms gather and break unpredictably, geopolitical currents shift constantly, and the very resources our supply chains depend on face increasing pressure.

Many companies are withdrawing financial guidance, and stock markets are whipsawing against tariff talks and social media speculation. Global uncertainty is now on par with—or even higher than—the peaks of the COVID-19 era, according to indices like the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index. Even trade experts can’t confidently answer pretty simple questions like: How many units will we sell? What will it cost to deliver our service in the next three months?

Every leadership team we talk to is operating in a fog. Whether they admit it or not, that fog is affecting their risk appetite: They are delaying projects, sitting on approvals, and slashing budgets. With tariffs swinging wildly, it’s tough to plan ahead. A once-profitable offer can turn into a loss overnight. Even companies with limited exposure to physical goods can feel the ripple effects through disrupted supply chains, spooked investors, or sudden stock price drops.

It’s no wonder leaders feel paralyzed. But resilient organizations don’t wait for certainty. They aren’t afraid to rethink how they lead, focus, and design for the future. In times like these, fear can’t be your compass. It’s time to step out of preservation mode and chart a course toward where your organization needs to go.

So, how do you lead through uncertainty and regain momentum? Here are four methods we’ve been using with our clients:

1. Focus beats forecasts

When everything feels urgent, nothing gets done. Leaders must help teams focus their energy on what truly matters—starting with the courage to say no to outdated initiatives, pet projects, or business-as-usual efforts that no longer serve your strategy. Focus isn’t just about doing less, it’s about freeing up capacity and renewing energy to go bolder on the bets that will shape your future. A global retailer navigating supply chain turmoil and changing consumer habits might choose to pause low-impact projects to focus on one priority: last-mile delivery. That kind of clarity can boost fulfillment speed, earn customer trust, and drive revenue. Achieving this kind of focus means aligning across functions, reaching beyond silos, and creating momentum—even without perfect clarity. Because in moments of uncertainty, focus is the fuel that keeps progress alive.

2. Rethink where to play

Whether we’re designing a product, service, strategy, or experience, we also have to design for where, how, and at what cost it gets delivered. It’s no longer just about customer segments; it’s about navigating geopolitical risk, regulatory change, and supply constraints with agility. That requires a new playbook—one that views the landscape like a moving chessboard—where your next move depends on which pieces are in motion and how the board is evolving. Imagine a toy company facing price uncertainty, choosing to prioritize growth in regional markets closer to where they produce, and then amplifying their sustainability efforts and local stories in their marketing. Routing the right products to the right markets still matters. But so does staying light on your feet. Embracing flexibility—and even a playful mindset—can help your teams move forward with confidence, not fear, as the environment continues to shift.

3. Momentum > perfection: redesign for rapid experimentation

When the future feels uncertain, the instinct is often to pause. But pausing comes at a cost. The businesses that thrive now are those that experiment faster, not because they know exactly what will work, but because they’re willing to learn their way forward. You may not have enough certainty to build a multi-year roadmap. But you do have the tools to test, iterate, and adapt in real time. A beauty brand facing increased production costs on all of its packaging might rapidly pilot makeup refillables via mobile pop-ups to prove out a new customer behavior that is both more sustainable and lower cost for the brand to deliver. This also shifts how your teams work: embedding lightweight prototyping, faster feedback loops with customers, and an emphasis on small bets that unlock new opportunities into the day-to-day. These small wins build resilience. And resilience builds momentum. In this climate, progress—even if it’s imperfect—is the boldest move you can make.

4. Digital products can offer a beacon of hope

With physical goods and global delivery models under pressure, we’re seeing renewed interest in digital experiences and revenue streams. For many, digital feels like the one domain where they can move faster and iterate more freely. Consider re-imagining the digital experience not just as a supporting channel or companion app, but as a core engine of new customer acquisition, brand loyalty, and resilience. Let’s say a health-insurance provider is facing rising service costs: launching an AI-assisted care-navigation app where members could check symptoms, book telehealth visits, and file claims all in one place could help the company cut support call volume, improve the customer experience, and help people catch health issues early, avoiding costlier medical interventions later. To unlock the full potential of digital, invest in product-led growth strategies across customer touchpoints—where value is delivered through the experience itself, and innovation is driven by real-time data and user feedback.

Where we’re going, there are no roads.

There’s no map for what comes next—but that doesn’t mean the answer is to stand still. Regaining momentum is less about knowing the final destination and more about having the right compass to guide you through the fog. At IDEO, we’re working with leaders across industries to shift out of survival mode and design for the clarity, confidence, and energy their organizations need right now. If you’re ready to move through the uncertainty, we’re here to help you chart your course.

The business world runs on planning: forecasts, earnings calls, revenue projections. But right now, that’s mostly guesswork.

I help organizations cut through complexity by shaping how they show up, through brand strategy, identity, and storytelling.

Working at the intersection of brand and business, I bring an editorial eye and a bias toward making—turning ideas into tangible experiences that people can understand, trust, and believe in.

My work spans government, healthcare, financial services, media, and consumer goods, from launching Gen Z-focused ventures to building innovation labs and reimagining legacy brands. I relish moments of ambiguity and enjoy translating across teams, perspectives, and priorities to move ideas forward.

I started my career in editorial and digital design, shaping cross-platform experiences and identity systems in publishing and agency environments. That foundation still shapes how I work today: I’m detail-oriented, collaborative, and overreliant on the Oxford comma. I hold a BFA in Visual Communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For 25 years, I've asked the same question: Who does this design exclude—and what are we going to do about it?

My work spans human-centered strategy, inclusive design, and qualitative research, with clients ranging from Microsoft, Google, and Verizon to the National Science Foundation, and San Francisco Unified School District.

Before IDEO, I taught elementary school in East Palo Alto and spent a decade doing design work with social service organizations—where I learned firsthand what it costs people when systems are built without them in mind.

I am currently writing User Error, a nonfiction book about digital access and the design decisions behind it. I live in Oakland, California.

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My expertise spans brand, communication, and product design across tech, education, the arts, and social impact.

I believe great work demands both high-level vision and obsessive attention to detail, and only happens through collaboration.

I bring an inclusive, hands-on approach and a deep understanding of business, which enables me to consistently deliver excellence while always asking why.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at the brand firms Pentagram and VSA Partners. I began my career as a designer, leading teams at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Milwaukee Art Museum. I hold an MFA in graphic design from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA in communication design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and have taught at some of the best design schools in the US.

I am responsible for IDEO’s long-term success in China and working with clients to use design as a tool to enable growth. Specifically, I have helped Chinese companies design holistic brand solutions through the development of their products, communication, services, and innovation teams, and I have helped multinationals expand their presence and influence in China.

I advise global leaders on developing China-led innovation and capabilities.

In over 15 years in IDEO Shanghai, I have worked on projects that use design to elevate the quality of the experience of healthcare products and services, streamline processes that increase productivity, create spaces and programs that promote and enable inclusive communities, and build next generation mobility solutions that are planet-positive.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at Philips Electronics and the Electrolux Group in Italy, the Netherlands, and Singapore on a number of breakthrough commercial products. I am a member of the Young President Organization in Shanghai.

Most AI products today are built for work—a space with clear problems and established systems. One founder noticed a gap: personal life is messier, harder to systematize, and mostly left behind by the AI boom. So she built Cue, a personal AI that lives inside iMessage and group chats, to go where the other tools haven't.

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In this episode, Becca Carroll, IDEO's Chief Strategy Officer, talks with Sida Li, co-founder and CEO of Shared Context Lab, about staying anchored to a human need while the technology around her keeps changing shape, why she treats her business model with the same rigor she'd bring to a product, and what it feels like to build a company at this particular, disorienting moment in AI.

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The conversation also gets into how Sida makes design decisions: the language Cue uses to describe itself, the tradeoffs behind building inside iMessage instead of a new app, and a real story about a business idea that didn’t pan out.

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This is the second in a two-part series profiling founders from IDEO's Startups-in-Residence program. The first conversation is with Johannes Seemann, founder of Sooner, on designing GenAI for the emotional side of money.

Most personal financial tools are built to run the numbers and optimize towards a budget. While that works for some, most people experience money as a lived relationship that does not neatly fit into a spreadsheet. Johannes Seemann and Becca Carroll discuss why money is emotional before it is mathematical, and what a human-centered approach to building a generative AI financial product looks like in practice.

Mina Seetharaman talks with Scott Shigeoka, author of Seek and Head of Curiosity Cultivation at the Eames Institute, about what distinguishes genuinely curious leadership from performative curiosity, how power dynamics shape curiosity, and why practicing curiosity can restore energy rather than drain it.

Mina Seetharaman talks with David Epstein, author of Inside the Box and Range, about why total freedom often produces average work, how leaders can design useful limits on purpose, and what organizations such as General Magic and Pixar reveal about the relationship between boundaries and creativity.