Keeping diabetes in check isn’t easy. Between checking blood sugar multiple times a day, keeping a detailed activity record, and logging food intake, staying healthy can be daunting.

But a recent advance in smart diabetes management—Ascensia’s CONTOUR NEXT ONE blood glucose meter and the CONTOUR DIABETES app—can give patients more clarity and control.

The CONTOUR NEXT ONE is the latest product to spring from a multi-year collaboration between IDEO and Ascensia Diabetes Care (formerly Bayer Diabetes Care). In 2009, Ascensia and IDEO developed the award-winning CONTOUR USB blood glucose meter—the first meter to plug directly into a computer, providing patients and their doctors with instant access to blood sugar data and personal trend reports.

Buoyed by the success of the first collaboration, Ascensia asked IDEO to help design a next-generation diabetes management system (and the company’s first internet-connected device).

To help reduce the stigma of checking blood sugar in public, IDEO designed the CONTOUR NEXT ONE to look and behave like today’s modern tech devices. The highly simplified, seamless system allows patients to upload blood glucose readings automatically to the app, which helps guide informed, real-time decisions. The meter’s red, green, or yellow smartLIGHT feature gives instant feedback about whether blood sugar levels are below, within, or above the target range.

Seeing contextual data, which includes physical activity logs and photos of meals, paired with recent and historic blood sugar levels, nudges patients toward healthier lifestyle choices and better control of their condition.

For doctors, the accuracy and quantity of the data combined with the app’s easy-to-read pattern views invites more comprehensive, actionable conversations with patients.

The CONTOUR NEXT ONE hit shelves in Europe in 2016 and is now available in the U.S. Ascensia is poised to develop more products enabled by rich, personalized data to help people with diabetes live longer, healthier lives.

What if we could use the sky to provide alternative solutions to these problems, creating more space for living and transportation? What exciting future awaits us?

At JAXA’s Aeronautical Technology Directorate (ATD), researchers are conducting research and development on aviation science and technology for the future. They are working to affect positive impact through research like noise reduction of airframe and an integrated aircraft operation management system for disaster relief and crisis management.

Normally, JAXA begins their projects by examining the needs of the aircraft industry or comparing themselves against global technology standards. This approach often leads to ideas that are merely an extension of the current technology. JAXA needed a new approach in order to create radical ideas and real change.

The key question was: What solutions would emerge from prioritizing people’s needs over the most advanced technological possibility—taking a human-centered approach to tackling the most pressing societal challenges?

JAXA ATD voluntary partnered with IDEO to attempt to answer this question, identifying new research areas by envisioning people’s needs in the near future. Together, JAXA and IDEO developed four scenarios of future societies.

The scenarios do not necessarily focus on technologies. Rather, the focus is on telling stories that help readers put themselves in the shoes of the four personas. At the same time, the team worked with industrial designers to illustrate convincing demonstrations of the vehicles and machines of the future.

JAXA’s team embraces the belief that “technologies developed at JAXA should incorporate emotional aspects to blend seamlessly into people’s lives.” Driven by this philosophy, the visual design of the four scenarios used a friendly illustration style intended to be approachable and understandable for people of all ages.

In order to develop human-centered concepts from scratch, the IDEO and JAXA team first undertook research and inspiration-gathering. They skydived, observed cities from above, brainstormed with students from the department of architecture at Waseda University. They interviewed airline employees, a former Judo world champion, skyscraper lovers, a business producer who focuses on new working styles. Throughout the research phase, the team explored the possibilities of the sky as a “living space,” not just a place for transportation.

The team was surprised and excited when they learned from a former fighter pilot that old cockpit designs were inspired by the Japanese tea room, highlighting a historic precedent for taking inspiration from real life to inform new technology designs.

The team synthesized their research and developed several concepts, each informed by a different social issue or pressing concern. Each issue was brought to life through a fictional personal narrative.

How might we relieve city congestion and pollution using the sky, while still keeping it clean and blue? Floating public lights, a skyway that regulates air traffic, camouflaged planes that keep the sky blue—concepts introduced in this scenario were the closest to the technologies already being researched at JAXA ATD. They show us how the sky could become an infrastructure that supports our daily lives. Meet Ayame, a girl from Gunma prefecture, ready to begin her college life in Osaka.

How might we make travel feel easy for people of all ages, no matter how far they need to go? While the researchers at JAXA ATD are working to improve the mobility of aircraft, like reducing air friction or increasing the engine efficiency of aircraft, this scenario explored how people could travel door-to-door through the sky with or without aircraft. A day-in-the-life of Naoto, a 72-year-old man who commutes twice a month from Tottori to Tokyo for medical checkups.

How might we leverage the sky as a resource for reusable energy and economic growth? One of the criteria of JAXA’s R&D activities is to improve the environment. While JAXA has been focusing on “protecting” the environment, this scenario focused on “creating” new environments. A day-in-the-life of Toshi, who runs a “sky-to-table” farming business.

How might we help people live with peace of mind, even during a disaster? JAXA’s disaster relief technologies have been extremely valuable in countries like Japan, which frequently suffers from natural disasters. In this scenario, we approached the problem from victims’ point of view while exploiting the potential of a network of aircrafts and other flying objects. Here's the story of Yuri, a victim of an earthquake in Tokyo who reunites with her family after evacuating to the sky.

The purpose of the project website is not to present answers, but to introduce new directions towards an exciting future. By presenting JAXA ATD’s vision through these four scenarios, the team invited people from all industries and of all ages to participate in co-creating the future.

Just like movies, cartoons, and novels from childhood stimulate the imagination, this project aims to spark new conversation and vision for a radically different, positive future.

By illustrating and communicating a more human-centered future to a wider audience, Japan’s top aeronautical technology development agency may already be changing the future of the sky for the better.

The speed and scale of change in our world are unprecedented. As more people relocate to cities, our lives are impacted by urbanization problems such as pollution, congestion, depopulation of rural areas, resource, and energy deficiencies.

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For factory operators, a smart valve is a game-changer. It gathers data on how smoothly the system is running and feeds it to an app, making it easier to troubleshoot from anywhere. And when things get overheated, it can automatically shut down the machinery, avoiding a meltdown.

Georg Fischer (GF), the Swiss-based, B2B industrial manufacturer collaborated with IDEO to design that valve, along with a system that adds value for generations of engineers to come.

And there were some surprises along the way. When the team set out to interview customers, they learned a lot about their real needs. “We showed a customer a sacrificial concept of a smart valve and asked, what do you think about this?” says Laura Barrabia, GF’s Head of Corporate Design Thinking. “The customer answered, we don’t want your valve to be smart, we want to be smart. If GF is providing a smart valve, where is my value?”

For GF Piping Systems, these insights helped shape initial prototypes and guided the direction of the design to something that would tie parts together into smart systems and more efficient industrial facilities—a competitive advantage.

Yves Serra, GF’s CEO, recognized early on that his company needed to strengthen its customer-centricity and digital capacity, so he approached IDEO to begin shifting GF’s culture from engineering-led and procedural to customer-focused, multidisciplinary, collaborative, and flexible. That kicked off a decade-long relationship that would help GF take a design-based approach.

Learn what it means to move from being technology-driven to being truly customer-centric.

To help GF identify clients’ pain points and address them with new digital offers, IDEO proposed three “lighthouse” projects, one for each of GF’s divisions: Piping Systems, Casting Solutions, and Machining Solutions. Lighthouse projects (also called “Beacons”) are proofs of concept that light the way for an organization and help it shift its way of working.

For example, GF Machining Solutions built a prototype for an application that uses real-time data to help customers identify and fix problems in the machines, laying the foundation for truly predictive maintenance. Making data streams more transparent for customers also simplified life for the GF service engineers, who keep the machines running.

Learn how Georg Fischer is moving from hardware offerings to digital solutions.

For GF Piping Systems, the design team developed the GF Digital Line, a set of products, apps, dashboards, and other services that help customers plan, install, and maintain water and chemical piping systems. GF teams went back to customers to test several prototypes and gather feedback on the Digital Line and make sure it addressed current and future needs. They also built internal capabilities to support product development, laying the groundwork for future innovation.

Lastly, IDEO helped GF Casting Solutions escape the “commodity trap” of competing with foreign automotive suppliers. To better understand the pressures car manufacturers face, the design team explored the development cycles of two car manufacturers. They learned how challenging it is to implement solutions to reduce vehicle weight—essential for cutting fuel consumption. As an expert in aluminum die casting, GF was well positioned to help manufacturers meet that challenge, not just with quality parts, but also with digital engineering to deliver cutting-edge lightweight casting solutions, which are harder to replicate.

By the end of these lighthouse projects, GF had rolled out a global design thinking training program that had touched more than 1000 employees. After the training, employees throughout the organization adopted a new way of working and became passionate ambassadors. The enthusiasm spread from the R&D department to HR to finance and many other departments.

Today, GF has permanent design thinking and digital teams to continue this work. All three divisions aim to launch the first releases of their lighthouse projects by early 2019. And with every project, GF’s business—and solutions—get smarter about how to meet the needs of a fast changing world.

IHG’s ambition is to grow in service of its guests around the world. IHG’s Atlanta-based team had identified a major opportunity for hotels in the midscale space—a market segment known for its inconsistency.

Alongside colleagues at London-based forpeople, IDEO was invited to help IHG shepherd that business opportunity into a human one, by asking how IHG might reimagine the everyday travel experience for people relying on this category of hotel. What kind of offer might resonate equally with guests and with the owner/operators who’d need to buy into a new brand and bring it to life?

IDEO began by talking to travelers to better understand their lives, values, and needs—travelers who spend one or two nights on the road a few times every year; travelers who regularly take short trips to small cities or away from city centers; and travelers who live on the road, moving from hotel to hotel. These included court stenographers, medical technicians, consultants, conference-goers, and more.

Early research insights evolved into two distinct concepts for a new hotel brand, which were built out into two full-scale physical prototypes at IHG’s design center in Atlanta. Over three weeks, IDEO and its IHG partners led potential guests and hotel owners through each model, gathering their feedback on new formats for breakfast offerings, service details, booking experiences, and overall tone.

The investment in prototyping paid off with surprising and actionable insights. Despite wide variation in occupation and income, these guests are sophisticated and self-reliant; they know what’s out there, and they know what’s reasonable to expect. In fact, many describe a syndrome IDEO dubbed “anticipation anxiety:” the sense of dread that comes from not knowing whether a lower-priced hotel is going to be clean or safe, or provide a bed that enables restful sleep. Many have so little confidence in the cleanliness of hotels in this price range that they travel with their own packs of wet wipes.

IDEO, along with the IHG team, recognized these behaviors as an unanswered cry in the market. The purpose of the new brand crystallized around extinguishing that anxiety and rewarding guests with something much better. avid hotels exceeds its competition by doubling down on quality in just a few select areas: an extraordinary mattress; rigorously high standards of cleanliness; a focused, high-quality, grab-and-go breakfast and coffee experience; and an overall tone of warmth and straightforwardness.

These guests made clear that for trips like this, they aren’t interested in bells and whistles, or communication that isn’t frank or to the point. That led to an insight that upends an industry truism: for these guests—and there are many of them—choosing a hotel is rarely only about the price of the room. avid guests can often afford to stay in a more expensive place for a honeymoon or a vacation or a trip with friends; they’ll spend more when they need more. But for functional stays of one or two nights, it just feels wasteful. It goes against their values and their principles.

IHG and IDEO heard a clear call for a sense of focus and affordability—but never at the expense of quality. Guests should be able to access a simple booking process, rooms designed for sound sleep, and a quality breakfast, all at a fair price. And hotel owners ought to be able to deliver that experience with confidence and consistency, at costs that build a compelling case for their own business.

That’s what avid hotels is designed to deliver, every single time. Early traveler reviews have been exceedingly positive and have noted specifically the unique differentiating offers avid brings to the market.

Within a year of partnering with IDEO, IHG had issued 150 avid hotels licenses to franchisees in the US, Mexico, and Canada, and announced a development deal for 15 avid hotel locations in Germany over the next five years—a scale of success that came at unprecedented speed for the industry. The collaborative, inclusive design process is now serving as a model for how to develop robust, guest-centered hospitality brands that deliver where it matters for people.

Knowing how to design community is a rare skill, and Rhonda did it better than anyone. She didn’t bring people together because it was her job. She did it because that’s who she was. Rhonda turned our studio into a home and coworkers into a family. Her creative acts of community-building were expressed through a million everyday things she did for us in the 10 years she worked at IDEO.

Over the last three weeks, we have been sharing stories of how we might be a little more Rhonda. Below are just a few:

Treat your coworkers as friends, not colleagues.

Jennifer Sarich-Harvey said that the moment she knew she was dealing with a special human being was when she received a care package from Rhonda while writing her thesis. Jenn had left IDEO as an intern the year before (not knowing that she would return a few years later).

Lindsey Turner told us of Rhonda’s detailed catering spreadsheet and how you could find little personalized notes therein: Graciella likes the Green Goddess with extra cashews, Noreen loves the almond cake, and no one ate the chicken tenders. Her thoughtfulness extended well beyond the confines of her job.

Treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Rhonda worked extraordinarily hard. She was always on her toes or running to tick something off her mental “to do” list. She even ate standing up. But no matter how busy she was, Michael Hendrix reminded us of how she never treated anyone as an inconvenience. Whatever she was doing, she would drop it in an instant to be truly present with you.

Make it special so people feel special.

Christina Abele chuckled warmly as she related the story of how Rhonda would always, always, re-plate the food—no matter if the caterer had already done so or she didn’t have the time. Rhonda knew that the way you made people feel special was through focusing on the smallest of moments, taking great care, and making them beautiful. This was her craft and how she showed her love in her own humble way. She would put “a little powdered sugar” on everything.

Make others successful.

No one brought this central IDEO value to life like Rhonda did. She was hospitality made manifest. She’d spend countless hours helping our design teams create an extraordinary experience for clients, of course, but she went above and beyond on a personal level too. Noreen Arora shared how Rhonda would sneak some food for her to take back to her new husband to make him fall even more in love with her.

Be the Rhocque.

“The Rhocque” was a nickname her best friends in the studio called her: Rhonda was unflappable, forever poised, and always put others well-being before her own. Nicole Howard recounted the time she was literally running through the studio, stressed before an event, holding paper in one hand and a binder in the other, with Rhonda right behind her. With a quick turn of the heel, they crashed into one another and, in a heroic move, Rhonda grabbed Niki and rubbed some calming lavender oil into her temples before scuttling off to stock the bar. Niki was dumbstruck. To this day, Niki keeps some lavender oil in her bag, just in case.

John Feole tells us how Rhonda once dropped a glass in the kitchen and, even though it broke, it didn’t shatter—it simply held itself together. And that, he remarked, was who Rhonda was: “You could be a little cracked, a little broken, but Rhonda helped you keep your form.”

Make memories, don't wait for them to make themselves.

Nicole Woods told us that Rhonda would intentionally create special moments between her and her daughter so that Ali would have memories for years to come—like recreating a scene from Frozen during the first snowfall. She did the same for us: Like that time she stood smiling as we “oohed” and “aahed” over how she had turned our studio into a woodland forest for an event.

Design random acts of kindness.

Rhonda had a gift. Design came naturally to her. She could anticipate our needs before we could, worked alongside us with our clients top of mind, and always made sure we left feeling better for it. From snow cones for an overworked team designing for snowboarders, rolling trolleys of hot chocolate on a chilly day with toppings only a child would dream of, cake pops in the hues of proposed brand identities and, Tom Kershaw confirmed, baby showers to rival the very best of weddings, she was “biologically incapable of not making things beautiful,” (thank you John Feole). She did so much for all of us and made it look effortless.

Many companies have their values plastered on the wall or policies on creating culture. We confess we have that, too. But, more importantly, we had the irreplaceable Rhonda.

Rhonda, we love you and we will miss you always. We hope to do you proud.

We collected a few suggestion from her friends and colleagues on how we can all be a little more like Rhonda. See their comments here.

You feel it the moment you walk into our studio—a sense of community. People come before deadlines. When someone makes a request, you drop everything, no questions asked, and lend a hand. Ask anyone here to identify the source of that feeling and they would have immediately pointed at the front desk, where every day, Rhonda LeRocque welcomed you in with a smile that could melt a glacier. Rhonda was one of the concertgoers in Las Vegas who never made it back home. This post is a tribute to her and how she brought us together.

I have always loved the sense of escape that dressing up allows. Ever since I transformed into a cardboard robot at a primary school fair as an 8-year-old (my brother is the blackbird), I have been fascinated by how differently people interact with me when I’m in a seemingly alien state.

That early fascination, coupled with my love of building things, has led me to create elaborate costumes based on Ghostbusters, Edward Scissor hands, and LEGO men, to name a few. And since working in the Play Lab, my costume obsession has truly bloomed. IDEO has a long tradition of extreme costume building, especially for our annual holiday party. Themes over the last few years have included Surrealism, County Fair, and Magical Forest.

Over the years many people have asked me how I approach costume creation. Here are 8 ways to channel your inner designer:

1. Stretch the theme

When it comes to themed events, I look for something on the fringe so there’s no chance I’ll be dressed the same as anyone else. For the surrealism party, Salvador Dali, whose paintings invite the viewer to interpret the work in more than one way, inspired me. I wanted to create a costume morphed two things into each other in black and white to achieve a striking contrast. After listing dozens of possibilities, I chose a zebra and a piano! I was pretty sure no one else would be thinking about mashing those together.

2. Plan, sketch, and simplify

When planning out a costume, I create an inspiration board of potential elements. Then, I explore compositions through quick sketches (often on bumpy commuter trains, forgive the roughness) to get a feel of what they might look like and how to construct them. Below are a couple of early sketches of my Zebra-piano and grasshopper costumes:

I try to simplify the execution as much as possible. Costumes do not need to imitate your reference exactly to create impact; just capture the essence of your theme/character in as simple and bold a way as possible.

3. Go wide with materials

Sourcing as many different material options as possible helps you be more creative with combinations and allows unexpected “discoveries” to happen. Don’t forget the fur and fairy dust!

4. Experiment and play beforehand

Try not to be too precious or precise as you start building. Try out different methods and do multiple tests. In painting my face to become a zebra I failed many times before I found a good quality paint and method of application. Here’s a picture to prove it!

Snazaroo paints are the best when applied with clean fingers, Q-tips, sharp-edged sponges and cereal-box cardboard. Dabbing a layer of powder or, with eyes closed, hairspray onto the paint helps it stay in place for the duration of the night.

5. Break the human silhouette

Costumes that break the usual form factor of the human body are the most striking and unexpected. For the County Fair event I built a Zoltar fortune-teller machine using laser-cut foam core decorated with acrylic spray paint. Don't have a laser cutter in the garage? Check out a local techshop or other makerspace, ask a friend who's got access to a shop to help out, or do a quick search for local vendors.

6. Be human-centered

Make sure you can easily drink and go to the toilet! I’ve made too many costumes that have made both difficult, which admittedly adds a layer of hilarity when you have to rely on complete strangers to help you use the facilities.

7. Light it up

Parties are often held in darkened rooms. Adding any level of lighting really helps your costume pop. When building the grasshopper costumes, I found cheap battery-powered LED strip lights on Amazon that brought them to life.

8. Multiples for the win

Team up with someone (as I did with my fellow grasshopper) to add clout to your costume. Two is always better—and more fun—than one.

Check out this gallery of some of my finished costumes:

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Happy escapism! Share your costume idea with us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook with #IDEOcostumedesign.

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It’s spooky season, and we’re feeling that familiar dread of what to wear, what to make, or even where to find inspiration flood in. At a company where design is close to a religion, coming up with an eye-popping costume is the Holy Grail.

Far from the client presentations I had previously known, here, the emotional stakes were much higher. This was my personal story, and I was learning the hard way—in front of an audience of my new peers, no less—that I was clueless as to how I might frame a compelling narrative.

In other words, I had no idea how to tell a story.

Feeling awkward as can be, with a bruised ego to boot, I knew I had to improve my public speaking ability. Luckily, I fast became aware that I was surrounded by the best storytellers I had ever known. I began observing, writing down, and absorbing all of the knowledge, coaching, and feedback that was offered up.

It has been nearly seven years since I shut my laptop in shame. In this time, I have compiled a list of my five favorite, go-to tips from the best presenters at IDEO:

1. Make it personal

Your audience wants to see more than just a portfolio of work or a few case studies they could read on their phones. They want to hear your story. Who are you, how did you get here, and, most importantly, what are you passionate about and why? This latter idea should tie to the work you present.

2. Create a narrative arc

Your talk should have a fully realized narrative, complete with dramatic tension and resolution. The tension in my personal story arrived when I haphazardly fell into the agency world, where the ideologies that drive me were completely at odds with the work I was doing. Resolution came when I left and made a major change in my career and my work.

3. Provide historical context

A bit of history provides a compelling backdrop for the story of your work. When I talk about IDEO’s efforts in the automotive sector, I first tell the story of Thomas Midgley Jr., a chemist and mechanical engineer who invented leaded gasoline (and CFCs) while working for General Motors in the 1920s and '30s. Understanding the disproportionate, planetary-scale impact of Midgley's work sets up the formidable challenge that designers must now overcome.

4. The bar exam

Ask yourself, is your story interesting enough that you would tell it to a friend over drinks at a bar? Bonus points: Conduct your bar exam with a friend who works outside of your industry, making it all the more challenging to capture their attention.

5. Stick the landing

Always end on a punchline. Your punchline does not have to be funny, but it will be the overarching idea that people take home with them. In the context of an event with multiple speakers, your audience is endlessly bombarded with competing ideas and inspiration. When you stick your landing, they remember—perhaps even share—precisely what it is you aimed to communicate.

I have now employed the above tips from friends and colleagues at nearly 30 events over five years on four continents. I assure you, they work.

Special thanks to Annette Ferrara, Neil Stevenson, Shoshana Berger, Paul Bennett, Jenn Maer, Tim Brown, and Katie Clark. I owe you each a lifetime’s worth of experiences and airline miles.

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Nothing makes me want to master a new skill like falling on my face when I first attempt it. Halfway through my new hire presentation—a get-to-know-the-new-kid-over-beers tradition at IDEO Chicago—I cut my talk short and shamefully closed my laptop.

But first, here are a few things to think about before you begin:

Consider what you’re trying to learn. Do you want feedback on the event format, content, experience, or outcomes? Whatever that may be, it helps to tell your audience that they’re participating in a prototype right from the get-go. In our experience, being up front that you're trying to build something better encourages participants to respond. You might offer some incentive for their input, too. Even a small gesture of thanks signals that you value their thoughts. And remember to use the data you get back to understand what happened, and conversation to understand why. Data alone is only half the story.

With all that in mind, here are some techniques we’ve designed to help us understand what worked, what didn’t, and why.

1. Do Live Polling

Collect information during the event, while it’s freshest in people’s minds:

• Pass out comment cards with a simple feedback prompt, “I like/I wish”.
• Leave prompts on a board like, “What did you learn today?” and Post-Its for guests to use.
• Digital tools like Meetmaps or polleverywhere.com do live polling, and you can choose to show the audience the real-time results to encourage participation.
• Biometric measurement can tell you what selected people are feeling in real-time, Megvii and XOX are two systems. You can also show the audience this data.
• Have your team create a list of the most common sentiments or attitudes you expect to get ("I'm Confused" or "I'm Learning"). Then work the crowd, giving people simple feedback prompts. Tally results in a Google survey form, capturing any notable quotes or outliers.

2. Make Data Viz Physical

Sometimes seeing evidence that people are really engaged gets others to participate. Bonus: these methods are fun, and social.

• Have people use a green door to show a “like” and a red door to show a “dislike”. You can also do this by asking people to move to certain places within a space.
• From the stage, ask the crowd before/after speaker: “Stand up if this is the first event you’ve been to….”
• Have people choose a button/pin with a word that describes what people value. For instance, if you’re talking about community, one button might say, “finding my people” and another might say, “building diversity”. Count the ones that are left over.
• Place dots on a spectrum or balls in a bin to vote what you think. The voting objects can be themed too, like fake coins for business investing.

3. Observe Cues

People don’t always accurately report how they feel. Take note of what they do, too.

• Count how many people download the presentation or video after the event, if there is one.
• Provide a hashtag for people to use on social media, then track both the number of shares/tweets, and the sentiment of them. Tools like Tint can help with this.
• Collect names and email addresses for future events (if no one signs up, that’s feedback, too).
• Measure sound volume hourly throughout the event to get a better picture of traffic and engagement timing. Compare different events in full swing in the same physical space to quantify the energy in the room.
• Watch people showing signs of comfort and belonging in their body language—are they loosening their ties or kicking up their heels, do they feel comfortable enough to move chairs into a circle?—all are signs they’re engaged. Sitting alone, checking phones or watches, falling asleep, leaving the room—you know what those cues means.

4. Take the Long View

In addition to immediate learnings, you may want to aggregate insights over time or across events.

• Ask people if they want to be on a feedback panel going forward. Offer exclusive access or information in exchange for helping you shape the program.
• Provide a platform for ongoing conversation about the themes that are important to both you and your guests. This helps you keep the pulse in an ongoing way, and reminds people to associate you with things you care about.

Got any ideas of your own to add to our list? We’d love to hear about them. Hit us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #feedbackdesign.

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You put weeks of work into designing a great event. You think it went well, and people seemed happy, but how do you find out what truly worked and what didn’t? Instead of circulating a survey that makes people's eyes glaze over (if they glance it at all) we've applied our design chops to the task. Here's how to get quality feedback that will help you up your game.

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.