For 6-year-old Dave Jr., a long line at Disneyland triggered a massive meltdown. His parents were concerned and a little embarrassed, but not surprised; Dave Jr. struggled to keep his emotions in check.

Hoping to help, Dave Jr.'s uncle, entrepreneur Craig Lund, joined forces with researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, along with a video game designer who had worked on Quick Hit and NBA 2K. Together, they set out to design something that could teach coping skills to kids like Dave Jr. who need to manage “big emotions,” as well as children suffering from anxiety, ADHD, and other behavior issues, which are on the rise.

Their collaboration resulted in a video game called Mightier and a startup called Neuromotion Labs—a 10-person team of psychologists, game designers, and engineers who embedded at IDEO Cambridge for a one-month sprint to improve the game and get ready for launch.

To play Neuromotion's game, kids are first taught simple, calming breathing exercises. During gameplay, kids wear heart-rate monitors on a wrist or arm that detect spikes caused by stress or anger; as their heart rates go up, the game's difficulty increases. Kids have opportunities to pause and try deep breathing to counter the ramped up challenge. As it turns out, "gamifying" restraint builds strong incentives for kids to take charge of their emotions—they have to if they want to win.

Already activated around boosting mental and emotional health, IDEO's design team worked side-by-side with Neuromotion to study how parents and children experience Mightier. From home visits to group interviews to a summer camp-style design session with kid players, live feedback fueled the next iteration of the gaming platform and better product-market fit.

IDEO helped Neuromotion hone the visual design and mechanics of Mightier and expand it's suite of games. The team observed that the Mightier program was more successful the more involved parents of players became, which revealed a need for additional resources for adults. So they created new supports, including a more detailed orientation and a personalized coaching service for parents staffed by trained therapists.

But can a video game actually help kids cope? Early peer-reviewed studies showed that playing Mightier reduced outbursts by 62 percent, oppositional behaviors by 40 percent, and parental stress by 19 percent. After 12 weeks of using Mightier, a survey of kids and parents showed that 96 percent of parents saw positive behavior changes in their children, while 92 percent of kids learned new coping skills.

Shortly after the design sprint, Neuromotion secured its next round of funding and officially launched Mightier’s array of “bioresponsive games.” The games have already been played more than a million times, and Neuromotion has measured more than a 100 million heartbeats. Mightier games are helping kids and families across the country.

What about Dave Jr.? Recently, his sister told Lund she "accidentally" bumped Dave Jr.’s bike off a pier and into the ocean. She was expecting an outburst of anger, but after eight months of playing Mightier, Dave Jr. stayed cool. His uncle couldn’t be prouder.

Many of us have let vegetables wither in the crisper drawer, or thrown out a child’s half-eaten restaurant meal, but the sheer scale of food waste around the globe is hard to grasp. According to the United Nations, about a third of the food the world produces every year—1.3 billion tons—is lost during production or tossed by consumers, with North Americans throwing out the most food per capita. The average American wastes enough food each month to feed another person for 19 days.

IDEO received a series of grants from The Rockefeller Foundation to find solutions, given the power of IDEO’s human-centered design approach to address systemic challenges. Through a number of projects with The Rockefeller Foundation and other organizations, IDEO designers from across the U.S. devised novel ways to tackle food waste.

For IDEO’s first initiative, designers tapped into the enthusiasm of the broader creative community, in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, the City of San Francisco’s Department of Environment, the Closed Loop Foundation, ReFED, and other groups. In the summer of 2016, OpenIDEO—IDEO’s open innovation practice—launched the Food Waste Challenge, asking how people might curtail waste by rethinking our relationship with food. Between June and October, more than 20,000 people from 113 countries took part in the challenge, tracking their personal waste and brainstorming solutions.

Challenge participants submitted more than 450 ideas. A team of food industry experts helped select the 12 top proposals, which included software to help people buy food collectively from wholesalers and a service that delivers extra meals from corporate events to those in need. Ultimately, the Closed Loop Foundation chose to award Full Cycle Bioplastics a $50,000 grant to scale up its idea to convert inedible food and paper waste into a fully compostable alternative to oil-based plastic.

At the conclusion of the Food Waste Challenge, OpenIDEO launched the Food Waste Alliance, a platform for participants and experts to stay engaged with the most promising ideas and innovators. The alliance helped entrepreneurs share resources, prototype new concepts, secure funding, hire staff, and form partnerships. OpenIDEO invited hundreds to join the alliance, and 92 percent of members told IDEO they made progress in their work as a result. One member company, RISE, received funding from another participant who discovered RISE through the alliance. This investment let RISE prototype its concept for milling spent grain from beer brewing into flour for baked goods and ultimately join the prestigious Food-X accelerator.

The Rockefeller Foundation also supported IDEO’s work with City Harvest, a New York organization that collects 160,000 pounds of unused food each day and delivers it to soup kitchens and food pantries. City Harvest wanted to understand the habits of local families who visit food banks in an effort to ensure all the food the group distributes gets eaten. To get a peek into these families’ kitchens, in January 2017, IDEO researchers conducted observations and interviews across New York City’s five boroughs. Pantry customers cooked for the researchers, giving them an inside look at how the families engaged with the food they had available and what food meant to each of them: tradition, stability, even adventure. Based on insights from pantry visitors, IDEO made recommendations for City Harvest, including community-run cooking classes and a way for families to request specific foods or reserve pick-up times by text message. IDEO also created three video vignettes to help build even greater empathy between City Harvest and the people it serves.

In spring 2017, capping IDEO’s work with The Rockefeller Foundation, the organizations teamed up with World Wildlife Fund and Hyatt hotels in Florida, New York, and New Jersey to rethink all-you-can-eat buffets. IDEO studied diners and staff at Hyatt buffets and found that employees—from event planners to kitchen staff—each add a cushion of extra food to cover their bases, while guests overfill their plates to avoid missing out. In the end, diners eat just half the food organizers serve, while the rest goes to waste. This and other data-driven insights gleaned about diners’ habits led to subtle substitutions, including smaller plates of meats and cheeses that can be ordered from servers and individual pastries rather than whole cakes. These alternatives have not only built on Hyatt’s existing food waste management strategies, but have also helped reduce buffet costs at Hyatt Regency Orlando and continued to receive support from guests.

The problem of food waste is too enormous to ignore. Wasted food means squandered resources, lost money, and ultimately, hungry people—more than 15 million in the United States alone. Designers and innovators from coast to coast have helped find solutions to the crisis that fulfill a variety of needs, from preserving produce sent to food pantries to keeping plastic packaging out of the oceans. The Rockefeller Foundation and other IDEO partners are leveraging powerful design techniques to pave the way for a waste-free future.

In 2017, IDEO acquired longtime partner Datascope and integrated the company’s data scientists and engineers. Datascope team members aren’t just passionate data scientists; they’re human-centered designers who happen to work with data, as illustrated by successful collaborations like this one:

In today’s job market, there’s no such thing as being "done" with your education. This is particularly true in the fields of data science, machine learning, and AI, where significant advances are made on a monthly basis. To meet this need for more in-depth training, Metis—part of Kaplan—wanted to create a comprehensive data science program for students from all backgrounds. Metis asked Datascope to design the curriculum from scratch, drawing on the company’s deep expertise in the field.

Datascope spoke with practitioners across industries to identify the key skill sets that make them successful: a grasp of design; fluency with data management, coding, and algorithms; and effective communication with coworkers and the wider world. The team crafted a 12-week bootcamp that develops these specific abilities.

In order to prepare students for the work world, the bootcamp is structured less like a class and more like a company, where students are “hired” as data scientists—with projects to complete—starting on day one.

Students collaborate on group projects and presentations in a way that mirrors real workflows, and practice pair programming to learn from one another. Using techniques drawn from design, students are invited to refine their project briefs and continually reevaluate their approach.

Instead of a final exam, at the end of the course, students tackle five real-world, open-ended data science projects inspired by Datascope’s client work. One project involves using data from subway turnstiles to detect patterns in the volume of street traffic; another asks students to use data they scrape from the web to predict a movie’s box office profits using regression analysis.

After students complete the bootcamp, they receive an additional three months of career support, from mock interviews to site visits with potential employers. In addition to designing the curriculum, Datascope taught the first three student cohorts and helped Metis build its teaching team as it expanded the program from New York to San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle. Metis now offers online courses, evening classes, and corporate trainings in data science.

If you’re going to take a data science bootcamp, it’s best to take one designed by data scientists.

You’re whizzing along on your bike, en route to a new restaurant for a client meeting. You reach an unfamiliar intersection; which way to go now?

Instead of dismounting and digging for a phone, you brush your hand along your jacket sleeve for directions, then double-tap the denim to re-start your music. Without taking your eyes off the road, you’ve taken care of the problem.

This intuitive interface for connected apparel began with Levi's, makers of durable workwear for 140 years, and Google, creators of forward-looking technology, which joined forces to fashion the first item of clothing with touch-sensitive, copper-core threads woven directly into the fabric. Once it was established that the first connected garment from the partnership would be a jacket within Levi’s Commuter line, with interaction on the sleeve, Google worked with IDEO, leaders in designing for human needs, to develop the gesture language of the jacket and industrial design of the technology within.

This is the first connected garment that helps us break free from devices. It seamlessly incorporates Jacquard by Google technology to perform digital tasks, such as navigation, communication, and music playing with a few swipes or taps on the sleeve.

Jacquard by Google—a platform that makes it possible to integrate touch and gesture interactivity into fabrics using conductive yarn and standard, industrial looms—was inspired by a curious twist of history. The Jacquard loom, invented in France in 1804, used punch cards to automate the process of weaving complex patterns into fabric. In the 1940s and ’50s, engineers employed a similar punch-card technique to program the first computers.

IDEO spent time on the project early on, collaborating with Google engineers and Levi’s clothiers on the jacket’s development, helping craft an experience that would make the intelligent threads intuitive to wearers.

Working alongside Google and Levi’s, IDEO’s work included:

• The industrial design of the electronics integrated into the snap tag and connector (the tag snaps onto the jacket’s cuff and connects to your phone via Bluetooth)
• A vocabulary of gestures on the cuff of the jacket that lets you interact with the jacket’s technology
• Early exploration of the basic design philosophy and conceptual design for the interaction model of a corresponding smartphone app that ties it all together (works with both iOS and Android phones)

The IDEO team’s first task was to validate what commuters of all stripes wanted from the garment, in addition to the work Levi’s did in researching with its consumers. In interviews, group exercises, and wear tests with urban cyclists and other workers on the go, the team learned that cyclists needed a way to stay connected, while still living in the moment. That meant being able to answer calls, hear text messages, get the next direction, and control their music without using a screen.

Levi’s, Google, and IDEO developed a language of movement for Jacquard-enabled fabric that feels familiar and human and builds on the ways people would naturally interact with a garment (a whole-hand brush along the sleeve, as opposed to a one-finger tap on a touch screen, for instance).

Then came the design and engineering of the snap tag on the jacket’s cuff, which gently notifies you of calls, texts, and other jacket interactions with light and vibration feedback. The flexible, lightweight strap incorporates the look and feel of a Levi’s jean button, while housing advanced electronics that capture touch data. The tag is removable, charges via USB connection, and works in conjunction with a mobile app that lets you configure settings for the garment, set notifications, and customize gestures and interactions.

The Levi’s Commuter Jacket with Jacquard by Google changes the game because it’s simply that—a jacket—with technology that adds new utility and value, allowing us to wear our everyday interactions on our sleeves.

The Levi’s Commuter Trucker Jacket with Jacquard by Google hit stores in October 2017.

IDEO and Google have a long history of collaboration. Learn more about our work on Google Bloks here.

In 2015, I spent a month in an Airbnb that doubled as an art studio. Upstairs, there was an airy drawing room where my host taught scientific watercolor classes. In the garage, a multimedia artist named Diego had built his own 3D printer and spent his time creating furiously—everything from ink paintings to cardboard sculptures to warped digital imagery. I started spending my afternoons in the garage, watching him work and quietly editing travel photos, hoping to soak up some of the creative juices.

One day, after over-contemplating whether the photo of three chairs I had just edited was art, I worked up the courage to ask, “What do you do with all of the stuff you make? When does it become art? What does it even mean to be an artist?”

First, he laughed.

Then, Diego opened up his laptop and plugged in his external hard drive. A few clicks later and we were deep inside his folders, files, and spreadsheets. "This," he said, "is what I do with all of the stuff I make." He showed me how he edited and selected images in Photoshop, created cohesive photo series, added titles and captions, wrote artist statements, meticulously noted the date/medium/size of each piece and how they should be displayed, exported PDFs, and organized the files by theme. He showed me his spreadsheet of deadlines and requirements and contact information for calls for entries, residencies, conferences, and shows.

I felt like I had just pulled back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz. The image I had in my head of the artist as natural born creator was just the front end, hiding the logistics of what it takes to really make it work as an artist. Creativity as an effortless, inherited talent was a myth.

I found comfort and familiarity in Diego’s near-obsessive organization and realized that my love of structure and systems isn’t actually at odds with artistry. In fact, formal processes can unlock new ways of thinking and doing. Structure can reduce the mental and digital clutter that often blocks people from actually making things. If categorizing and list-making and data visualization gives me creative confidence, then so be it. Knowing I have an entry point into the world of creativity has made it much easier to dive in.

Today, as a business development associate at IDEO, I sit at the intersection of creativity and strategy, art and operations, design and business. Though I am in near-constant awe of the making and creating that seems to flow from the fingertips of my deeply talented colleagues, I know that design doesn’t just happen. Behind the curtain of creativity, there are layers and layers of order, process, painstaking detail, and hard work. These days, I find just as much beauty (and madness) in the back end.

Diego de los Campos is a multimedia artist from Uruguay who currently resides in Florianópolis, Brazil. His work can be found at diegodeloscampos.wordpress.com

I’ve never considered myself an artist. My handwriting is too neat, I enjoy coloring between the lines, and I don’t always get poetry. I imagine artists as forces of raw, unbridled creativity—messy, like mad scientists, but with more color, magic flowing out of their fingertips like a scene from Fantasia. I, on the other hand, live and die by my Google Calendar.

Name: Evin Dempsey
Location: Tokyo
Role at IDEO: Communications Design Lead
Joined IDEO: Freelanced from 2010 to 2012 in IDEO Shanghai; joined IDEO Tokyo in 2013
Social Media: I abstain. Better for the heart and soul :)
Titillating Fact: At the age of 10, I had about 46 hamsters in my garage in cages that I made myself from scrap pieces of timber. I used to breed them and sell them back to the petshop for a quid each.

1. Inside

Inside is a puzzle platform game from Playdead, a small, independent game studio in Denmark. It’s an absolute masterpiece of storytelling, art direction, animation, sound design, and even camera work. Each frame of this game is meticulously designed, from the bubbles in the water to the flicker of the torch. It’s the culmination of a very talented team of designers, programmers, and storytellers. The plot follows a young boy as he attempts to escape from a forest. Along the way, he encounters various puzzles and obstacles that help to reveal more details about his predicament. It's quite possibly the best game I've ever played.

2. Nozawa Onsen

Though it’s not very well known outside of Japan, Nozawa Onsen is a mecca for Japanese snowboarders. Located in the northeast of Nagano prefecture in western Japan, it is home to waist-deep powder as well as several onsens, or natural hot springs. It’s a winter sports enthusiast’s dream come true. The hot springs scattered all over town are also free for anyone to enjoy. I try to go at least twice a season. If you like powder, or japow as we foreigners like to call it, then you'll love Nozawa.

3. Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel Everett

A man moves to a country he knows absolutely nothing about, learns a language, changes his outlook on life, and loses his faith. Having spent my life split between eight different countries, and having a special affection for nearly all of them, this tale rings true to me. It’s an amazing account of one man's evolution as he makes his home in the Amazon rainforest. The story is universal, but the book is of special interest to people who are intrigued by linguistics and language. I couldn't put it down.‍

Header image by Mark Solarski.

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

In one sentence, who are you?

I am a human being who creates art, films, and cultural movements that inspire curiosity and connection.

What do you do? How did you learn it?

I do a lot of things, all of which are self-taught. First, I was an art director at Venables Bell and Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Then I became an interactive artist making large-scale community driven projects, like Selfless Portraits, Last Photo, and Snail Mail My Email, and I published a book. And more recently, I’ve become a film director.

A lot of my work explores human connection and connecting with strangers, which comes from getting bullied as a kid and becoming fascinated with how people interact and treat each other. My biggest piece of advice in learning a creative skill is to stay curious, keep experimenting, and try reaching out to those who inspire you. That’s basically what I’ve done over and over again to get to where I am today.

Snail Mail My Email is a community art project where volunteers transform strangers’ emails into handwritten letters, free of charge.

What are your three favorite possessions?

1. My stuffed animal Snuffleupagus, which I’ve had since I was born.
2. Handwritten letters from over the years.
3. My data.

I had a house fire five years ago and lost nearly everything. It showed me that most possessions are replaceable. It’s my creative ideas and material that are most prized.

What does a typical work session look like for you?

I don’t really have a typical work session; my days are split between working in the studio, traveling to give a talk, going out to make a film, or working on-site with a client. I really like this balance of working with a team and working in solitude. I need this constant mix of circumstances to keep me both energized and recharged.

Signs of the Times explores the personal, human stories behind protest signs, without ever showing the sign holders’ faces.

How do you get over creative block?

I can’t really work if I’m in a messy or loud environment. So my studio needs to be immaculately tidy and quiet. That’s the first thing.

Secondly, I’m very sensitive, and so often a creative block means an unresolved emotional conflict. Taking the time to journal, find closure in a relationship, or talk to my therapist are all good things.

Finally, I get over creative blocks by making new work (that may not be great) and not judging myself for it. Creative block happens when my standards get so high that I become fearful of not meeting some expectation and get paralyzed. The important thing I have to keep reminding myself is to have fun and to not take everything so seriously, because nothing really matters and we’re all going to die!

The ‘Last Photo’ Project is an ongoing video series where Ivan asks strangers in different cities to share the last photo on their phones.

How do you see the world in 2078?

Optimistic version: We’ll live in a post-digital age where we've gone back to appreciate the simpler things like nature and meditation. Our lives will still be digitally integrated, but it'll be much more seamless and we’ll place greater value on taking breaks from tech.

Dystopic version: Life will be lived within a virtual reality headset and/or brands will be more invasive than they are now. On cars. On skin. In our homes. We will make money by consuming ads.

Who are you (creative) crushing on lately?

My dancer/choreographer friend Jacob Jonas who is killing it right now.

Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.

Valerie Luu and Andria Lo’s photography project Chinatown Pretty.

American Honey director Andrea Arnold.

Ivan Cash got his first job in advertising by getting arrested—for selling t-shirts advocating for the firing of Knicks coach Isaiah Thomas. No joke. After a stint in that world working for Venables Bell & Partners and Wieden+Kennedy, he set out on his own to explore a different kind of client—everyday people. His projects, whether about protest signs or the last photo someone took on their phone, are a deep dive into how the images we create help tell our stories. In this first installment of Creative Crushes, I caught up with him over coffee to find out what he's been up to.

The next time you enter a theater, take special note of the black curtains hanging onstage. I can almost promise they’ll be there. Short ones above the stage (called “trim”) obscure the overhead lights, while long ones on the side (called “legs”) hide the backstage performers. Black curtains are a set designer’s secret weapon.

Theater strives for suspension of disbelief. It’s the reason we cry when Romeo and Juliet kill themselves… even though we know the actors aren’t really dead. (They’re not even Romeo and Juliet, for that matter.) It allows an audience to imagine the world of the play far beyond the elements we see in front of us. In our heads, the vivid and colorful streets of Verona extend well behind the black curtains that frame the stage. And all the set designer had to do to create that illusion was hang some fabric.

Designers need to stop making slide decks and start hanging black curtains. As projects become more complex, it becomes impossible to represent an entire concept through words, images, and prototypes alone. Truly innovative designs can’t exist in our present world—they change it into something new. Taking cues from theater is one way to help people suspend their disbelief and bring them inside these new ideas. Here are three ways in:

Embrace Set Design

“Space creates behavior” is a mantra used by interior designers. But there’s a step missing in that equation: Space creates new mindsets, and new mindsets create new behaviors.

When we go to the theater, the curtain rises and we get our first glimpse into the world of the play. It’s the moment when an audience is asked to leave the reality of the theater (velvet seats, half-finished wine, smartphones, etc.) and enter an alternative reality crafted by the show.

Boardrooms are not a good place for achieving that effect. If we want people to engage with unprecedented ideas, we need to transport them out of their current reality. It’s absurd to assume that people will think differently when they are sitting in the same chair, at the same table, staring at the same drop-down projection screen they see everyday.

Even simple changes to a physical environment can drastically shift the way an audience (in this case, clients, investors, etc.) will approach a meeting.

Consider:

Lighting—a darkened room creates a sense of possibility and wonder.

The unexpected reveal—bring out a hidden element part-way through the meeting.

Sound—background noise or music helps guide people to an emotional state before, during, and after the show.

Play the Role of Director

Another way to shift a viewer’s mindset is to go at it directly. Direct them, as if they were an actor, and give them a new role to play and a new way to think.

At IDEO, mid-project meetings are often the most crucial point of contact with our clients. In those meetings, they must assess the opportunities we’ve uncovered through research, and decide which ones to pursue. If the audience defaults to their standard decision-making metrics, engineers will choose the most technically-feasible option, while the CFO might choose the most cost-effective path forward. Innovative ideas are difficult to judge in this way, so they can easily be left behind.

But asking these same people to make decisions from a different perspective can open up the room to new possibilities, and create excitement around the more difficult to imagine, yet more innovative ideas.

Here, you accomplish two things. First, by having them embody a new viewpoint, they are forced to drop their default mode of interaction and pick up a new way of thinking. Second, because the exercise feels inherently contrived, it offers participants a mental safety net. It’s not real—it’s make believe. When people let their guard down, that’s often when the real insights emerge.

Think about:

Directed actions—as soon as people are required to do something, they leave the passive audience state.

Physical movement—if people are required to stand up and move around, they automatically engage in a more meaningful way.

Assigning new roles—if people are required to observe and respond as someone other than themselves, they will come at the experience from a position of empathy.

Be a Reviewer

Anytime you engage with an unprecedented experience, the take-aways are not always clear. In the world of theater, new audience members might walk out of a show thinking, “I loved it!” or “I was bored!” or “I was bawling, but I’m not totally sure why.” A good theatrical experience should elicit some type of emotional reaction from the audience, but people may not have the necessary vocabulary to analyze it. Good reviewers can help translate the experience for the rest of the world and direct attention to what is important or meaningful.

In design, crafting the takeaway message becomes a crucial exercise. It’s important to tell people how ideas and concepts can translate back to their real-world experience. If the most brilliant concepts can’t be understood beyond the context of a highly theatricalized presentation, there’s no way it will ever have impact in the world.

Consider:

A summary—what's the essence of what they just experienced?

Analysis—what's the deeper meaning or purpose this connects to?

Drafting a plan—what actions should take place as a result of the experience?

Innovation is a tricky business. As designers, we are tasked with creating unprecedented experiences that help shift the world into the future, yet we are stuck discussing them in the present. Creating innovative work is not enough. We must create innovative ways of sharing that work to help audiences suspend their disbelief and imagine the future that might exist.

Illustrations by Megan Crabtree.

Two things are required for design success: the right idea, and the ability to convince people of its value. In recent years, designers have become more interested in storytelling to make the case for their solutions. I'd like to take that method a step further, by embracing theater.

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.