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:

If Procter and Gamble (P&G) were a city, it would be the size of Boulder, Colorado. The company employs more than 100,000 people in 70 countries. Its research and development team is made up of more than 20,000 specialists working across locations, languages, and areas of expertise, from cleaning chemicals to paper products to over-the-counter medications.

P&G approached Datascope to help the company connect these researchers to one another and the rest of the organization. In working with P&G leaders, Datascope found that the company needed a better way to access and leverage employee expertise. Managers routinely got requests from researchers looking to work with others in their subject areas, but didn’t know how to identify the right partners or set them up for fruitful collaboration.

Datascope gathered internal data, including unstructured research data on the scientists’ interests and who they partner with most often. The team used that information to develop two new systems that bridge the gap for P&G researchers and managers. The first is an internal search engine that lets managers quickly find and connect the right experts across P&G offices worldwide. The second is a data visualization tool that highlights subject areas ripe for more collaboration among experts and research teams, who may already be asking similar questions. This intelligent tool can surface relevant, timely information managers need to connect their teams.

P&G already had a practice of collecting information for product research, but it wasn’t until Datascope came on the scene that the company took advantage of large, multi-layered data sets and made them more intelligent, so leaders could expand P&G’s expertise through new global partnerships.

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:

The second a smartphone debuts, buyers, bloggers, and journalists begin writing comments and reviews—and users start troubleshooting. Motorola Mobility wanted to tap into this river of data, but didn’t have the right tools to collect and respond to it.

Motorola’s design, engineering, and service teams hoped to identify product problems early, address them quickly through customer support, and ultimately fix them in future releases.

So Datascope built a custom engine that aggregates and analyzes feedback from hundreds of millions of phrases and internet references, drawn from consumer sites, user forums, news coverage, social media feeds, and product reviews. The tool parses key, product-specific information and routes it to the right Motorola teams: hardware, software, connectivity, and interface design, to name a few.

The analytics and visualization engine not only studies product performance in real time, but it also uses algorithms to gauge customers’ emotional reactions: Do they like the phone or hate it? Do they have complaints? Are they recommending it to friends?

Datascope’s tool translates all this data into simplified to-dos that are sent to the correct service and repair staff before user issues can mar a product launch or even the company’s reputation. And as engineers discover more about how a phone performs in the real world, they learn how to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

The tool proved valuable as soon as it launched in 2012: When Motorola released the RAZR M smartphone, customers had a hard time figuring out how to use wifi and voice features at the same time and lodged complaints online. The engine recognized the pattern of complaints and alerted Motorola's customer support team, which was able to post responses with clear instructions in every relevant forum, turning a potential customer satisfaction problem into a positive interaction.

Motorola continued to use the engine to address issues in later releases of the RAZR M. The advance warning made engineers’ lives easier, while better handsets and software made for a more seamless customer experience. Improvements were also evident in the RAZR M’s well-reviewed next generation, the RAZR MAXX.

Based on the tool’s success, Motorola used it to improve the company’s supply chain and product development process. And beginning in 2014, with the Moto 360 smartwatch, Datascope’s analytics engine has been used to gauge performance and public sentiment not just for new smartphones, but for Motorola Mobility’s entire line of products.

For most parents, ensuring their child’s proper nourishment is a top priority. But that’s not always easy, especially for parents on the go. Plum Organics, an organic baby food company, set out to solve that problem by providing families with pureed fruits and veggies in pouches, making it easy for them to feed their babies. Plum approached IDEO for help designing a non-pouch package that could showcase the vibrancy of the ingredients within.

By conducting research and in-person interviews with families, Plum set out to ensure that the new product was both desirable and functional for parents and their babies. By joining families in their homes, IDEO was able to gather essential insights that helped inform prototypes and the final design, like the fact that nothing can replace the feeling of making an intimate connection with a child through spoon feeding; that baby food is often wasted if a parent can’t remember how long a product has been in the fridge; that families struggle with how to spoon-feed their children on the go without making a mess, and that both parents and retailers were concerned that baby food jars don’t stack securely on shelves.

With those insights in mind, the team designed a transparent bowl that allows consumers to see the natural color of Plum’s vibrant, organic food. A resealable lid makes it easy for parents to store food between feedings, and the container includes a feature that allows them to track the day that they opened the pack to ensure that they don’t end up throwing away perfectly good food. Lastly, the new package is easily and safely stackable and includes a divot in the lid for parents to rest a spoon on, making for a much cleaner and more sanitary feeding experience.

Baby Bowls for Plum are now available at retailers nationwide and are a natural evolution for the brand, helping Plum continue to provide high-quality, organic baby food for consumers and their children, even if they’re eating on the go.

Accessing our genetic code is as easy as spitting in a tube, but how can we benefit from all that DNA data? IDEO surveyed more than 1,000 Americans about the gene sequencing services they want. "Give me things I can act on,” one respondent said. “Give me advice, action plans, apps, and tools. Information is just air until I can put it to use." As it turns out, tools that can translate our genetic information into better life choices—to improve our health, chart our family history, or even find an effective exercise routine—are hard to come by.

Inspired to organize and apply the wealth of genetic data in all of us, Helix envisioned the first online platform for products that offer insights based on a person’s unique DNA sequence. The startup’s founders approached IDEO to help them get to launch by identifying their future market segments and designing their brand and product offering.

Helix sequences all 22,000 of your genes from one saliva sample—sent in a mail-in kit—and hosts a marketplace of products developed by trusted brands and innovative developers that explore your health, ancestry, entertainment, family, fitness, and nutrition. Similar to the Apple app store, Helix lets you pay individually for the products you want and is a platform for developers to launch new offerings over time. After you've provided a DNA sample once, every product in the Helix store is made available to you on-demand. So, as new products are launched and new discoveries are made in the field of genomics, the data from your original sample is all you’ll need to keep exploring your personal genetic insights.

IDEO engaged a range of users, including early adopters of at-home genetic tests and “quantified self” enthusiasts, and surveyed potential Helix customers across the country. That qualitative and quantitative research validated Helix’s “app store” business model and provided key insights into the products people were most interested in.

Through the partnership, Helix uncovered what users need most from a genomics company:

• to prioritize the accuracy and privacy of DNA test results
• to encourage a sense of discovery and exploration of our genes
• to celebrate each individual’s unique qualities

A team of ethnographers, data scientists, and designers at IDEO helped direct the startup’s brand approach (including its name, Helix) and crafted a blueprint for how the company connects with customers and presents its product. The Helix store launched in July 2017.

Our DNA used to be a mystery—something we guessed at by observing our parents. Now, easy access to our genetic code—and the tools to truly understand it—arrives on our doorstep.

At IDEO, we’re often asked to share what we know about design thinking. We’ve developed designthinking.ideo.com in response to that request. On the site we introduce design thinking, how it came to be, how it is being used, and steps and tools for mastering it. You’ll find our particular take on design thinking, as well as the perspectives of others.

Creativity Challenge # 7: Eliminate hierarchy to improve idea flow.

While Speed Dating is useful in situations where people don’t know each other well, sometimes in group meetings you will encounter the opposite problem: a group where people know each other too well. Or, more specifically, a group in which hierarchy is so well established that the more junior members in the room self-edit and defer to the executives rather than putting their best ideas on the table.

To reduce hierarchy (which inhibits conversation) and self-censoring (which is equally limiting), the d.school has recently been experimenting with a “nickname warm-up.” Using a stack of colorful names the instructors have prepared in advance, the activity is a way to temporarily level out the organization during a creative working session. Each participant is given a persona to allow them to “try on” new behaviors.

Tool: Nickname Warm-up
Participants: Groups of 6-12 people per facilitator
Time: A few minutes per person
Supplies: Nametags for each person with the fake names written out. A hat and a ball for each facilitator.

Instructions

Step 1: Each participant reaches into the hat, draws out a name tag, and puts it on. Use names that lend themselves to humor and emotion. Teams tend to produce their best work when the group is having fun. Some of the monikers can imply a big dose of street credibility, while others suggest quirky personalities. For example: Dr. Fabulous, Squirt, Mr. Big Heart, The Clumsy Entertainer, or The Rooster.

Step 2: The facilitator gathers the group in a circle and tosses the ball. Whoever catches it introduces themselves using their new nickname and then tells a short story (created on the spot) about how they acquired this nickname as a child.

Step 3: After their self-introduction, they toss the ball to a new person, until everyone has had a chance to share their new name and story.

Step 4: The rule for the rest of the workshop—strictly enforced—is that everyone must use only these nicknames when referring to themselves or others.

Tips from the Field

Do the nametags work? Although this is a relatively new exercise, experience so far suggests that the answer is yes. At a recent management event, the CEO of a global hospitality company drew the “Squirt” nickname. There was a pregnant pause in the room as everyone waited to see how he would react. But he gamely played along through the rest of the workshop, and the organizers felt it contributed to an open environment in which people could speak freely.

The goal is to flatten out the hierarchy, so it’s important to get the senior people in the room to participate. Leading by example will naturally break some of the barriers to free-flowing collaboration.

This post was taken from Chapter 7 of Creative Confidence. Purchase the book for more on how to use creativity to solve problems, or read more from this series of creative exercises on the IDEO blog.

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

As leaders at the CoLab, IDEO’s platform for collaborative impact, we’re familiar with tension in all its forms. CoLab brings together organizations from across industries to focus on tough challenges, from designing for the circular economy to opening our financial systems. During design sprints, small teams build prototypes to explore new opportunities. Given that team members are often industry competitors with divergent approaches and ideas, tension tends to arise. We notice participants are often used to acting with the interests of their business first, rather than seeing the collaborative potential.

In order to create the impact we’re striving for at CoLab, we need to meet this tension head-on and create ways of moving forward. No matter what you’re designing or who you’re designing alongside—be it a colleague or another organization—here are four quick tips for adopting this mindset and productively addressing tension.

Observe the dynamic

Though tension can sometimes make us want to jump into action to resolve it, there’s value in sitting back, too. Try answering the following questions for yourself: What opinion is each team member pushing forward? Why might they have this view?

Paying attention helps you establish empathy. As designers, we use empathy not only to deeply understand the realities of the people we’re designing for, but also the realities of those we’re designing with. Even if you disagree, understanding why a teammate might have a certain opinion can help you create solutions that ultimately meet a need that you might not have noticed alone.

Give it a name

Once you’ve spent time observing, try naming the tension out loud or writing it down on a piece of paper. Saying or jotting down, “There’s tension around X right now,” or simply, “I’m feeling tension,” externalizes the tension. It’s is no longer this abstract, all-encompassing feeling. The tension is a named, tangible thing that the team can hear and see — not just feel — and therefore more objectively address through listening, dialogue, or compromise. In fact, mapping out seemingly conflicting interests or goals is a great tool for synthesis and identifying opportunities for design.

Just start making

Tension frequently arises when teams are trying to align on a shared vision or strategy. After all, when there are various stakeholders involved, they’ll likely have a variety of approaches. But it’s draining to debate things like your purpose or mission statement all day long. Reaching consensus can take hours, and may not even be useful at such an early stage before teams have had a chance to validate concepts through building.

It may seem counterintuitive, but to move teams through this tension, we recommend to just start doing. Whether it’s a whiteboard sketch or a model made of construction paper and glue, acts of making can offer clarity to subjective, “big picture” items. Shifting your mental focus from defining to doing has the power to shift a team’s dynamic.

Assume good intent

Though tension can sometimes feel like opposition, it often happens because teammates are passionate about the same thing. They may just want to apply or direct this shared passion in different ways. When things get tense, remember that you’re all working towards the same goal, and that the tension is likely not about you. Don’t take it personally.

Reinforce this “oneness” and good intent through language or actions. Try this: “I’m glad we’re in the same room solving this problem together.”

The next time things get tense, try not to jump into defense mode or sink down in your chair. Tension in team environments is inevitable because each of us bring a different set of experiences and perspectives to the table (so don’t crawl under it). As a team committed to collaboration across organizations that wouldn’t otherwise work together, we’ll keep embracing tension to get to the impact we all want to see in the world.

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Tension in a team environment can make us nervously glance at the clock, play mediator, get defensive, or cling to the tried-and-true. But tension isn't always so bad (you can unclench your jaw now). In fact, we’ve found that some of our greatest work has come from embracing—even seeking out—these difficult moments.

If you live in an American city, big or small, there's a decent chance that Sanborn had a map (or a hundred) of your town. And best of all, the entire collection is open-source and available for download in high-resolution images. The Library of Congress database isn't exactly the easiest in the world to search, but keep at it.

I live in San Francisco and was curious to see how my neighborhood was depicted by these amazingly-talented, fire insurance bureaucrats. I was delighted to find this map that shows my San Francisco neighborhood—the Lower Haight—in all of its 1899 glory. The colored rectangles form a grid, each pointing toward another map somewhere in the Sanborn collection that zooms in for much greater street-by-street detail.

I kept banging away at the rudimentary search function on the LOC website and eventually located Map 306, which visualizes my block in the year 1899.

San Francisco is not the oldest of cities when it comes to architecture, and there was that little thing called the 1906 Earthquake (and subsequent fire), which destroyed a lot of the city as well. So I wasn't too surprised when I didn't recognize many of the buildings on my block. That said, it did get me curious: Were there any buildings that were visualized on the 1899 Sanborn map that are still present on my block in 2019? I decided to make a map to find out. See, being an ameteur cartographer is actually useful in 2019! Google Maps hasn’t ruined all of the fun.

First, I set about converting the Sanborn map of my block into a file that I could manipulate in Adobe Illustrator. The original map is a JPEG, which means that it contains pixels. But since I wanted to have the freedom to tweak the map as I saw fit, I needed to convert the map to a vector version of the file. Why? A vector file (which, instead of pixels, is all about math coordinates) can be scaled infinitely large. What's more, it's much easier to change the colors on a vector-based map or make other modifications that I might need to later.

I'd like to say that there was some fancy way that I converted the map. I could have tried a Live Trace, but with a map this detailed, I wasn't optimistic. So I just rebuilt the file by tracing over the Sanborn map layer with new lines and fills and strokes. Detail by detail. This was mostly an act of love and definitely not a fast process. I recently had a kid and this turned out to be a fantastic New Year's Eve activity as we counted down the tired hours till midnight.

One unique challenge I encountered — there's no clear font out there that replicates the Sanborn hand-lettering. I spent too much time with the Adobe Typekit database and landed on Zeitung. It's not an exact match by any means, but close enough to pass the squint test.

That’s the original map on the left, in all of its pixels glory. And that’s the vector file on the right, built from scratch. How'd I do?

Okay. With the Sanborn map from 1899 more or less created, I turned my attention to the 2019 version of the map. I needed a detailed lot-by-lot map of San Francisco. My first go-to in moments like this is the Stanford University Earthworks website. The search function works quite well, and it links to open source maps from lots of other universities (like Tufts). After a quick search, I located a lot-by-lot map for the Bay Area and opened it up in QGIS, everyone’s favorite free and open-source cartography tool! Here’s what I had.

Totally overwhelming and, not surprisingly, it was actually quite tough to even find my block in all of that detail. So I loaded Google Maps, entered our home address, created a KML file with that single data point, and added it to the QGIS map. Once I zoomed way in, there was our block and our loft (represented by that little purple dot).

As I’ve mentioned before, QGIS is a wonderfully-powerful mapping tool, but mostly the pits when it comes to designing anything that would measure up to the esthetic standards of the average designer. So I zoomed way in to just our block, then exported the file as a vector file and opened it in our old friend Illustrator.

What I quickly realized is that this lot-by-lot map shows the property lines for each parcel on our block, but not the actual shapes of the buildings that sit inside each lot. Although I was getting close, I needed to go a step deeper to actually match the detail of the 1899 Sanborn map, which shows the outlines of individual buildings.

I opened Google Maps again and toggled to the satellite view of our block. If you zoom in as far as possible, you can see the outline of individual buildings. It's not perfect—shadows must get projected in weird ways when you snap photographs from orbit—but this was starting to get more interesting.

I snapped a fully zoomed-in screenshot of each building on the block, then traced them one-by-one using the Pen Tool in Illustrator. Once I had the outline of an individual building, I pasted it into the spot where it belonged inside the lot-by-lot map I’d exported over from QGIS. Then I repeated this process 31 times, for each of the buildings contained on my block.

With the buildings in place, my next task was to figure out when they were built so that I could determine if any of them had been around back in 1899. After much poking around, I found this site from the San Francisco Planning Department that had exactly what I needed—the construction date for each of the 31 buildings on my block. Once I did the research, I discovered that three buildings can be found on the map in both 1899 and 2019, all of them clustered on the southwest corner of the block. One of them is my local bodega, home to Tiger the cat and famous (in the neighborhood) for the time that the Warriors eccentric three-point maestro Klay Thompson visited the bar to buy a bottle of Grey Goose. Super cool also to know that the building was built in 1890 and survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire.

To finish up the map, I built out a key, borrowing inspiration from another Sanborn map visualizing neighborhoods in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Then I tweaked the colors, sticking to the Sanborn color palette, but borrowing some of the brighter colors found across the collection. I also added some polka dots to both maps to call attention to the three buildings that survived from 1899 to 2019. These last couple of tweaks are just two of the many benefits to working with vector files instead of pixels.

And voila, here is the final version of the map. What do you think? Now you can do the same for your city block.

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Do you have a few hours on your hands and want to head down a wormhole of unbelievably striking maps? Mosey on over to the Sanborn map collection at the Library of Congress. Originally created as a means for issuing fire insurance across major American cities, the quality of hand-drawn detail in these maps and the color palette used by the cartographers are stunning.

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.