Money works differently in communities traditionally excluded from formal banking, which makes designing products that really serve their needs a very different kind of challenge. People who live in the last mile often prefer cash because it’s physical. They can see it, touch it, and access it at any time.

While digital money offers many benefits, such as securely sending money over long distances and accessing new forms of credit, many don’t trust it because the places where they can access digital currency have often been too far away.

In 2017, over 500 million adults lived more than three miles from a financial access point in eight emerging markets studied by the Gates Foundation. This may not sound like much of a barrier, but for those living in the last mile, it means having to close their shops, lose a day of earnings, arrange family care, and pay for travel, which can be time-consuming and difficult, especially during rainy seasons. For low-income people, the inaccessibility of financial services has been a deal-breaker for adopting digital money. On the flip side, banks, telecoms, and other companies struggled to reach these customers because their products were not inclusively designed for them, and their distribution models failed to scale in rural areas.

Amid these myriad challenges, IDEO and the Gates Foundation saw an opportunity to introduce innovative ways to provide access to digital financial services even in the most remote areas of the world. And to make bold new bets: Could we design new digital experiences centered around the financial needs of people in the last mile? What would happen if we mobilized hundreds of actors to develop new ways to address financial access at the last mile? What if we took the most exciting financial innovations that worked in East Africa and piloted them in South Asia—and vice versa?

Working with more than 70 partners, including local startups, corporations, including Google, Unilever, Telenor, Standard Chartered, and BNI, as well as IDEO.org’s Women & Money program, LMM adopted a collaborative, ecosystem approach to drive and scale new digital financial products and systems.

A few of the life-changing innovations launched by LMM and its partners include:

• Finja’s intuitive small-business app that helps micro-merchants in Pakistan access flexible, interest-avoiding Islamic credit  to order products from fast-moving consumer goods companies like Unilever. Finja now serves 45,000 merchants and reaches 10.2 million customers.
  ‍
• Accessing government benefits can be a challenge, especially when it’s through a mobile phone, so IDEO helped Indian startup Haqdarshak develop a robust digital experience for its 52,000 community agents to facilitate access for low-income people. The agent network—70 percent of whom are women—now serves more than 7.6 million families and has unlocked $2.2 billion in social benefits for those who need it most.
  ‍
• Making micro-credit nearly instantaneous was a solution that startup Kuunda offered to financial agents in Tanzania. IDEO helped adapt the product to deliver working capital for merchants in Pakistan. Today, Kuunda continues to grow across markets in Africa, totaling 6.1 million active users and distributing $1.1 billion in loans globally.   

While the LMM program officially concluded in 2024, lessons, tools, and case studies from the program are accessible on IDEO’s Financial Futures website. Those looking to catalyze equity and inclusion in digital financial services for the last mile can consult LMM’s Financial Confidence Playbook, the open-source Digital Confidence Toolkit (created in collaboration with Google), or the Gender Evaluation Framework, among other helpful resources.

‍

Over 1.3 billion people worldwide in poor and rural areas are excluded from formal financial services, including savings accounts, credit lines, and insurance, making it harder for them to move out of poverty.

34M

underserved users reached by 100+ new financial products, pilots, and prototypes

70+ LMM partners

including Google, Unilever, Grab, Standard Chartered, Cargill, Airtel, Celo Foundation, and BNI

‍

Multinational CPGs excel at creating popular, mass-market products for large countries. When they enter smaller countries like Peru, they often parachute their brands onto store shelves and skip consumer product testing altogether, largely relying on brand recognition to drive sales. This oversight presented Alicorp and IDEO with an opportunity: flip the script and invite young Peruvian women to work together with them to create a new hair care brand from scratch. Over the course of a four-year transformational journey, IDEO worked closely with Alicorp, adopting a “learn by doing” approach to foster a culture of innovation, launch a new brand, and drive growth for the company through consumer-centric design.

The collaboration began with an inspirational trip 10,000 miles away to Seoul, South Korea, the epicenter of global beauty trends. To expand their thinking, the Alicorp/IDEO team received K-Pop glow-ups and explored other cutting-edge beauty experiences. They were inspired by the Korean market’s unwavering focus on meeting the particular hair care and skin needs of Korean women.

Back in Peru, the team conducted multiple rounds of in-depth interviews with young women, teenagers, beauty influencers, and experts across the country. They learned about their beauty goals, personal care routines, and “mixto” hair texture. They heard about women’s struggles with regional weather—the Andean region’s extreme dryness versus Lima’s humidity and the city’s hard water. The research revealed that Peruvian women wanted natural products that worked hard, wouldn’t harm their hair, and celebrated what made them unique. They wanted a brand that spoke to them honestly and authentically. That represented and empowered them. That didn’t overpromise, underdeliver, or hold up European and American beauty ideals that didn't resonate with Latin American women like the multinationals did.

Armed with these insights, the Alicorp/IDEO team developed tangible brand prototypes for women to respond to during successive rounds of user research, including in a beauty pop-up store in Lima. The team shared various bottle types, ingredient mixtures, and brand positioning options. Should the new brand’s personality be an outspoken feminist or a gal pal? Au naturel or sophisticated? The iterative feedback cycles informed everything from brand strategy and ingredient recommendations to product line-up, brand and product naming, launch strategy, and digital activations.

The final design, Amarás (“you will love”), is a personal care line that centers the needs and aspirations of Peruvian women. Hitting shelves in 2022, its shampoos and conditioners feature local, bio-diverse ingredients, including mangoes, macadamia nuts, and goldenberries, that help address the specific hair texture needs of women in LATAM and the climate realities of the Andean region. The brand’s launch campaign included TV and print ads featuring Peruvian models from every region as well as commissioned murals celebrating local beauty by artists across Peru. Most notably, the unapologetically authentic Peruvian hair care brand became a TikTok sensation, garnering over seven million organic views and more than 300 viral videos from enthusiastic new fans.

Three months after its launch, Amarás seized a 7.5 percent share of the personal care aisle—a remarkable goal it had set for year three.Since then, Alicorp has continued to expand its creative capabilities, designing personal care products tailored to the cultural and beauty needs of Latin American consumers.

Alicorp launched numerous successful brand extensions across its food and home care categories, but was unable to crack the $340M USD hair care product market in its home country of Peru.

7.5%

Amarás’ share of the Peruvian hair care market 3 months after launch—a goal Alicorp had set for year 3

7M+ organic views and 300+ organic fan videos

created on TikTok during Amarás’  launch campaign

Thirty years ago, China-based Jack Technology started as a home sewing machine manufacturer. A decade ago, the innovative global leader began investing in robotics and exploring AI, a decision that positioned it well to address today’s urgent need for smarter manufacturing solutions.

Believing that a new, strategically positioned sub-brand could draw in larger, more premium global manufacturing customers, Jack Technology and IDEO set out to understand their needs. IDEO began by visiting more than a dozen garment factories across China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, conducting in-depth interviews with factory managers, industrial engineers, pattern-making leaders, and frontline workers. It soon became clear: the apparel manufacturing industry is at a critical juncture. The way apparel manufacturers navigate the promises of intelligent technology—while addressing deep-rooted structural issues like labor shortages and working conditions—will shape the industry's development for years to come.

For premium clothing brands, garment factory compliance and worker well-being are priorities when selecting production partners, so many owners proudly showcased their improvement efforts. They discussed investing in quieter machines and air conditioning, enhancing lighting, adding greenery, and implementing no-overtime policies. Amid rows of identical sewing stations, the IDEO team noticed small human gestures, such as a small vase of flowers. As one operator said, “I just want to uplift myself during work.”

The research helped IDEO identify a core opportunity for differentiation. Create human-centered products and services that further enhance working conditions in large apparel factories, strengthen their ability to attract and retain talent, and drive the industry toward a more sustainable future. Through multiple rounds of co-creation with the Jack Technology team and key apparel-sector stakeholders, a clear brand direction for Aitu began to take shape: “Smart Machines, Uplifting People.”

Guided by this human-centered ethos, IDEO helped build a comprehensive brand system for Aitu. The idea of “uplifting people” and showcasing garment workers’ professionalism and skill is expressed throughout all brand communications, the industrial design of its smart sewing machines, and the interaction and industrial design of a humanoid sewing robot.

In the eyes of factory workers, this is the new work experience Aitu brings to life. Compared with traditional bulky industrial machinery, the clean lines and soft edges of Aitu’s new AI-powered sewing machines feel more like the professional office tools found in bright, organized workplaces. Concave surfaces and soft materials diffuse glare from overhead lighting, reducing eye strain, while clear interaction logic and icon-based visuals accommodate operators with varying levels of skill and education. AI technology, seamlessly embedded in the machine’s core functions, automatically adjusts parameters for different fabrics and tasks, allowing operators to achieve high-precision results with less effort. A soft halo-like light glows whenever the AI-assisted function is active, fostering users’ trust in both the technology and the AI-powered sewing machine as a whole. When hundreds or thousands of Aitu machines are arranged together in a factory, the overall effect is a modern, professional, and high-end work environment.

Working closely with Aitu’s robotics team, IDEO’s final design challenge was to bring a human-machine collaboration to life through a full-scale AI robot, AI10. The robot has an elegant, biomimetic silhouette. Its fabric-like outer finish features design elements commonly found in garment making, such as cutting and stitching lines, giving the robot the approachable look and the feel of a skilled tailor companion who can assist with simple, repetitive tasks. When AI10 is in operation, a circular light ring gently pulses at the sides of the robot’s ears as well as on the paired sewing machine’s display screen, clearly signaling the robot’s activity to its human co-workers.

In September 2025, Jack Technology debuted its new Aitu brand, along with its first AI sewing machine and a humanoid robot prototype, at a launch event at Shanghai Tower and at the China International Sewing Machine & Accessories Show. IFA Berlin, Europe’s largest trade show for consumer electronics, honored Aitu with a Gold Award for AI Product Innovation for seamlessly integrating AI technology and industrial design. Jack Technology’s humanoid robot is expected to go into full-scale production in 2026.

Before AI, the apparel manufacturing industry had experienced little fundamental change since the invention of the lockstitch sewing machine nearly two centuries ago.

2025 Gold Award for AI Product Innovation

from IFA, the world’s largest home and consumer tech event

Alicorp has direct operations in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Chile, manages export operations in more than 30 countries, and oversees over 150 brands. While its AlaCena sauces are ubiquitous in South America, the brand’s North American market primarily consisted of purchases made via Amazon by Peruvians living abroad. To help the CPG giant expand meaningfully and sustainably onto US grocery shelves—and achieve its ambitious $50 million retail sales goal in five years—Alicorp and IDEO collaborated on multiple projects over a two-year period. The partnership began in early 2020 with consumer research and product strategy, ultimately leading to the development of initial product branding, positioning for launch, and an in-market pilot in late 2021.

‍‍Through a combination of large-scale digital surveys and in-depth, in-person and remote research interviews, IDEO discovered that AlaCena’s Tari and Uchucuta’s hot sauce recipes resonated the most with US consumers. Made from native Aji Amarillo and Rocoto chili peppers ground using a traditional Andean “batán” technique, consumers appreciated their complex flavors and enjoyed how they enhanced, not overpowered, everyday foods like burgers and fries. The sauces’ authentic Peruvian culinary roots were also a key differentiator. In addition to consumers, IDEO consulted with industry experts—including executives from large-scale grocery chains and chief merchants of leading big-box stores—to explore retail and marketing trends and identify potential innovation partners for Alicorp in the US.

Based on the research, IDEO recommended a few changes to ensure a successful launch: Lead with the Tari brand, which was the most memorable and easiest to pronounce, and position it as an “everything sauce.” Change the packaging from a large plastic pouch to a smaller squeeze bottle to better align with consumers’ expectations and stand out on the inside of refrigerator doors. Adjust the product formulation to appeal to mainstream consumers looking for cleaner labels. And visually celebrate Tari’s Peruvian roots through bright colors, traditional textiles, and a llama, an animal closely associated with the Andes Mountains. In addition to these recommendations, IDEO provided a comprehensive go-to-market retail strategy that included potential US regions for launch, retail brokers, distributors, manufacturers, and R&D and pilot retail lab partners, as well as job descriptions for a new North American-based sales team.

While Alicorp worked on reformulation and packaging strategies, IDEO refined Tari’s initial branding strategy. Steeped in Peruvian aesthetics, the brand’s new look and feel featured a vibrant color palette, geometric patterns, and—of course—a friendly llama icon, which could also be found on all in-store point-of-sale items IDEO designed for Tari's pilot launch in late 2021.

The successful 12-week in-market pilot in Tom Thumb grocery stores gave Alicorp the confidence to have its in-house design team make the brand even bolder and more eye catching, and to launch two flavors, Amarillo Pepper and Rocoto Pepper, on Amazon and in over 50 retail stores in late 2024.

Since then, the popular sauces consistently rank among the top 50 percent of the fastest-selling products on US shelves, with 80 percent of sales revenue representing new business. In 2025, Tari expanded its offerings with three additional flavors: Zesty Verde, Tropical Kick, and Smoky Heat. Today, Tari is in transit to 3,000 major grocery stores, including Wegmans, Meijer, Central Market, and The Fresh Market, as well as available for purchase on Amazon.

Alicorp had a vision to expand its beloved and delicious hot sauces to the US market, but needed help fine-tuning the brand and product for an American audience.

3,000

major US grocers, including Wegmans and Meijer, have signed on to sell Tari hot sauces

80%

of Tari’s sales revenue represents new business, a significant expansion of the overall category

Ranked in the top 50%

of the fastest-selling products on US grocery shelves

For my latest project I worked with a healthcare company to improve doctor decision-making during a medical procedure. In addition to usual data scientist tasks, I spent a lot of time with the team trying to understand the way physicians currently work. Here’s a peek behind the scenes:

7:30 AM: Podcast time

This morning I’m off to meet my team at a hospital for field research. On my way, I’m listening to a podcast called “The Impact” that explains the consequences that laws and regulations have on people’s lives. There are a few episodes that relate to data and medical outcomes, so it’s serving as inspiration for my current project.

8:00 AM: Field research

At the hospital, we talk to doctors, nurses, and medical techs and observe them in action. Listening and observing helps us understand the needs of the people we’re designing for. We’re thinking about optimizing decision-making for doctors, which could involve a lot of things, ranging from information and data display to AI assistance. I watch for clues about how this works, and how potential data sources might get recorded.

11:00 AM: Data science group meeting

My home base is Chicago, but I’m stationed in Palo Alto for my current project. Luckily, I can still keep up with what the rest of the data scientists at IDEO are doing through a weekly video call that we can all dial into. We help each other troubleshoot problems we’ve encountered in our projects, share new methods we’ve learned, and talk about personal projects we’re pursuing. This week, one of the other data scientists is telling us about a website he’s making that allows his parents to see where he is (but not his exact location). We have a separate meeting on Friday mornings for those of us in Palo Alto specifically. I like both meetings because they help me keep up to date with how our data science practice is evolving, since it’s the newest design discipline at IDEO

12:00 PM: Lunch break

After a morning of research, I grab lunch at the studio. Today is a special treat—lunch has been provided for us. Everyone sits in the kitchen or our outside patio to eat, so it’s a great opportunity to meet other coworkers and hear about the interesting design challenges they’re working on. I like to sit with designers from IDEO’s PlayLab. They’re usually working on designing cool new toys, and have lots of interesting side projects. Many of them (and others in the PA studio) worked on this Burning Man installation, for example.

1:30 PM: Synthesis with the team

The team comes together to download and synthesize what we learned through our research observations. We transcribe things we saw and heard on Post-it notes, and cluster them so we can spot patterns. We’re seeing themes about the consequences of delays in decision-making during the procedure, and the effects of training on team efficiency. As we start to develop concepts based on the pain points we’ve discovered, I suggest that something like a personalized training program could increase team efficiency by helping people skill up faster.

3:30 PM: Digging into some data

Our client has provided us with some data from a clinical trial related to the medical procedure we’re studying. Today I’m combing through the dataset to find insights that will inform our design process. I use the knowledge I’ve gained from interviews and field research to inform what would be useful or desirable from a human point of view. Later in the project, I’ll use this data to create a prototype that demonstrates how we can help doctors assess risk during the procedure.

6:00 PM: Hosting a women in Machine Learning and Data Science meetup

Tonight I’m hosting a meetup for the Women in Machine Learning and Data Science group about the basics of deep learning with my coworker and fellow data scientist Jane Zanzig. More than 40 women have come to learn and do a hands-on demo. I love working at a company that supports building the women in data science community because one of my personal passions is working to increase the number of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM and design.

9:00 PM: Good night, Jackie

Every night before I go to bed, I make sure I hang out with my pet rabbit Jackie. I brought her from Chicago to Palo Alto with me, so we wouldn’t be apart while I worked on this project. I think she’s been enjoying living in California, and I’ve even taken her to visit the IDEO Palo Alto studio.

When people ask me what I do for a living, I say, “I use data to design products and services to improve people’s lives.” Working as a designer and data scientist involves not only coding up solutions, but understanding what people need in the first place.

Creativity Challenge #5: Encourage and accept constructive feedback

To practice creative confidence on a team, members need to feel free to experiment, even during early efforts when results will be far from perfect. For that experimentation to translate into learning, however, at some point you need feedback in order to identify weaknesses and make adjustments the next time. We all instinctively know that constructive critique is essential. And yet it can be hard to listen to and absorb feedback without letting our egos and defensiveness distract us from what may be a valuable message.

We have found the tool “I like, I wish” immensely useful in introducing constructive critique into the innovation process. This framework can be used in a small group to review concepts or in a large group to receive feedback about a class or workshop experience. Feedback starts with honest praise, in the form of positive sentences that begin with the phrase, “I like...” Suggestions for improvement then begin with “I wish...”

Tool: I Like, I Wish
Participants: Groups of any size
Time: 10 to 30 minutes
Supplies: A means of recording feedback. For example, in a large group we frequently keep an open Word document and type up notes in real time. In a smaller setting, Post-its or index cards will work.

Instructions

Step 1: Set the tone for a constructive conversation and explain the I like, I wish method. For example, “I am interested in hearing about how this workshop experience has been for you. Please express feedback in the form of I like, I wish. You might say, ‘I like that we have started on time every morning. I wish we had 30 minutes to every afternoon to stretch our legs.’” We have found it helpful to model good feedback by demonstrating “I like, I wish” in action.

Step 2: The participants take turns expressing I like/I wish statements, while the facilitator records their statements. For example, if you are reviewing a work-in-progress for a new personal finance software tool, you might offer support such as “I like that you have incorporated five different ways for customers to view their current financial status.” After describing other pluses, you might then say something like “I wish we could make the website easier for first-time users to navigate” or “I wish we could help people examine their financial situation from the long-term perspective of years, not the short-term perspective of months.”

Make sure people receiving feedback just listen. This is not a time to defend decisions or challenge the critique. Ask everyone to listen and accept it as a well-meaning offer of help. You can ask for clarification and engage in further discussion at a later time.

Step 3: Stop when participants run out of things to say in both the “I like” and “I wish” categories.

Tips from the field

You may want to gather just the “I like” comments first, and then ask for the “I wish” statements. In other groups, it may make sense to let the give-and-take of statements flow organically. Feel free to play with the format.

“I like, I wish” signals that what you are stating is your opinion—it’s not an absolute. Instead of pointing fingers, you are offering your view or perspective. The goal is to move the listener away from a defensive posture so that they can more objectively consider alternative ideas and take them to heart, when appropriate. We all naturally tend to become invested in our own ideas, and seek to defend them. But in a creative culture, candid feedback that is sensitively conveyed is a sign that colleagues care enough to speak up. The message can be delivered quite clearly, without resorting to the negative language of “That will never work” or “We tried that before and it failed.”

This post was taken from Chapter 7 of Creative Confidence. Purchase the book for more on how to use creativity to solve problems.

‍

Everyone is creative. This belief runs through everything we do at IDEO, and in 2013, it led my brother David and me to write a book that would help others—even those who don’t think of themselves as “creative types”—to unleash their creative potential. Creative Confidence has inspired thousands of people to adopt a creative mindset and apply it to the diverse real-world challenges they face. In this series, we’ll share some exercises from the book that can help you approach your challenges from a new perspective.

In one sentence, who are you?

I'm living in Chicago, trying to be a good person, trying to keep growing, currently working as an artist.

What do you do? How did you learn it?

I'm a visual artist. I mostly paint right now, but I do some freelance design work as well. I did some scene painting in college, but other than that I'm self-taught. I've been learning about painting through trying things and making a lot of work and also a lot of mistakes.

3 favorite possessions?

Art from my travels, a sculpture that was my dad's, and my bathtub.

What does a typical work session look like?

Honestly, most days it looks like sitting in a chair in a room by myself and painting for 12-plus hours while listening to various things—too much NPR, podcasts, music, silence. I usually take a couple of breaks. Lunch, maybe a beverage run or a walk. One yoga break around 8pm—that's become essential for me. Sometimes I draw, or I have to package things in boxes or order boxes or answer emails—stuff like that.

How do you get over creative block?

If I can, I walk away from life and travel. If I can't, a break from all creative work is a good step. Time in nature helps, or I often get new ideas that pop up during times when I'm able to turn off my thinking brain—like driving long distances, meditating, walking, taking a shower, dreaming, etc.

What was the last item on your to do list?

Answer interviews! And before that: vote. And before that: Finish design for laser cut wall hanging.

How do you see the world in 2078?

We are all so many beautiful colors and we have free healthcare and college and the old white men running the show are gone so all of the guns are also gone, and we've collectively gotten over being addicted to the internet and our devices and working way too much, plus marijuana is legal everywhere and we're all smoking it so we're all way more laid back and calm and hugging each other a lot. We have four-day work weeks and use land-line phones and record players, but we also can fly to Japan in 2 hours. It's going to be great.

What’s your number one bucket list item?

Own a tiny beach hut somewhere warm and abroad where I can escape the winters, be in nature, and paint and volunteer and meet people.

No matter where you run into her work—whether it's a larger-than-life painting on the side of the Ace Hotel or an animated GIF popping up in your Instagram feed—Laura Berger's art immediately transports you to another world. A world of soft curves, clean lines, and warm colors. A world where women of all shapes, sizes, colors, and hairstyles, literally and figuratively lift each other up. This world of abstract dreamscapes and female camaraderie has been like a salve for me in recent years. Laura shared a peek into her life as a self-taught artist, and reminded me (as she always does) that we are all so many beautiful colors.

Then one day, a tutor showed us Dominic’s piggyback seat. After class I jumped onto his blog and found his sick bag beard. Amongst my fits of laughter, I knew that everything would be okay. Here was someone using the full extent of their imagination and in doing so giving the rest of us permission to do the same.

Since then, Dominic has used his unique perspective to create a whole bunch of wonderful things—from a gallery made for dogs to Little Inventors, a global program designed to encourage creative thinking in children. It’s reached more than 15,000 kids in China alone.

And this is what I love most about Dominic’s work: It’s accessible to anyone. Thinkers like Dominic remind us how important it is to use our imaginations, to be weird, to take ourselves less seriously—and that everyone is capable of having ingenious ideas. You can imagine how excited I was to actually get to talk to the guy.

In one sentence, who are you?

I’m Dominic, born in Sunderland, living in London.

What do you do? How did you learn it?

I think up ideas I find interesting, then make them real—or just draw them and show them to people. I did lots of education in design BA, Pgrad, MA then when I ran out I just kept doing the same thing but by myself.

What have you poured your heart and soul into lately?

I made something called Little Inventors, which encourages children to gain a lifelong passion for creative and inventive thinking. It's also is a project that inspires adults to think more creatively. We ask children to think up and draw their invention ideas, bonkers or practical, then ask local makers and manufacturers to make them into a real thing for exhibition.

I won a commission in Sunderland to do a project that used creativity that engaged the local community. I proposed this idea and the results went viral. I started receiving emails from around the world asking me to do the same project in their country, so I decided to start it as an ongoing project called Little Inventors. The V&A Museum in London took 5 objects from the first project into their permanent collection—and next year, the best invention idea for life in space will be shown on the International Space Station.

What does a typical work session look like?

In general, I have no set day. My day looks like my desk, a bit messy and random. We do design the idea generating sessions for Little Inventors, though, and for those, we aim to create an atmosphere where creative thoughts come easier. Usually we will create a fun atmosphere and show surprising and inventive examples of creativity to start the thinking process.

We then present some knowledge and understanding on the particular subject the challenge is focussing on. We have different methods of focussing the children's minds on the task at hand and getting the children to discuss their thoughts and ideas as a group. Then we ask the children to draw their own ideas and answer questions onto a sheet we have designed to create a sketched design of their idea. We now have over 7000 children's ideas on the website from around the world. It is interesting to see how creative children in different countries are. The makers tell us that they feel more inspired and are pushed into areas that stretch their skills.

How do you get over a creative block?

I try to get my head out of the track it is stuck on. Change the music, change the mood, do something else. Then I push myself to keep writing or doodling thoughts on the subject. It can be hard mental work sometimes. Eventually I break through to the other side where the nice ideas have been hiding.

What was the last item on your to do list?

I don't have an order of doing things. I should make more lists, as they can help you get a bit of satisfaction at the end of the day rather than thinking, What did I actually do today? I'm jealous of bricklayers: At the end of each day, they can look back and see what they have achieved.

What are your 3 favorite possessions?

A pen, paper, and a Branston pickle.

How do you see the world in 2078?

China and India will be a lot more influential on world culture, technology, and politics. We still won't have hoverboards. People will still want to be happier, make more friends, be more attractive. Some will do that in a computer-generated virtual world. The more technology becomes part of our lives, the more we will desire real world experiences.

What's your number one bucket list item?

Contribute something positive to the pile.

Who are you creative crushin' on lately?

I'm thinking musicians are the one's I admire most. Write your song, play the instrument and sing it. I'm jealous of them. Currently, it’s Neil Young

‍

I still remember the first time I saw Dominic Wilcox’s work, the collection of really weird and clever creations on his blog, Variations on Normal. I was a few years into university, so my body was still 95% hope and ambition. At the same time, I was slowly realizing that I wasn’t, in fact, the center of the universe. It was a confusing time.

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.