New Yorkers experience policing differently depending on who they are and where they live. Some communities are patrolled; others are profiled. When your neighbors’ experiences are starkly different from your own, it can be almost impossible to understand their perspective.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), a state branch of the ACLU, hoped to spark a dialogue around race and police tactics in over-policed communities, and to engage voters on this divisive issue before New York City’s mayoral election. But the NYCLU also understood that traditional slogans and billboards weren’t enough to foster deep personal conversations and effective political action—the city needed real talk.

The organization engaged IDEO to help create a city-wide, nontraditional campaign. In talking with New Yorkers, the NYCLU advocates and IDEO designers honed in on two simple truths: Transformative conversations happen only when people feel safe enough to listen—and to speak. And people become more compassionate listeners once they themselves feel heard. In a time of entrenched interests and growing social conflict, listening can be a radical act.

Together, IDEO and the NYCLU designed Listening NYC, a grassroots campaign to promote interpersonal listening, meaningful discussion, and collective action around policing.

To get New Yorkers—famously brash and always bustling—to stop and listen to their neighbors, they created a pop-up installation called the Listening Room that travels through the city to catalyze one-on-one conversations. It’s a portable safe space, with tables, chairs, two walls that provide a degree of intimacy, and two sides left open for a feeling of psychological safety.

At the center of the experience is a deck of Conversation Cards that encourage New Yorkers to share their stories and hear those of others. Simple prompts like “I believe the role of police is to _____,” and questions like “A cop stops you in your neighborhood. What do you do?” empower people to find common ground. Through straightforward but structured activities like these, many New Yorkers who enter the Listening Room expecting to disagree instead find themselves sharing stories and opinions in ways they never imagined.

Beyond face-to-face dialogue, the Listening Room also features a radio loaded with stories from different neighborhoods across the city’s five boroughs. By turning the dial, visitors can learn about encounters with policing culture from fellow New Yorkers, including two NYPD officers.

To turn talk into action, visitors are invited to send a postcard to the mayor. People choose the policy proposals most important to them—from, “Police shouldn’t be disciplining kids in school” to, “If police want to read our emails, they should have to get a warrant”—and add them to a pre-stamped postcard dropped into a special “ballot box.” The NYCLU delivered more than 2,000 of these cards to Mayor Bill de Blasio upon his reelection in late 2017.

IDEO and the NYCLU also led an interactive campaign event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Residents, students, philanthropists, and police were led through an exercise called Creative Tensions, positioning themselves around the room according to their views on everything from surveillance technology to school safety. Experts helped guide the conversation including Sheriff Jerry Clayton, director Liesl Tommy, and NYCLU organizer Brandon Holmes. The process allowed participants to see how fluid people’s positions can be.

Listening NYC has now reached thousands of New Yorkers at more than 35 locations. Schools, from a public middle school to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, have requested visits from the Listening Room, and the installation’s modular design has inspired new incarnations on topics including student safety and discipline.

The NYCLU has sent Conversation Cards to celebrities, influencers, and every member of the New York City Council. Sending postcards to Mayor de Blasio and Conversation Cards to the city council led directly to passage of the Right to Know Act—legislation that incorporates some of the NYCLU’s proposals for police reform.

Today, the impact of Listening NYC has moved beyond city limits. The NYCLU’s Syracuse chapter is introducing the pop-up installation there, while in Boston, mayoral candidate Tito Jackson even promised a visit from the Listening Room if elected. To keep dialogue flowing, the ACLU plans to distribute Conversation Cards nationwide.

Fashion thrives on reinvention. Now, digital platforms and tools are reinventing fashion. E-commerce has reshaped the shopping experience and social media has democratized the once-exclusive industry.

Amidst this furious whirl of change, the fashion platform Zalando, founded in 2008, has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies. Headcount has ballooned to 15,000 and revenues grew 23 percent year over year. More than €1 out of every €100 spent on clothing in Europe is spent at Zalando.

In 2014, Zalando’s co-founder and CEO Robert Gentz approached IDEO to help think about the organization’s future in the face of increasing competition. Gentz realized that building design thinking capabilities across the company would allow Zalando to make systemic business shifts, like building better experiences for customers, and balancing operational excellence and execution with innovation.

So, he invited a team of IDEO designers and Zalando employees to create an innovation lab in its Berlin headquarters. They called it The Studio, and in the three years since its launch, it has helped the company build new products, experiences, and modes of working that are powering a digital transformation across Zalando and in the broader fashion world.

Finding purpose

Gentz came to IDEO with a simple request: “I want my daughter to be proud of the company I created.” With that directive, the first order of business was to home in on the organization’s new strategy—to shift from an e-tailer to a full-blown fashion platform—and resurface purpose. After a series of interviews and workshops across the company, a unifying intent emerged:

Zalando exists to reimagine fashion, for the good of all.

To share that message, the team designed a five-day Festival of Purpose at the company’s Berlin headquarters and satellite locations, coupled with a long-term plan to help leaders and their teams weave that sense of purpose into everything they do.

WATCH: Learn how Zalando used purpose to mobilize its community

Building Innovation Capacity

With a shared purpose to rally around, Zalando started to design and build at a clip. The Studio experimented and prototyped, launching products like Seen At, a mobile app that allows members to upload street style photos, and a digital tool called Collabary that connects online fashion influencers with brands. Projects are enabling cross-disciplinary teams to get into the practice of aligning around joint goals, making fast decisions, and building with agility.

But just as important as identifying growth opportunities for the company has been The Studio’s role as a hub. Zalando employees from across business units cycled into the Studio, teaching IDEOers about their business and the company’s culture, while IDEOers helped them master the design thinking process so they could lead future projects.

Studio graduates ensure that anything prototyped there is implemented, and integrate what they’ve learned into their day jobs. Their experience makes them design ambassadors who spread the practice of experimentation, prototyping, and storytelling across the organization.

WATCH: Learn how Zalando pioneered a new innovation studio

Teaching Leaders How to Scale Change

It’s one thing to start working differently in a small innovation lab, but how do you scale change across an organization and determine how it will affect each major business unit—product, technology, commercial, and logistics? IDEO interviewed Zalando employees to better understand how to embed what we called new Ways of Working (WoW), a method that combines design thinking with lean and agile approaches. WoW was then deployed by a centralized team that ran workshops and coaching sessions to help leaders adopt it, measure its impact through OKRs, KPIs, and NPSs, and help their teams understand the new processes.

Today, the Ways of Working method is being rolled out across the entire organization, reaching all 15,000 employees.

Together, the relationship between IDEO and Zalando and their multi-year project of change is spurring double-digit growth, and making good on the company’s vision of reimagining fashion, for the good of all.

WATCH: Learn how Zalando scaled new ways of working across their organization

IDEO helped position Shinho’s ingrained respect for food, family, and good health as a guiding principle for how the organization interacts with its employees and the wider world. The IDEO team integrated a new motto—“treat the world as family”—into every part of Shinho’s work, from sourcing and hiring to new ventures to the care employees take in handling each bottle of sauce destined for someone’s table.

To help transform Shinho’s internal culture, the IDEO team also crafted a narrative to communicate the company’s beliefs to new staff and outside partners. The team expressed Shinho’s foundational story through a published brand book and film, reimagined logo, and codified employee values.

“My proudest moment was when we brought the brand identity IDEO developed to life, and interpreted Shinho’s mission and vision through that lens in front of 2,000 employees at our annual meeting,” said Hanzhong Dong, Shinho's Head of Product, “It made me feel that even though we’re a group of ordinary people, we’re working on a great and meaningful thing."

Shinho’s heightened confidence and focus on supporting families has empowered the company to expand beyond soy sauce and snacks and explore new offers, from culinary training to sustainable farming to food experiences.

In July 2017, Shinho stepped onto the international stage as a tastemaker by participating in an event called Food Forward, hosted by the Michelin Guide and IDEO. Michelin-starred restaurants are synonymous with superb ingredients and service. Shinho crafts safe, organic, high-quality products that are staples for Chinese chefs, and the company shares the Michelin Guide’s aim to celebrate and expand the role of fine dining in China. IDEO brought all parties together with the shared goals of elevating China's culinary craft and culture, inspiring people around the future of food in China, and encouraging fruitful connections and partnerships.

IDEO and the Michelin Guide organized the day-long event, which included guest speakers, panel discussions, and tastings with four international, Michelin-starred restaurant chefs. Speakers and panelists discussed culinary education, inclusion, and the interplay between tradition and innovation in food. More than 200 people attended from across the food ecosystem: chefs, restaurateurs, journalists, investors, and educators. The event’s livestream garnered 30 million global views and 800,000 engagements.

Shinho’s products now reach 30 million families in 232 cities around the globe, driven by a cohesive mission and brand message. This kind of values-driven growth and hunger for new partnerships is setting the course for the future of food in China and throughout the region.

Despite the rapid growth of China's economy and increased access to a wider variety of food since the opening up, the market is saturated with unhealthy, processed snack foods. Consumers are increasingly seeking better-quality options, highlighting a significant gap in the food system.

30M families

purchase Shinho’s products

60 countries

around the globe offer Shinho products

Narvar, a software-as-a-service startup that provides a post-purchase engagement platform for retail clients, was scaling fast. The company had grown from 20 to 90 employees, and was well on its way to reaching 300 over the next two years. As the company grew, its leaders wanted to make sure it could sustain its vibrant, innovative culture. Narvar came to IDEO for help identifying and defining its values in a way that would would scale with the organization.

For the IDEO team, that meant articulating a system of values that supported existing behavior, reflected the company’s aspirations, and aided in evaluating new talent and development. The team started by interviewing key “culture carriers,” from the CEO to new hires, to learn what makes Narvar special. Based on this research, the team crafted a working set of values, then invited the entire company to share their feedback. In doing this work, IDEO was also able to surface organizational issues and tensions within the company for Narvar leaders to address.

Now, Narvar lives its values every day. Team members use them during candidate interviews, employees see them daily on company walls, and managers reinforce them during performance reviews. Every quarter, leadership gives out a Narvar values award to reinforce their importance. Through this project, Narvar was able to not only capture its core values, but also use them as an active ingredient in the company’s growth.

“We engaged IDEO to really understand the challenges we faced as an organization, and IDEO helped us define and articulate our culture and values. I can honestly say that all the growth and success we’ve achieved in the past two years—we couldn’t have done that without the foundation from IDEO,” said Narvar CEO and founder Amit Sharma.

At IDEO's Play Lab, we spend all year making and testing toys, games, and experiences for kids—and grown-ups who used to be kids. Here are some of our best recommendations for everything from storytime play to game night with your pals. Some come from our very own Play Lab, and others from toy and game makers we admire.

Ready to make it official? You can find a link to our store here. (Please note that IDEO makes a commission off of affiliate links.)

1. Incohearent Family Edition by Relatable

A hilarious party game guaranteed to get a laugh with the fam during the holiday season! Each turn, one player draws a card with a gibberish phrase on it (i.e. “sa male leaf heat”) and the rest of the players race to sound out the gibberish and be the first to guess the hidden message in the garble (in this case— “smelly feet”) and collect that card. First to 13 cards wins! Tons of content, quick to learn, and quick to play, this game will have your whole family shouting pure playful gibberish at each other in no time.
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Who will love it: family and friends ages 10+, or check out the spicy version for cards with humor geared toward adults
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—Matt Callahan

2. So Clover

In So Clover, you’re given four pairs of random words. Then you have to come up with clues connecting each pair for your friends to decipher and discover which words go with which. Imagine CodeNames, but nobody gets angry or upset at you for giving weird clues! While it has a competitive element to it, ultimately this is a super fun word association/logic game that I can’t get enough of.
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Who will love it: Pretty much everyone, but for the adults, it’s extra fun as a drinking game
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—Andrew Stewart

3. FreeSkates

Skateboarding is the perfect combo of athleticism and artistry. It has parents like me holding our breaths and hoping that our kids avoid injury, but there’s nothing like the magic of seeing your kid flying across the asphalt, building confidence to try bigger and better tricks. FreeSkates introduce a whole new challenge with a separate board for each foot, bringing a fresh elegance and rhythm as your feet glide independently of each other, snaking in and out underneath you. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s worth the effort and the scrapes!
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Who will love it: Adventurous kids of all ages, though the younger ones tend to heal faster…
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—Michelle Lee

4. Flipslide

We bought our son a Rubik’s Cube, but it was just a little too monotonous for him to stick with it. Enter Flipslide! You have to flip, slide, and match the lights against the clock, and it’s wild how addictive it gets. It’s fast-paced, super portable, and great for challenging yourself or competing with one another to get the best time. Perfect for road trips or whenever you want a fun, screen free distraction.
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Who will love it: Puzzle fans and anyone 8+ who loves quick reflex challenges
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—Diana Tobey

5. Lights from Anywhere (Marvin’s Magic)

A classic, off-the-shelf illusion perfect for anyone getting into magic but looking for something beyond card tricks! Conjure magical lights between your hands, pulling them out of thin air and making them disappear in the blink of an eye. Without giving away any secrets, I can say this is a brilliant, timeless effect that deserves two thumbs up! 👍👍
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Who will love it: Any kid interested in magic (it does require some dexterity), but also parents too! It’s the ultimate party trick.
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—Neal Boyer

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6. DC Comics Batman Ultimate Transforming Batmobile Playset

This one is for the little Batman fans in your life that love getting lost in their own storylines.  One minute, you’re driving around Gotham; the next, the Batmobile opens up into a full-on Batcave with gadgets, a jail cell, and tons of cool spots for action figures. It’s the Batmobile that keeps giving.
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Who will love it: Batman fans 4+ and any kid who loves action-packed play
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—Elise Granata

7. Mantis

There are only two rules in this family board game for kids and adults. One, steal or score your way to victory by collecting matching cards. Two, the first player to reach 10 cards in their score pile is crowned the winner. The game is easy to learn and fast-paced. Ready for the emotional rollercoaster of stealing from your opponent—or being stolen from yourself?
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Who will love it: Family, and friends age 7+
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—Jeremy Chen

8. Sticker Wow! From Melissa and Doug

During our research talking to families with young kids, we discovered just how much they love stickers. But peeling and sticking can be hard for little fingers. So we came up with this super fun, fidgety way to stamp stickers. The best part? They stick tightly to activity books and paper, but are easily removable if kiddos stick them to other things. The stickers are refillable (and collectible), which means you never run out, and it’s not wasteful. All the kids we’ve seen play with this are instantly obsessed. (This toy is a patent-pending IDEO + Melissa and Doug invention.)
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Who will love it: Kids age 3-7
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—Vlasta Komorous-King

9. Story Time Chess

A way to teach kids (and adults!) how to play chess through fun, engaging stories. Each chess piece is turned into a unique character with a personality and movement pattern that aligns with that piece's actual rules in chess. For example, King Chomper can only move one step at a time because he loves to eat so much and his pockets are stuffed with food. The game comes with mini-games and workbooks to help kids practice specific skills as they get more advanced with their chess strategy and tactics. The perfect pick if you enjoyed The Queen’s Gambit and secretly aspire to raise your own chess prodigies—or better remember the rules yourself.
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Who will love it: Any age will benefit from the memorable story and characters, but especially younger kids 3+
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— Diana Tobey

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10. DJ Bouncin' Beats

This toy knows how to PARTY! I have spent hours of my life hanging out with DJ Bouncin' Beats and my two-year-old niece as it sings us ABCs, counts with us, and plays back custom recordings of phrases or sounds we make. It’s a combination teacher, boombox, and dance partner. Maybe even better than having a sibling?
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‍Who will love it: Kids 12-36 months
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—Elise Granata

11. Disney Princess Carriage to Castle Playset

So much play value in one play set! With Carriage to Castle, kids can act out both magic princess vehicle play AND full castle doll house play with all their favorite princesses. This playset comes with four figures, tons of accessories, and an exciting transformation to help them story play. Parents will love that this castle can transform back down to a carriage size for easy storage.

Who will love it: Young kids that love princess play! Best for ages 3+
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— Rikki Devlin

12. Drop Trivia

If you love some competition with your play, this game is perfect for a post-dinner or drinks moment with friends. The questions are a mix of pop culture, random facts, and fun surprises, so there’s something for everyone to shine at (or totally blank on). Think Trivial Pursuit with the countdown urgency of disassembling a bomb.  
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Who will love it:  Trivia buffs ages 10+—and anyone who loves a good challenge
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—Matt Callahan

13. Wild Flowers by Moose Toys

The ultimate chill board game! Wild Flowers features stunning graphics that transport you to a serene flower field. Players use tiles to grow and claim flowers, and complete task cards related to the flower board. Perfect for one to four players, it strikes the ideal balance between strategy and luck, making every game fun and engaging. The perfect way to end your day!
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Who will love it: 8+
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—Inna Yankelovich

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14. Illusion

Illusion is a quick and fun card game where players test their perception of color and patterns by arranging cards in order of the percentage of a specific color they contain. Each turn, you can challenge the lineup if you think someone made a mistake—revealing dramatic surprises when the cards are checked. It’s a fast-paced mix of strategy, observation, and the thrill of calling someone out, making it perfect for parties or family game nights!
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Who will love it: Kids 6+ (but it’s also great for adults)
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—Sam Hobish

15. Scout

This card game is easy to pick up and learn with a ton of depth. Unique cards have different values on their top half and bottom half. At the start of each round, you can decide whether to play with the top set of numbers or flip your entire hand to play with the other set. But player beware, your hand is now fixed for the rest of the game. Play cards to make new combos or take another card to make your hand even stronger. To win, play a hand no one can beat or get rid of your hand.
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Who will love it: kids (8+) and adults
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—Weishan Liao

16. CoComelon Transforming School Time Bus

The perfect gift for any CoComelon lover, this classic school bus play set transforms into a tiny classroom and playground. Kids can drive around on the ground in school bus mode, then easily open up the bus to find tons of play inside. The chairs magically pivot into a classroom setting.
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Who will love it: Kids 3-6, but also Cocomelon lovers of any age
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—Weishan Liao

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17. The Magic Puzzle Company

Think you’ve mastered all the puzzles out there? Welcome to the enchanting world of the Magic Puzzle Company. These puzzles are designed to challenge even the most seasoned puzzlers, with whimsical scenes, quirky characters, and a surprise twist that will leave you in awe. Packed with hidden Easter eggs and playful vignettes, every piece you place brings a touch of joy. With such captivating designs, it’s nearly impossible to step away. (And check out this puzzle by IDEO alum Felicia Chiao.)
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Who will love it: Kids 15+ to adults
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—Lauren Schreiber

18. Barbie Dog Duo With Wheelchair

This set offers such a sweet way to expand storytelling opportunities, with Barbie caring for her pup who’s using a wheelchair, bringing inclusion and creativity into playtime. The little accessories are a great touch, and it’s been a hit for sparking imaginative, heartwarming adventures.
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Who will love it: Kids 3+
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—Keren Wong

Stumped about which toys or games to add to your list this year? We’ve got you covered.

There are few parts of the industry we haven’t touched. Why? Because few sectors offer so many possibilities for making a positive impact in people’s lives, if we can ask the right questions, and innovate our way to the right solutions.

Last month, we headed to HLTH to learn more about the trends, hurdles, and paradigm shifts companies, hospitals, and other care organizations are coming up against in this space. Here are some of the things we took away from our time on the ground.

‍1. Design can help us move beyond point solutions

Right now, we’re seeing a lot of standalone digital platforms tailored for different diagnoses, different age groups, and different patient populations. While this approach can better align with the way payments work in the healthcare system and result in more easily-proven health outcomes, it often feels like we’re reinventing the wheel over and over. You see this especially in mental health—solutions for youth, solutions for kids, solutions for employees, etc. Larger organizations across payers, medtech, and pharma, are starting to ask, “What is actually generalizable here?” And, “Can a connected experience better fit the patient's needs?” “Does everything have to be custom-built for every drug, every piece of equipment, and interventions?” That’s costly, not only to operate but also to sustain. Why don’t we already have frameworks that are broad but adaptable? With all the research and data we have, we could create a shared understanding that we can tune to fit specific needs. Theoretically, we have the data; we know what works and what doesn’t. There are systemic reasons—proprietary systems and data hoarding come to mind. But still, if we could create a more universal approach, we could make an enormous difference.

‍2.  We need to use AI to upskill healthcare workers, not replace responsibilities

‍The way we’re using them now, AI tools primarily aim to speed up workflows and improve operational efficiencies—whether it’s faster prior authorizations or streamlined documentation through AI scribes. But without careful implementation, these efficiencies could merely increase volume without enhancing care quality. Accelerating prior authorizations might lead to more requests and denials, rather than improved outcomes. Saving time on documentation might enable doctors to see more patients, but it doesn’t necessarily mean better patient interactions. We need to look beyond low-hanging fruit to achieve lasting impact. The industry must ask itself: Will widespread AI adoption genuinely drive health outcomes? And crucially, how do we encourage buy-in in a field where practitioners—trained over decades to rely on their own expertise—may resist technology-driven changes? At IDEO, we recently worked with a large payer organization to develop an internal AI strategy, focusing on how to foster acceptance across all employee levels. Building comfort with AI requires thoughtful design that respects existing expertise while gradually upskilling, rather than displacing, responsibilities.

‍3. “Practical innovation” may just be a buzzword

‍On the ground, we heard a lot about the challenge of sustaining innovation as budgets tighten across the healthcare landscape. Our conversations with people driving innovation at health systems and large organizations revealed not only budget cuts, but also a shift toward tactical, outcome-driven approaches. Organizations that we spoke with are increasingly looking to “practical innovation” to kick start their innovation cycle. Practical innovation in its original definition ensures a focus on commercial impact vs. innovation theater–a concept that we bring to each of the challenges we take on–but we shouldn’t allow the push for pragmatism to result in innovation falling into a trap. In this climate, innovation teams are expected to tie their work to key metrics prematurely, and reach scaled efficiency too quickly. This results in fewer bets, lower tolerance for risk, and a short runway to demonstrate outcome-focused results. Design has a crucial role to play in avoiding potential traps and increasing impact. For instance, by leaning into co-design and creating products alongside providers and patients, we can significantly de-risk innovative products and services. During our partnership with Kooth to create a mental healthcare app for youth in California, we worked directly with a youth council of 50 diverse young people to launch and validate a proof-of-concept, before then getting full investment for a state-wide launch.

‍4. Hospitals are recognizing their power as innovative forces in the healthcare ecosystem

‍Shaking off the antiquated image that they’re bureaucratic dinosaurs, hospitals across the country are setting their sights on innovation and beginning to think of themselves as engines of impact across the healthcare ecosystem. Whether that’s lending their space and access to incubate startups or giving their skilled medical talent the time and resources they need to conduct research and development activities, hospitals are eager to deploy their assets in new ways to unlock new value and drive exponential impact by improving healthcare experiences and outcomes.

‍5. The time for good health is (always) now

‍Every year, we see, hear, and feel a sense of urgency around solving large, intractable problems, and every year we feel the collective disappointment that we are falling short of the progress we hope to see. Over the course of our week in Las Vegas, we spoke to thousands of people from across the healthcare ecosystem about novel ideas, genuine patient needs, product innovation, and promising new therapies. Each and every person wants to make an impact to improve the lives of those we serve—and it is true that we are seeing some remarkable progress. But good health remains elusive for many. We are working with clients in every corner of the sector to make good health a reality—innovating patient care, supporting carers to deliver on the purpose that drove their choice in vocation, partnering with life science companies to deliver innovative care to patients, and digital health companies to make huge leaps in how we deliver care. Our goal? To make healthier human futures a reality of today, not the hope for tomorrow.

We dedicate a lot of our time to making healthier human futures, from working with healthcare providers to create a culture of innovation, partnering with pharmaceutical companies to create new drug delivery approaches, and co-creating new digital solutions with disrupters.

This initiative, aimed at exploring what the next 10-15 years might bring, allowed me to leverage the full spectrum of a futurist's tools as well as those of an organizational designer—simultaneously exploring their design question while teaching and integrating foresight capabilities.

Being a futurist means spotting signals that may only be whispers today, but could become profound shifts tomorrow—shifts that companies will have to be prepared to navigate. When playing this role we use a mix of facilitative, creative, and analytical tools that not only identify emerging patterns, but also embed foresight into the organization itself, helping shape the culture to be more forward-facing. Our techniques range from examining historical patterns to scanning for signals of change to telling stories of multiple plausible futures—each designed to bring clarity to a complex environment and make emerging opportunities actionable for an organization as a whole.

What do those tools include?

Hunting for signals in the noise

Identifying and tracking signals of change is the primary activity of any foresight work. It’s focused on spotting glimpses of the future that exist in the world today. A signal might be a new idea, behavior, technology, social context, or business model that may seem insignificant now, but could redefine industries or the world at large if it scales. Recent examples I uncovered for clients include everything from the resurgence of “dumb” phones to the emergence of four-day work weeks to big tech’s greenhouse gas emissions surges fueled by the expansion of AI. Grasping these subtle shifts enables teams to broaden their perspectives and think beyond what’s currently happening.

Mapping drivers of change

Tracking and mapping broader trends and underlying drivers of change — like the climate crisis or the rapid rise of LLMs —gives further context to signals and reveals potential structural shifts influencing social, technical, environmental, economic and political systems—ultimately shaping how organizations adapt, innovate, and respond to emerging opportunities and risks in the future. Understanding the why behind these changes allows teams to build flexible strategies grounded in deep awareness of external forces.

Considering different futures

Imagining a range of possible futures challenges teams to consider different potential outcomes and to design tangible steps the company can take to either grab opportunity or avoid risk. Although it's important to imagine ideal or preferred future scenarios to create a transformative vision for the future, it's just as critical to explore potential futures with extreme uncertainty or disruption to stress-test ideas. Imagining “what if” scenarios like, “What if AI became the standard for all customer service?” or, “What if customers demand ownership of their data?”stretches a team's thinking to identify resilience strategies and become more nimble.

Preparing for disruption

Identifying and interpreting emerging paradigms helps organizations to anticipate market or strategic shifts before they disrupt, making it possible to proactively invest in nascent opportunities or manage the decline of legacy approaches or systems. It minimizes risks associated with abrupt change and encourages continuous innovation, ensuring the organization remains competitive and able to seize new growth opportunities as they arise. It’s all about building confidence in making strategic choices.

Creating artifacts from the future

A future news headline, a mock product, or an immersive experience can make abstract concepts concrete, spark discussion and inspire strategic actions that could be aligned with longer-term goals. Sometimes the most powerful stories or artifacts of the future are those that are the most mundane, like a job description or a transportation ticket set 15-20 years into the future. These  visions bring the future to life, and enable teams to embed future-thinking into strategic choice making.

Given the scale of the organization I was working with, we expanded the traditional signals exploration, mapping everything from the future of work and retirement, to the rise of a digitally-native generation, to shifts in human decision-making related to a broad and rapid integration of AI. A collaborative team of consultants and internal staff updated this tool weekly, regularly identifying and tracking trends, drivers, and future scenarios across the tech industry. And we mapped paradigm shifts in critical areas of the company’s operations, spotlighting strategic opportunities to lead change in the space.

Additionally, we developed and deployed a futures-focused curriculum and a program to engage leadership and key cross-functional stakeholders, ensuring lasting impact and sustained capabilities across the organization. Not only did we prepare the organization to anticipate and navigate future shifts, we also embedded a lasting culture of foresight, empowering the organization to lead its industry with confidence and agility.

For companies like this one, having a futurist-in-residence is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic imperative. This role is critical for two reasons: preparation and opportunity. With so many variables at play—from technological advances to societal shifts—it’s critical to have someone who can filter through the signal noise, identify potential game-changing opportunities, and help those who guide the organization to adopt a more forward-thinking approach. The role can also foster a culture that challenges assumptions, encourages innovative and creative thinking, and equips teams to identify and interpret the forces that are shaping tomorrow.

In today’s volatile and complex world, companies need futurists not just as advisors, but as strategic enablers who build futures literacy across an organization. Investing in the future means investing in the people who can help organizations see a wide array of futures clearly and act on uncertainty with confidence, helping turn that uncertainty into strategic possibility.

As part of a client engagement, I recently stepped into a futurist-in-residence-style role for a major tech company that was eager to infuse futures thinking throughout an already innovative organization.

One of the ways they deliver this value is by being more approachable and responsive to a wide range of user behaviors. Or, seen another way, by being social and emotional by default. Designers of these tools can lean into the power of emotional engagement, or pretend it isn’t actually there at all. Count us on the side of emotional engagement: We believe that designers should understand and intentionally integrate emotion into data analysis tools.

Why does emotional engagement with data matter?

Data is at the heart of decision-making, driving everything from product development to customer service. Every presentation of data is ultimately telling a story, from a dry spreadsheet to Florence Nightingale’s famous casualty diagram. But how effective, impactful and, perhaps most importantly, intentional is that story? Emotional engagement is vital because it not only makes data more relatable, but also invites curiosity and deeper reflection. By intentionally crafting the personality of conversational AI systems, we can create experiences that enhance functionality through emotional connection.

Personality-driven AI interfaces help transform the process of making sense of data into an experience that can spark empathy, understanding, and even enjoyment. This approach offers a way to help AI systems humanize data, making the interaction with that data feel less transactional and more like a conversation.

The role of personality in AI systems

Integrating personality into data presentation systems is more than a party trick to add life to your pie charts. It’s about designing tools that can communicate with users in ways that reflect their mood, tone, and even sense of humor. Large Language Models (LLMs) make this not just possible, but accessible to everyone who needs to present data. By generating natural-sounding dialogue and infusing it with personality, LLMs allow for conversations that resonate emotionally—and at times playfully—rather than just delivering dry data. We believe all data tells a story, and LLMs can help you tell a better one.

What can that look like in practice?

During a recent workshop we hosted at HCI International 2024, we asked participants to design AI-enabled systems using an evolved version of the "Talking to Docs" framework. Our goal was to strip back the LLM interface as much as possible, until it contained just the elements we wanted to explore: a base prompt and a searchable vectorized document set. This simplification let our participants experience how setting intentions around personality and emotional framing through prompt engineering can recontextualize their unstructured data (held in the vectorized document set). Each participant took a unique approach to how their unstructured data could be presented in a more intentionally humanized way, blending functionality with personality. Here are some of our favorites.

1. Exploring Newton’s Principia Mathematica with an enthusiastic fitness coach

One participant created a conversational system to explain Newton’s Principia Mathematica in the style of an overly-enthusiastic fitness instructor. This personality is rooted in humor and contrast. Principia contains some of the most revolutionary ideas in physics, not to mention that it’s written in Latin–not an inviting combination. By choosing the framing of a fitness coach, the system immediately added a whole different set of cultural signifiers. But, the benefits went beyond style. The system actually framed its explanations of the ideas in the text as fitness metaphors, making them more relatable to a common human experience—like when it explained the concept of gravity.
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"Just like your muscles build momentum during a run, gravity pulls that ball down the hill! Keep up the energy,—you’ve got this!"‍

This example shows how AI can make even the most challenging material feel dynamic and engaging and, perhaps most importantly, welcoming to audiences who might not be seen as the core one for a particular subject​.

What could this mean in real-world applications? Imagine large multinational corporations creating engaging experiences for AI adoption and upskilling their workers; hospitals could explain complex medical treatments to patients in digestible ways, and schools and education companies could make tough subjects more fun and accessible to learners.

2. Demystifying Picasso’s Guernica for the curious

Another participant used a friendly, approachable art teacher personality to explain Picasso’s Guernica to younger audiences. By using relatable language and a conversational tone, the system helped break down the complex themes and techniques of the painting, making art more accessible as a patient teacher might:
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"Picasso broke things apart and put them back together in strange ways to show the confusion and chaos of war. It’s like a giant puzzle, and you’re the detective figuring it out!"‍

LLMs can be prompted to use existing pedagogy techniques (for example, Socratic dialogue or reciprocal teaching) to deepen understanding of topics a user might normally just skim over. This approach could be used by art and fashion players like museums and brands to explain the backstories of their artifacts, or by travel companies to add greater context to a visitor’s experience of a new place. Or, even more provocatively, this technique could be used to create understanding, consent and trust when agreeing to data usage, especially in highly-sensitive but complex areas like genetic data and other personal information.

3. Adapting the approach to user behavior

A third participant introduced a humorous twist to the bureaucratic process of filling out tax forms by creating an interface that changes its entire persona based on the attitude of its user. If the system detects the user’s tone as positive  and polite, it responds with the personality of a bubbly, cheerful government worker right at the start of their career. But if the system sees that the user is grumpy or rude, it replies with a sarcastic and grudging attitude, and adopts the persona of a government worker on their very last day on the job.
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"Ugh, all right. You do not put your ITIN here. Grab a coffee and take a deep dive into section 4 of Pub. 15 if you really want to know more."‍

What happens when you no longer have to design your interface with an assumed user intent, but instead can dynamically adjust it based not just on explicitly gathered user preferences, but on their tone and attitude?

There are many applications where creating some intentional friction when users don’t behave as intended is desirable, from financial planning to medical treatment plan adherence. Instead of building these frictions on a one-size-fits all design, we can use LLMs to estimate user attitudes and create the right behavioral nudges at the right time. And maybe they can even manage to be funny while doing it.

The future of emotionally-engaged AI design

Designing AI-enabled systems isn’t just about efficiency and ease. It’s about creating meaningful interactions that leverage how humans think and feel to make data more accessible, relatable, and even enjoyable. With their ability to understand and transform human language, AI systems naturally evoke emotional responses that differ from those triggered by traditional software or hardware. Even the absence of a defined personality becomes a personality in itself. As designers of these systems, it’s our responsibility to think deeply about how they’ll relate to users, not just how technically accurate their responses will be. The applications of personality-driven, emotionally-infused AI interfaces can span sectors from technology to healthcare, culture, media, education, government, consumer products, and beyond, potentially making data more vital, relatable, and actionable in all of our everyday lives. It all depends on design.

As AI technology advances, so does the potential to reimagine how we experience data—where even the most abstract information can evoke curiosity, empathy, and engagement.

Try it for yourself

We created this process to make engaging with the fundamentals of AI tools more accessible to designers–and that means you too! If you’d like to try your hand at our personality crafting exercise you can find instructions here. We’d love to hear about what you make! And if you’d like to partner with us to help solve an AI problem of your own, get in touch.

AI data analysis tools are promising a lot: efficiency, adaptability—even enhanced comprehension.

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.