When it comes to food, we often have to choose between health, convenience, and taste. Parents struggle to get their kids to eat veggies. The same daily salad can become boring or bland over time. Produce often withers in the crisper drawer.

Betterer Foods set out to make one of the world's favorite foods healthier. Rice is a beloved food across many cultures, but many people now avoid simple carbohydrates due to diet restrictions or health concerns. Innovations and alternative options have mostly been limited to products in the freezer section, like riced cauliflower.

Betterer Foods created RightRice: a dry, shelf-stable grain made from rice and vegetables, including lentils, chickpeas, and green peas. RightRice has more than double the protein, five times the fiber, and 40 percent fewer net carbs than traditional rice. But the product still tastes and looks like rice, and is faster and easier to cook.

RightRice founder Keith Belling, the founder and former CEO of popchips, asked IDEO to design a brand that would communicate the product’s benefits. The start-up needed everything from a defined target consumer and brand story to a stand-out package design, website, and go-to-market materials.

The team listened to people's challenges with rice and eating healthfully: home cooks find it difficult to store fresh foods without them going bad, busy professionals are strapped for time when preparing balanced meals, and parents sneak vegetables into dishes like casseroles or mac and cheese. Some consumers say they avoid rice because it’s a carbohydrate, which is forbidden in so many of today’s diets. People describe themselves as “carb phobic” or say they consider rice a “guilty pleasure.” Others don’t eat rice because it makes them feel sluggish or bloated, or is too difficult or time-consuming to prepare. Overall, people wished rice could be healthier, simpler to cook, and still taste delicious.

IDEO translated these insights into a brand foundation that helped RightRice come to life on shelves, online, and in the world. The package messaging emphasizes the vegetable ingredients, and the cut-out window lets consumers see that the product looks like rice. The shape of the window simultaneously forms a bowl of rice and a smile.

Rice is a household staple around the world. The RightRice brand makes it easier for consumers to have health, convenience, and good taste in one accessible product. RightRice launched nationwide in Whole Foods and Amazon in February 2019.

Since this launch, the company has expanded both its reach and product line. RightRice is now available in nearly 5,000 retailers nationwide in addition to Whole Foods and Amazon, including Sprouts, Wegmans, and approximately 1,800 Kroger stores. Over one million bags have been sold.

The company has received numerous awards and acclaim, including being named “Best Plant-Based” by People’s 2019 Food Awards. Building on the success of RightRice, Belling and his team launched RightRice Medley, a blend of RightRice, ancient grains, and vegetables, in 2020. This new product, which features the same branding the company created with IDEO, has doubled the company’s shelf presence at Whole Foods.

After 40 years of rapid development, China's economic growth has reached a critical turning point.

However, looking at the world, today is also the most complex and uncertain era in human history. The traditional engine of economic development is slowing down, while innovation and other emerging ideas are helping the economy burst into dynamism. To ride this trend, China has already put in place comprehensive policies to ensure that the country can achieve this magnificent transformation—not only to maintain economic growth, but also to achieve high-quality development. To this end, what China needs most is a group of new business leaders with a sense of cooperation and innovation to lead and realize this change as a pioneering force.

People of insight can often see the situation clearly with a forward-looking eye. China's society and economy are undergoing transformation and upgrading, and market demands are constantly changing driven by technology. While seeking business development, many mature entrepreneurs with successful experience have realized that they need to explore some of the most essential issues inwardly, including: The original intention and mission of the enterprise and the role that enterprise leaders should play. However, without a systematic approach, transformation and upgrading, strategic decision-making, management mode and cultural construction cannot truly serve the enterprise

As a top institution of higher learning in China, Tsinghua University has always placed an important strategic position on cultivating innovative talents for China. IDEO is the world's leading design and innovation consulting firm. As a pioneer of design thinking, IDEO has always been committed to applying design and innovation capabilities to solve the world's most complex problems. After discovering the need for China's economic and social transformation and the need for innovative leadership by Chinese entrepreneurs, Tsinghua University and IDEO jointly launched the "Leading China" program in 2018. This program is aimed at senior management of Chinese enterprises, and aims to train entrepreneur trainees to use new perspectives and ideas through a one-year innovative leadership course to seek solutions for the systemic changes that need to be achieved in the process of social transformation in China.

The students of the first "Leading China" program came from more than 30 entrepreneurs from 20 different industries. The teachers who participated in the lecture included 73 Chinese and foreign experts including Shan Jixiang, the former dean of the Forbidden City, Masahiro Kuroyama, the father of Japanese industrial design, and Jake Knapp, the inventor of "Design Sprint". As China's first innovative leadership course with design thinking as the core, the project is equipped with "design to open enterprise creativity", "reshape enterprise competitive advantage", "forge innovative business system", "innovate with the help of finance", "embracing Industrial Revolution 4.0" and "Win-win China Created 2030" six modules. The trainees traveled to nine cities in one year, and completed the courses in the interactive teaching of inspiration and the exchange and sharing of practical experience. Many students said that the course not only helped them find the direction and path of enterprise reform, but also improved their way of thinking, strategic planning and leadership models.

Liu Feng, the founder of Top Intelligence, gave an example of the inspiration brought by the six pillars of "vision-led" enterprise reform. Through "vision leadership", he not only sorted out the original intention and values ​​of the company, but also launched a series of measures based on this starting point, which improved the company's various aspects from the telephone customer service process to the organization of the annual meeting, and mobilized the enthusiasm of employees. This greatly improves the company's efficiency and flexibility. Ting Zhihong, chairman of Hongtu Logistics Co., for example, said that the biggest change brought by the course is her awareness of the importance of empowering the team. The company has now built many platforms to give employees more room to play, to create markets, to put decision-making on the front line, and to let employees play the role of company operators. Her company doubled its profits in 2018. Hu Chao, founder and CEO of Leyou Pregnancy and Baby, introduced that what most executive courses learn is knowledge, and what this course learns is people-oriented values ​​and ways of thinking.

The students of the first class of "Leading China" graduated in December 2018. Regarding the course of this year, Wang Jingwei, former assistant dean of the PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University, commented: "Since the project was launched, we have not only witnessed the true value of design in a business context, but also experienced first-hand the use of people-oriented The difference between the designed executive courses is that the entrepreneurs who participated in the courses quickly entered a state of immersive learning, and many students quickly began to practice the methods they learned in the enterprise.”

On April 8, 2019, the list of winners of the 3rd "Changing the World Innovation Award" was announced, and the "Leading China" project was shortlisted for case nomination, becoming the only Chinese innovation case in the education category. The "Change the World Innovation Award" was announced by Fast Company, one of the world's three major financial and business media organizations.

As one of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers, the Chinese brand vivo is widely known for its exceptional technological innovation and top-of-the-line photography and gaming hardware. But in an increasingly saturated phone market, vivo understood that it wasn’t enough to lead the pack based solely on technological excellence. To win the hearts of young Chinese consumers, they needed to become a beloved brand.

China consumes roughly 30 percent of the world’s smartphones, presenting a tremendous market opportunity to brands who wish to capture young consumers’ loyalty. In order to achieve that, vivo wanted to design a complete brand experience beyond the devices themselves—one that would express the joyful vivo brand spirit through services and retail experiences. One of their first key initiatives was to build its first concept store in an iconic building in Shenzhen, China.

Before building the concept store, vivo approached IDEO to explore what kind of in-store experience would resonate with young Chinese people. The concept store needed to convey joy in a meaningful, tangible way, while also setting the stage for vivo’s future brand systems. With this in mind, IDEO set out to explore how vivo’s young consumers experience fun.

After conducting research in four different cities, IDEO shared the stories of young Chinese consumers back with the vivo team. Their interviews revealed that young people value experiences that enrich their lives and create a feeling of positive personal transformation. They seek opportunities to expose themselves to new experiences, express themselves in different ways, expand and deepen their social connections, and build knowledge and skills.

Through this understanding of how young Chinese define “enjoyment,” IDEO helped vivo identify the value proposition of the concept store as expressing oneself in new and different ways. The store would allow every visitor to see something unique and find a fresh perspective. The vivo team took that value proposition into a design brief and later built out the space and interactive experiences.

The concept store launched at Shenzhen on March 22, 2019, featuring an upper level dedicated entirely to interactive experiences with photo booths, sound recording, and lighting technology. The engaging, lively and positive atmosphere of the store represents a major milestone in vivo’s transformation from a smartphone maker to a consumer brand.

WATCH: Official launch video provided by vivo.

As China's agriculture moves towards scale and sustainability, helping farmers grow healthier food with resilience is a matter of national economic security and individual livelihoods.

Bayer Crop Science—with its mission to accelerate China's agricultural modernization and benefit Chinese farmers and consumers—has provided high-quality products for millions of growers in China over 18 years. Yet its service relies heavily on multi-layered distributors and retailers across the country. The last mile of Bayer’s product delivery spreads across tens of thousands of highly fragmented retail stores, making the quality of service difficult to monitor and control.

Together with IDEO, Bayer Crop Science aimed to uncover new ways to engage with local farmers and retailers, and develop design concepts for its diverse set of retailers—establishing local relevance as well as the potential to scale nationwide.

With this ambition in mind, a team formed by Bayer Crop Science and IDEO launched into a design sprint in the rice fields of China’s Anhui province. Field research uncovered multiple challenges facing Bayer Crop Science’s retailers. First, each store needed to serve more than one hundred farmers, many of whom rely solely on the store owner to understand how to use the products. Retailers struggled to meet a high daily demand for direct support in a way that provided a positive customer experience.

In turn, farmers felt they had insufficient access to expert advice. While many farmers shared similar needs, there was no system for aggregating requests or arranging group instruction. Given that many rice farmers are illiterate, pre-printed educational pamphlets had limited impact, and retailers lacked tools for providing targeted support. And because the retail stores were also used for storage, little space remained for educational or community programming.

With these constraints in mind, the team needed to come up with ideas and design concepts that could be easily integrated into the daily lives of the retail store owners. The team brainstormed hundreds of concepts and quickly prototyped a select few. One retail store in Dangtu was transformed entirely into a live prototype set. Over three days, more than 50 farmers and retailers came through and provided feedback. From there, the team was able to make daily iterations of the concept, evolving the experience in real-time.

The Bayer team was energized by the potential of these prototypes to enable more customer-centered retail experiences. An exhibition of the concepts was set up during the National Annual Sales Conference of Bayer Crop Science in China, during which a much wider audience from Bayer experienced not only the concepts, but also the immediate feedback from farmers.

One year after the project’s completion, more than half of the design concepts have been included in Bayer's support kit for dealers. In 2019, these concepts will be rolled out in more than 1,000 flagship stores across China.

The work has also accelerated Bayer Crop Science’s efforts to build an ongoing engagement mechanism with its retailers and growers. Its online platform, Bayer Joy Grower, now has more than 10,000 retailers and will be expanded to growers soon.

As a little kid, I always loved drawing, but I didn’t actually get serious about art until high school. At first, I was just doodling on my homework and in my notebooks in my spare time, but by my senior year I thought it would be cool to set a deadline, and complete a sketchbook front to back in one year. It was a good outlet for my stressed and angsty teenage self. The first one took a while—definitely more than a year—but after completing it, I was hooked.

In a way, these notebooks act as a diary for me—I remember where I was mentally and emotionally for each drawing. Over time, my work has become a lot less about how angry I was that day, and more about colors, patterns, and shapes.

I like to draw simple lines and shapes, and for each composition, I typically just wing it. I’m sure there’s a meaning to whatever I’m drawing, but when I’m working on it, I’m actually not thinking too hard about it. It’s all stream of consciousness. I draw to de-stress and because it’s fun.

I ended up creating this bald, baby-like thing to represent a person or a feeling I was having. A lot of people have told me they can relate to my work, and I think it’s because of that character. It has no real defining features other than looking vaguely human, so a lot of people can put themselves in its shoes. I often get asked if it’s a boy or a girl or this or that, but it really doesn’t matter what it is.

As for the others, the only character that has a specific role is the little angry-looking black blob I draw from time to time. Originally, it showed up inside other character’s bodies as a stomach. I had a lot of stress-related stomach issues, and whenever I was feeling particularly bad, I’d draw it into a piece. I’m not great at telling people I don’t feel well, or that something is wrong, so my sketchbook is a good outlet. Recently I’ve just been hiding it around in parts of drawings for no particular reason.

People also ask me about my fish—they seem to be one of my more popular elements. I don’t actually have a particular fondness for fish, I just really love drawing patterns and their scales are the perfect platform.

I started posting each drawing to Tumblr just so I could see the development of my style. Now, it has more than 26,000 followers, which is crazy. Even though it’s super flattering to get such a huge response, I still have no interest pursuing illustration professionally. I draw because it’s fun.

Over the years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned that sometimes, you just have to stop talking and start doing. Actually forcing myself to set goals and do the work even when I didn’t feel motivated has been intensely rewarding. Not every drawing I make has to be good, and not every sketchbook is going to be finished within a year—I actually missed my 1/1/17 finish deadline. But my current sketchbook is some of the best work I’ve ever made, and I’m very proud of it—even though I’m only halfway finished.

From the moment we noticed industrial designer Felicia Chiao sketching her latest masterpiece between meetings, we (and our Instagram fans) were hypnotized by her bold colors, intricate patterns, and subtle textures. In this installment of What’s in my Moleskine, we invite you to dive into the dreamlike world Felicia has built in her sketchbooks—we guarantee you'll be hypnotized, too.

1. How hydrated are you?

I pulled this April Fool's prank on the Palo Alto office a few years back. People remarked that it was surprisingly useful and actually led to behavior change. — Albert Leung, IDEO Palo Alto

Tech and design firms love pranking and poking fun at themselves—some of our favorites from years past include Google's self-driving bicycle and Mark Zuckerberg's collaboration with H&M, including a "collection pack" of seven gray t-shirts and one pair of jeans.

2. Homecoming surprise

Back in 2012, I decided it would be fun to "redecorate my roommate's bedroom while she was away for work. It took 18 hours and 76 rolls of Saran Wrap to pull off, but every aspect of her life was covered in bright plastic wrap when she returned. I may have gone a bit over board: Each shoe was wrapped individually, then as a pair; I wrapped each piece of makeup, then wrapped them all together in a group; each thing on her wall was wrapped and rehung; every single book and article of clothing in her closet was accounted for. I honestly think—and I say this in a non-sarcastic way—that pulling this off was one of the things I'm most proud of in my life... which may say something about me. —Adam Moulter, IDEO Cambridge

3. Fluffy biscuits

When I was a kid, my parents made homemade buttery biscuits for us on April Fool's Day. The catch was they embedded cotton balls in the center. When we bit in, we got quite a mouthful!
—Sarah Buchanan, IDEO Palo Alto

4. Puppy love

April Fool's Day is a well-observed holiday in my household. Last year, I put this ad up on Craigslist in three different cities with my father's and two brothers' phone numbers. They received upwards of 100 phone calls and texts (each!) within the hour. —Em Havens, IDEO San Francisco

5. Not-so-current events

My mom was a prank legend in our house. April Fool's Day was a standard spectacle. She had a simple guiding principle for her pranks: Prank them early in the morning before they realize what day it is. One year, my dad, who routinely read the morning paper before work, was sitting with his coffee flipping through the day's events. My mom could hardly contain herself, but Dad didn't quite catch on. When he got to the business section, he suddenly said, "That's odd, I thought the markets went down yesterday and this says they went up." Mom burst out laughing—she had saved last year's April 1st paper for an entire year!
—Chris Waugh, IDEO Alum

Designers love a good side project—Halloween costumes, fancy proposals, Rube Goldberg machines—and April Fool's pranks are no exception. Check out some of the over-the-top pranks IDEO designers have pulled on their friends, family, and coworkers—and steal an idea for yourself!

Name: Farzad Azimpour, MD
Location: Palo Alto
Role at IDEO: Director of Health (biodesigner and cardiologist). I develop new medical technologies with a specialized team in the Design for Health group. We cover everything from biometrics and robotic surgical devices to future healthcare delivery systems, and anything else that hinges on human interaction and decision-making.
Joined IDEO: 2015
Instagram: @farzad.azimpour
Titillating Fact: I do a lot of “mode-switching,” flipping between totally different roles and mindsets. It's my way of cognitive interval training. One day I’m in the emergency room performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on someone with a drug overdose-induced cardiac arrest, and the next day I’m with an IDEO team interviewing someone struggling with addiction—in their home as the police bang on the door.

1. Hot Thoughts

Austin-based indie-rock band Spoon, aka “rock stars for the thinking person,” is releasing a new album called Hot Thoughts, previewed at an intimate set of performances this week at SXSW. I’ve been listening to them since medical school and find some of my best work comes from a late night tapping my pen and feet to their sonic genius.

2. The Current

Listener-supported Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) produces one of the coolest, most progressive radio services you’ll find anywhere, and they stream it live. This is where I discover new music to get me through the coldest winter months on the road.

3. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

This is one of my favorite resources for the wide landscape of scientific research. It’s where you’ll learn of new micro mechanisms to explain macro systems. Their peer-reviewed specialty journals span everything from cell-signaling and translational medicine to robotics, environment, and space. Out-nerd anyone at the next party.

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In this series, we ask IDEO designers to share the stuff they're digging right now—tools, books, music, sites, people, places—so you, too, can drink from the fount of inspiration bubbling up here. This week's guest star: Farzad Azimpour, MD.

The short answer is not really. Though we agree that every office must be tailored to the specific needs of the people who work there and the kind of work being performed, we polled IDEO designers and found some universally winning environment designs that deliver a jolt of creativity. Here are 13 tips for how to supercharge your space:

1. Install a communal table or other gathering space

At General Assembly, there’s one giant table that can seat 30-plus right in the middle of the main space. Students, instructors, and staff gather round it to share ideas in an unstructured, organic way. Each campus around the world has their table made by community artisans with locally sourced materials, which helps remind people of the importance of place. —Danoosh Kapadia

At Disney Animation Studios, John Lasseter had the conference rooms in the center of the building torn down to make room for a coffee shop. The space served as a large space for folks to come together and collaborate. —Kat Chanover

2. Make things moveable

When people become glued to a particular place, their perspective stays glued, too. Put things on wheels, or having rotating desks allows people to meet new coworkers and invites collaboration. And don’t sit next to someone who does the same thing as you—if you’re an engineer, sit next to a designer. Physical silos are real. —Xin Xin

One of my favorite things about the d.school at Stanford is that the walls in most of the building can be moved and reconfigured. An open space can become a private project space in a matter of minutes (and vice-versa). —Katie Clark

3. Display your values

Placed all around the IDEO Tokyo office are key phrases projected in neon lights. Next to our Maker Space it’s "Talk Less, Do More"; in our lounge it’s "Make Others Successful"; next to the door before you exit it’s "Take Responsibility". Although these are just 3 of the 7 key IDEO values, the signs serve as a daily reminder of what we all believe in. —Mike Peng

4. Hide the clocks

OK, maybe not all the clocks. But consider introducing spaces where people can get a break from the cruel Master Time. Sometimes creativity needs constraints to flourish; sometimes it needs the freedom to take as long as it damn well pleases. —Lode Starstrom

5. Situate joy

In our project space, there is a drawer that only contains British chocolate of the most velvety quality. The team knows it's there. When that drawer opens... well, it's very exciting for everyone. Sometimes they even exclaim, "Milky Time!" Design your space to trigger moments of joy, or surprise, or ritual. —Alex Gallafent

6. Put creative tools in the way

When there are creative tools in the main space, more stuff gets made. Don’t silo the maker space. Out of sight, out of mind. In sight, in practice. —Clark Scheffy

7. Build a home-y kitchen

The kitchen should not feel corporate. It’s the nest where new ideas hatch! Pay attention to details: use real utensils and glasses, not plastic, have employees help wash dishes. And nothing signals a communal, homey feeling more than leaving the butter dish out! —Becky Bermont

8. Activate empathy

At Airbnb, the conference rooms are designed to be replicas of favorite rentals around the world. There’s a picture of the actual space at the entrance. That helps immerse you in the Airbnb customer experience, a great reminder that you’re there to make that experience better. —Kristin Kelly

9. Use nature to support well-being

At my former workplace, CookFox Architects, the firm incorporated the principles of biophilia into their office design. All 80 employees had a direct view to the outdoors, and natural light poured in from three sides of the office. Potted plants were placed in every possible place throughout the office, and there was a rooftop garden where they kept bees and plants that attracted butterflies and birds. Carpet, bathroom tiles, and paint were done in ocean-inspired colors, and decorative lighting structures mimicked patterns found in nature. Biophilic design is said to unburden our cognitive system, supporting it in collecting and recognizing information in the quickest and most efficient way, as well as generally supporting wellbeing. —Alisa Ahmadian

10. Cultivate permission

Allow employees to put stuff on the walls. It goes without saying: it's better to have things on the wall that you've created, versus expensive art you've paid someone else for. —Zach Hobbs

11. Provide spaces for projects

Clear space where workers can leave projects-in-progress without worrying about the mess. I wish every home and every workspace had this. In school maker labs (such as the Innovation Lab at Nueva School), I'm always pleased to notice big shelves for students' work-in-progress projects. —Sally Madsen

12. Introduce some play

Make C-level guys take themselves less seriously and more open to brainstorming by taking them slightly out of their comfort zone. I heard that in Jump Associates' meeting rooms, they have pilates balls instead of chairs. On the same theme, my father, who is an urban designer in Istanbul, installed swings in his studio to create an informal and playful space. He works with mayors on a daily basis, and you’ll see very traditional politicians swinging alongside young urban designers. —Nazlican Goksu

13. Think about a landscape of creative spaces

Create different spaces to match the task at hand. Three things are required to make this successful: abundant power sockets, quality wi-fi coverage, and agreements among employees of how to "use" the space. That way, no individual will attempt to claim a space long-term, and will instead facilitate everyone being in the exact right space at the exact right moment. —Lawrence Abrahamson

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Many businesses are getting wise and ditching the one-size-fits-all flannel suit approach to the workplace. But do they have any clue what to replace it with? For a while, everyone wanted to make their office look like a children's playground. Today, the trend is to try to look like a coworking space or a coffee shop. But are those ideas future-proof? And do they actually create the conditions that creativity needs to thrive?

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.