There’s a lot of excitement in the education sector about the need to equip students with skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, to prepare them for a global, innovation-driven economy. But that’s easier said than done. Major changes are needed to move from a decades-old model towards creating new ways to educate students. Schools and their leaders, particularly in low-income contexts, often lack the necessary resources and support.

But given the right tools, school leaders can be the key to bringing this much-needed change to their schools. Knowing this, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation partnered with IDEO and the Stanford d.school to create School Retool, a four-month-long professional development fellowship that trains principals to take a do-it-yourself approach to school change by conducting small, scrappy experiments called “hacks.”

The best part: They use the resources they already have available to address their schools’ needs now, without waiting for external funding or assistance. School Retool is available to principals at public schools where 60 percent or more of students qualify for free and reduced lunch, which is a common measure of poverty. The School Retool program provides research-based strategies for improving student outcomes, as well as training and one-on-one coaching on how to redesign school culture through easily achievable changes.

A Scaled Approach

School Retool addresses a common challenge in creating change across schools: Each school has its own people, culture, and needs, so programs need to be flexible. The fellowship helps school leaders define their aspirations, and provides them with inspiration through “Big Ideas” that have proven to be successful in different contexts in education. It then supports them to start small with hacks that help them learn how to implement these ideas in their own school. The program scales through regional cohorts of principals who learn from each other as they go through a process of setting goals, designing hacks, reflecting on the learning and progress, and making improvements to the next iteration.

Small Steps Toward Big Change

As School Retool has rolled out at schools across the country over the past two years, it’s becoming evident that small changes are adding up to major progress, and that the small hacks approach is helping leaders go from planning to doing. Take, for example, Marthaa Torres, the principal of a low-income San Francisco high school who started with a small experiment with one struggling student, trying to create a more personalized learning plan for him. “The hacking approach is a framework that will help me eventually get to the kind of school that I’m trying to create,” Torres said. To build on the learnings of her “hack,” she created and expanded a personalized coaching program for the student’s peer group of older Latino boys. Her goal is to roll out additional advisory support in the next school year. What started as a “hack” to give agency to a single student is beginning to affect the school-wide culture by incorporating student voice into decision making.

Creating a Movement

The School Retool fellowship launched in 2015 with a pilot for 16 principals from seven San Francisco Bay Area school districts, reaching more than 12,000 students. School Retool has since hosted cohorts for school leaders in Washington D.C., Detroit, Virginia, Idaho, and Colorado. By the end of 2016, 164 school leaders of over 114,000 students had participated in the fellowship program.

In addition to the in-depth work with school leaders, School Retool is creating a national dialogue around change in schools. Its first national effort drew more than 1,500 principals in the Shadow A Student Challenge, who spent a day walking in students’ shoes to build empathy and gain insight into their students’ school lives.

Learn more about how more school leaders are enacting change: bringing a sense of true belonging to a school’s culture; engaging students as active learners; hacking towards literacy; retooling for equity; and more.

WATCH: Marthaa Torres: Adopting a Hacking Mindset on Vimeo.

Remember your first View-Master? The sound and feel of that iconic camera-snapping motion, the excitement of seeing those vivid images in the form of your own personal slideshow? Introduced in 1939, this stereoscopic toy brought beautiful landscapes and famous attractions to the eyes of kids around the world.

Flash-forward more than 75 years, and the View-Master has been reincarnated to spark that same sense of wonder for the digital age. The redesigned model, the result of a project collaboration between IDEO and Mattel, is a modern case that bridges technology with play. The new View-Master preserves the classic features of the original toy, such as the original lever and wheel, but offers a much more immersive, 360-degree virtual experience.

Here’s how it works: Download the View-Master app and slide a smartphone into the sleek new red-and-white headset. From there, the phone’s camera will scan the QR codes on the reels to view a wide variety of images, such as wildlife, outer space, and a dinosaur landscape. Two slightly different images are displayed side by side on the device's screen. As each of your eyes looks at just the image directly in front of it and tries to reconcile it with what the other eye is seeing, a 3D effect is created. By moving your head around with the viewer over your eyes and taking advantage of the sensors within your phone to sense direction and position, you can travel through each of the scenes, exploring each of the different settings.

After working alongside Mattel to understand the heritage of the View-Master brand, researching the potential for VR and play, and exploring a variety of materials for the new device, designers created several prototypes that they tested with their core market: kids. As a result, the final design accounted for things like whether it could pass a drop-test or fit into kids’ hands.

Beyond the joy of pure play, the technology that powers the new View-Master also opens up a new world of possibilities for learning. Imagine turning a page in a textbook and seeing dinosaurs come to life. Or a virtual tour of an art museum through a set of View-Masters.

"We view this as just the beginning," said Doug Wadleigh, a Mattel executive, in an interview with CNET. "Obviously, we're getting in this space pretty early. The goal is to create the View-Master brand for the next 75 years."

Genentech is a biotech company that tackles difficult-to-treat medical conditions across the globe by creating innovative treatments. As a sponsor of the TED2012 conference, Genentech approached IDEO to partner in creating a “social space” for the TED exhibit hall that would captivate participants in an interactive brand experience and garner excitement around the future of personalized medicine.

To make leading-edge science more accessible to the masses, the team landed on an exciting new provocation: What if we could turn genes into music? IDEO worked closely with Genentech to develop an immersive genetic experiment that could incorporate traits of the TED community, using the company’s brand new technology for overnight gene analysis. A TED participant would choose a colorful trait pin packaged with a cheek swab kit and corresponding barcode, allowing them to leave a genetic sample one day and return the next day to discover that four SNPs of DNA had been analyzed overnight and translated into a unique musical track.

The IDEO team developed the concept, prototyped it with scientists, musicians, and sound engineers, and designed every element of the physical and digital experience—from the swab kit and packaging, to the built space and listening stations, iPad app, and other digital touchpoints. At the heart of the experience was music, including an algorithm that could generate 6500 unique musical combinations to reflect the genetic diversity of the TED participants.

Genentech’s “Infinite Variations” exhibit at TED2012 created the world’s first genetic symphony, an innovative and colorful blend of science and music. With the exhibit, Genentech sparked novel, approachable conversations about the role of genetics in medicine.

Of the 1850 attendees, over 1100 joined the genetic experiment in music and walked away with a new understanding of personalized science—and of their own genetic makeup.

What happens when you serve kids food made with cricket flour? And what do parents think? That’s what IDEO and Bitty Foods sought to learn during a collaboration to explore new kinds of lunchbox foods as a means to discover opportunities for alternative sources of protein.

We talked to Megan Miller, cofounder of Bitty, the Bay Area startup that makes delicious foods with cricket flour, about the collaboration.

Listen to the full audio story below, or go to Soundcloud.

1. What inspired #clientwork?

I had been drawing for about six months, specifically for an art show, and I was sorta cashed and looking for the next rabbit hole. We hosted another Fortnight (our artist-in-residency program) in the Chicago studio, and I was really lucky to act as a mentor to C.M. Ruiz, from Seattle.

He is a Xerox machine master; he just makes incredible art with the most humble tools. We spent a lot of time just hanging out in the studio talking about art and making shit. It was a three-week jam session and I got super inspired and just started making the ugliest designs possible using only the Xerox and markers, paints, etc. FUN.

The Clientwork hashtag is just something that has bounced around in my brain for the past few years. We as makers, designers, artists, etc., often try to separate our lives into two buckets: the work we get paid to do (Clientwork) and the other, fun stuff. I really dislike that idea! I feel like the entire body of making should just be THE WORK, dig? My IDEO jams for Allstate or Chicago Fire or ConAgra should feed my weirdo artlife and my weirdo artlife should come with me inside project spaces.

Freelancer and IDEO contractor Kyle Fletcher has been influential in helping me learn this lesson, as he is constantly bouncing back and forth between design and art, yet it all feels very KYLE FLETCHER.

I tag things with #clientwork that obviously are not client work to (hopefully) push this idea. The idea of doing really dumb, silly, sometimes provocative ads for companies that aren’t paying me is scary. I’m making something and I think it looks AWESOME and I write NIKE or VANS on there because, to me, IT SHOULD BE A VANS AD. I suppose that part is my own little secret joke. No one knows if I actually like Nike or not, or if I eat Hormel Chili (I do, duh). It’s not like I’m tagging them super hard or trying hard to be seen by the brand puppet masters… but there’s something really frightening about half-assedly drawing a corporate logo on a terrible collage or drawing and sending it into cyberspace. I’ve told myself that I’ll either do this as long as it’s fun or until I receive a cease-and-desist. I actually sorta worried if anyone from IDEO was going to come down hard on me, but so far only a minor slap on the wrist that I deserved.

2. Does this work make doing your day job easier?

Easier is a strong word. DESIGN IS HARD, and I’m not taking the piss. Doing the daily art jams does help keep my brain active. I’m trying so hard to get in the zone and stay there. IDEO can be so stimulating sometimes that I find it hard to focus. Everyone knows what it’s like to get that precious two hours of heads-down time when you have to work FAST to get something on paper. Trying to think like a designer/artist 24/7 takes practice. It’s hard to be in the zone all day!

3. Name one artist or designer you consider unassailable and tell us why.

Ian MacKaye will never re-form Fugazi to play Coachella for millions of dollars. And for that I am very grateful.

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If you're not following designer Zach Hobbs on Instagram, you're not truly living. The sheer volume of artwork he posts there and on his website makes us wonder how he manages to stay awake in the office. We asked him about a pleasingly tart series titled #clientwork (which is occasionally #NSFW).

I had just relocated to the Bay Area after five inspiring years at IDEO Chicago. The Chicago studio is a tight-knit family of roughly 70 or so friends, often known for taking extra moments out of our day to inspire, uplift, thank or prank one another in the course of the work we do.

The IDEO San Francisco mothership, however, is much larger; nearly 200 strong across four independent studios. As such, it can be difficult for a new guy to know exactly how our forgiveness in lieu of permission culture manifests itself across locations.

It turns out quite well, I found.

Nine days into my tenure at IDEO SF, someone snapped a photo of Ethan, who had come up with a clever solution to shade his eyes from the passing sunlight as he worked (see above). The photo went out in an email to the entire location. The subject line: "Innovation".

If you're anything like me, you simply cannot see a photo like this without your mind beelining to Photoshop Battle. So, I made a few quick edits and offered up my reply-all:

It would be an understatement to say that I succeeded in learning what I set out to about my new colleagues. When the dust had finally settled, the thread was comprised of more than 50 unique entries submitted over three days.

Check out some of our favorites, below:

The original photo is on Instagram now. Share our glory.

I was barely into my second week at IDEO's San Francisco location when a particular opportunity to get to know my new colleagues presented itself.

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Less apparent to outsiders is the fact that the creative license that comes with making IDEO eye-candy serves a very important purpose: It’s an antidote to the intense and often prescriptive nature of designing for clients. Event posters allow us to stretch our legs, color outside of the lines, and take a new tool for a walk around the block. And in a collaborative culture that is driven by the “we” and not the “me”, these one-offs offer a rare moment in the spotlight for the artist.

Check out the entire collection on Pinterest.

Be visual. It’s one of IDEO’s seven rules of brainstorming. Not too tall an order for those who are quick to start sketching when attempting to communicate pretty much anything. So when a special event gets dropped on our calendar, lots of hands shoot up volunteering to design a poster.

Where did the idea for Antibotics come from?

Stina Jonsson: It started as a simple brainstorm idea. I was doing a project in Boston around nerve monitoring, and I drew a small pill on a Post-It that looked like a little character. It had nothing to do with pills really, or the project at hand, but I liked it so much that I brought the Post-It back with me.

From that initial idea grew a larger one, to think about how we could use these characters and storytelling to help people with their medication. We’d done a ton of adherence work for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers, as well as helping people take their insulin. Eventually the characters become little robots and the Antibotics were born.

Can you explain how the Antibotics work?

When a child is prescribed antibiotics, their parent receives a pack of the Antibotics. The pack holds clear pills that have individual robots inside them. The child picks one and swallows it. Their parent then logs onto a computer or tablet, and along with the child, proceeds to read the first chapter of a fun, educational story about the robot-fighting bacteria inside the child’s stomach. Each day after that, parent and child pick another robot to join the crew, and with each episode learn more about how antibiotics work, until the course and story finishes.

What problem is Antibotics trying to solve?

The overuse and incorrect usage of antibiotics—not finishing the entire course, for example— can make bacteria multi-resistant. Without effective antibacterial drugs, a simple operation might lead to an infection that can kill. And the economic consequences are huge, one estimate puts it at £1bn annually in the UK alone.

You’ve got a background in cognitive psychology. Can you explain the science behind using storytelling to improve adherence?

Research on the impact of storytelling on memory shows that the human brain is better at retaining and recalling information and concepts when they are presented in a story format.

Information structured through a narrative makes for very powerful mnemonic devices because stories provide order, allowing new information to slot into existing schemas and cognitive maps we already have about the world.

The story format provides familiarity and predictability, setting us up to take in new information and vicariously deal with emotional stress and conflict through the the story’s protagonists.

Studies have also shown that stories affect brain chemistry, which is connected to behavior change.

What’s next for the concept?

At this stage Antibotics is only a concept, but we’re looking for someone to work with to take it further.

*The Antibotics were brought to life with help from communications designer Jack Haslehurst and interaction designer Miha Feus.

Bacteria beware, here come the Antibotics. Created by London-based interaction designer Stina Jonsson, these cute robotic germ-fighters educate kids and parents alike on how to take antibiotics properly, and defeat the rising army of resistant germs. We asked Jonsson to tell us more about how the 'botics came to life.

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.