How do you lift up the middle class in a developing country?

That was the challenge facing Peruvian entrepreneur Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor, who hired IDEO to build an entire network of schools powered by a progressive new learning model. IDEO’s mandate: to redesign Innova’s entire K–12 learning experience, from the curriculum to the teacher training to the school buildings, with an eye toward expansion and a goal to provide international-quality education at an affordable price—about $100 a month.

Innova Schools is a part of Intercorp, a family of 35 businesses that span everything from banks to retail stores and added schools to its portfolio. In 2010, the company had five existing schools but realized that its existing model could not grow. The shortage of well-trained, high-quality teachers in Peru, combined with rising land costs, meant the schools would need to radically change course to succeed.

To learn about scalable school models around the world, IDEO researchers visited inspirational schools and learning programs, and looked to analogous systems like retail, hospitality, and health care to understand their approaches to scale. Throughout the project, they collaborated with teachers, students, and the Innova Schools team in co-designing the work itself.

Together, Innova Schools and IDEO developed the curriculum, teaching strategies, buildings, operational plans, and underlying financial model to run the network of schools.

"I was blown away by Innova Schools," said Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy. "It's inspiring to see such an affordable school deliver a quality of education that would rival schools in the richest countries."

The new Innova Schools combine teacher-led, project-based learning in small groups with self-directed time using digital learning tools. Teachers monitor students’ work online and offer personalized guidance. Parents can view their children’s progress online as well.

Dynamic learning environments include community spaces, media labs, rooftop study areas, amphitheaters, and cafés that are optimized for flexibility: furniture on wheels, movable walls, and efficient uses of space to allow for different modes of learning.

An online Teacher Resource Center includes a database of more than 18,000 custom lesson plans based on a progressive new teaching approach. The center helps teachers learn their craft and gives them a chance to connect across the network.

The business model of Innova Schools was developed at the same time as the school experience. Designers leveraged the economies of scale that come from building a network of schools and centralized tools, such as data systems that allow all the schools to learn together.

The project has allowed Innova to open more schools at an affordable cost to families, ultimately giving more of Peru’s youth the chance to compete in the global economy. This comprehensive approach to system design ranks as one of Latin America’s most ambitious privately funded educational projects, and is on track to become the largest private school network in the region. To date, Innova has opened 63 schools in Peru that are serving more than 50,000 students.

A good system design doesn’t end with strategy. The work on Innova Schools also had a huge influence on the company, according to Rodriguez-Pastor. Through the creation of new roles and an aligned set of values, Innova’s central office has become a much more nimble and creative organization. They’re constantly scanning the world for inspiration in how to best educate their students, while building out the new innovations. They realize that design thinking can become an integrated part of their daily management of this growing network of schools.

Western Digital, the leading provider of external digital-storage solutions and a pioneer in the field, and IDEO collaborated on a number of products that produced reliable, secure, high-performance hard drives for personal and professional use and have won numerous design awards.

The projects include:

• MyBook external hard drive: IDEO and Western collaborated to find a new design language for their external hard drive MyBook. In just six months, MyBook became the number-one hard drive in the Americas, and grew US market share by more than 50 percent.
• MyBook II: Looking to regain MyBook’s original number-one position in the hard drive market, IDEO and Western came together again to refresh the original design, finding ways to further differentiate the product and the brand, and winning a 2008 Spark Bronze Award.
• MyPassport: Western and IDEO designed the 320GB, ultra-portable USB-powered hard drive that appeals to the mobile user, which won both the 2008 IDEA Bronze Award from IDSA and BusinessWeek, and the 2009 iF Award.
• MyBook and MyPassport 3.0: Again, IDEO and Western collaborated on bringing the popular MyBook external hard drive to the next level in the hardware, the software, and the packaging. IDEO also created in-store merchandising, the graphics and information featured on product packaging (and the “out-of-box experience”).

The city of San Francisco wanted to help its people become better prepared in case of emergency. While no one feels totally prepared for a natural disaster, people who are most connected within a local network fare better in an emergency.

So the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (SF DEM) and IDEO teamed up to create SF72, a revolutionary platform that helps to reach people where they are. In times of emergency, the city will need citizens to be self-supporting for 72 hours (or longer) before local services or outside help kicks in. With that in mind, IDEO developed an accessible platform to help people prepare for those 72 hours in simple ways that fit into their daily lives.

The SF72 website helps people with five important tasks: Get connected, gather supplies, watch stories, make a plan, and have access to an updated Google map. SF72’s content is hyperlocal, but IDEO and SF DEM also created an open-source toolkit for cities worldwide. From San Jose to Denver, other locales are using the simple toolkit to create a City72 platform of their own. Most recently, the city of Oakland collaborated with Code for America to develop its own platform. The City72 Toolkit enables SF72’s ethos of social connection for resilience to scale and grow—city by city.

Team Rubicon, formed in 2010 as a response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, is made up of former military veterans who swoop into help in times of disaster. The organization started with six vets in the US who were eager to transfer their battlefield readiness in to frontline relief efforts, and has grown to more than 28,000 volunteers across the world.

To explore its growing global effort and to shape the future of the organization’s venture, Team Rubicon approached IDEO for help. After an 11-week collaboration with government, military, and veteran groups, a vision for Team Rubicon Global emerged. Inspired by sources as diverse as TED and The Hell’s Angels, the three-tier model consisted of an anchor network to share best practices across the organization and two supporting platforms designed to help countries with varying capacity and needs.

Team Rubicon Global coordinated its first deployment in April 2015, when a quake struck Nepal, sending US and UK teams to double down on the rescue effort. According to Vince Moffit, Team Rubicon USA Incident Commander, that incident alone validated the network effect of IDEO’s work. “We couldn’t have done this without Team Rubicon UK,” he said.

And for the veterans who are part of Team Rubicon, the shared desire to serve—applying skills ideally suited for disaster response—creates a renewed sense of purpose, community, and leadership that helps reintegration to civilian life.

I grab things that remind me of a loved one at any point during the year, then stash them in a box. By the holidays, I'm usually in fairly good shape, and it's fun to see what I've collected. It is like a pre-Christmas, as I forget what's in there! Early in December, I take stock and make a shopping plan based on what I already have.

I decorate for Christmas before I go out of town for Thanksgiving. Sure, it's oogey to jump the gun, but I'm grateful to come home to a winter wonderland, and it diminishes the time crunch and stress during my favorite time of the year.

Our family tradition was always to take down decorations on the Feast of the Epiphany (1/6), so this gives me permission to enjoy the season into January. Before taking down decor, I take pictures, so the following year I can look at how I did it before. It helps me feel less overwhelmed: I can either try new things or reconstruct favorite arrangements from years past.

—Katie Gorman

Surprisingly, a ton of yoga places are open on Christmas day. Last year, I took a yoga class on Christmas day in the afternoon. It's actually so great and magical to be giving yourself that space when you are SUPPOSED to spend the whole day with family.

—MADELINE ARMSTRONG

Honey! And no, I'm not calling you a name. Honey is a Chrome extension that automatically looks for discount codes for you, then applies them during your online shopping checkout. Saving money is fun!

—Magen McAfee

We use Elfster to facilitate our secret santa within the family because we can't be together to draw paper names like we used to.

Whenever they have a promotion, I order free 4x6 prints from Shutterfly, then tape them to handmade construction paper cards to send out at Christmas. I buy things at extreme discount as early as October and leave the original price tag on for gifts.

—Anonymous

I usually use the holidays to have some great food with my parents. And this is what happens when a product designer is afraid to fail at cooking steaks—a quick prototype of an Arduino sous-vide cooker. Happened to me last Christmas…

—NICKI SCHAEFER

For my husband and I, our gift to each other is permission not to buy gifts for each other. Once a year, we buy a piece of "anniversary art" together, and we get all year to shop for it. Other than that, it's nice to opt out of the consumerism that can cast a shadow on the holiday season.

—Denise Burchell

This year, we've decided to just make donations instead of buying gifts for our immediate family. For our extended family, everyone draws names, so we each only have to give one gift.

—Mollie West Duffy

(And a few from me!) My son is three years old and needs nothing—he’s got more toys and books than he knows what to do with. Whenever anyone feels they must give him a gift, we point them to a link that allows them to give directly to his college savings account. What better gift than to give to his future education? Ugift529.com.

Also, the gift of dinner out is awesome, but dinner with babysitting is amaaaazzzzing. UrbanSitter—our go-to for our favorite sitters—offers gift cards for childcare. Add an Uber gift card to make the whole night complete!

—Katie Clark

I'm traveling to my partner's home city this Thanksgiving. Her parents are very traditional so we'll be in separate bedrooms for the holiday. I plan to purposefully forget to pack things like socks so that we have an excuse to go on shopping excursions together to reconnect.

—ANONYMOUS

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If you’re from a family that’s as opinionated and politically diverse as mine, the holidays can be an interesting time, to say the least. (I have been using this New York Times piece to prepare—wish me luck!) Even gift-giving can be fraught in these uncertain times, so I reached out to my fellow IDEOers for their favorite holiday hacks. From “forgotten socks” to Arduino-cooked steaks—they ginned up some gems.

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What were you trying to accomplish in the redesigned space?

Jenny Winfield (JW): Business travelers are usually required to work their hardest when they travel—they need to win a pitch or clinch a deal. The stakes are high. So we came up with a concept we call “Ignition,” a new meeting and working space in the hotel lobby that makes it easy to work while on the road. It combines new spaces for group creative thinking or heads-down work, a work-friendly menu of healthy food options, a new staff member to handle business needs, and digital tools providing on-demand services.

Last January, we were ready to test our concept live. Per usual, we would be there in person for a few weeks to do interviews and gather observations, but we also thought we should measure how our new solution performed when we weren’t there. That’s where the sensors came in.

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How did the sensors help you make your case?

JW: The pilot was split into two phases in each location. First, we gathered data for the baseline—testing the lobby in its initial form—then the redesigned space. We wanted to make sure we improved on all fronts—not just sales metrics, but also, traffic through the space, and the number of people using each type of space.

What kind of equipment did you use to build your sensor setup?

Miha Feus (MF): We used cameras to measure foot traffic and activity across different areas of the space, as well as sound sensors to gauge the volume level and infer the atmospheric buzz. And we also used seat and proximity sensors to measure occupancy and dwell time on different pieces of furniture. The actual sensing components (pressure and proximity sensors, and microphones) were off the shelf, but we built the brains for the sensors and the communication platform to gather the data from around the space wirelessly.

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How did you rig up all the sensors, and what software did you use to record that data?

MF: Most of the sensors were held in place with double-sided tape. We taped cameras overhead and sound sensors on the ceiling, and placed seat sensors under seat cushions. All the data from the sensors was sent to an Arduino Yun, which served as a hub, routing the data via Wi-Fi to a Parse Database. The Arduino Yun also retained a local copy on an SD card, in case there were any Wifi issues.

To analyze data from the cameras, we used a software tool called Camlytics. It was able to capture the number of people passing through the space automatically, without the need to record visual data. This way, we didn’t infringe on people’s privacy.

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The proprietary hardware we created around the sensors was also built with privacy in mind. All the sensors only had transmitters, which means they couldn’t be hacked remotely. But even if someone had gained access to them, the chips and transmitters we were using were unable to process and transmit sound data at a level where someone could listen in on a conversation. The seat sensors worked similarly. The data we were getting only told us whether they were occupied.

JW: Ethically, we are committed to protecting our participants, whether they are explicitly taking part in our research, or they happened to wander into it. In any case, our main goal was to capture overall usage levels, so there was no reason to map or track specific users.

What was the hardest part about making this sensor system work?

MF: The most challenging thing was to design something that can run unsupervised for weeks on the other side of the ocean, something we’ve never done before. But we also had trouble with our “huddle spots”—bespoke pieces of furniture we created for this project. Because they were hard plastic stools without cushions, we couldn’t use pressure sensors to measure their use. Instead, we had to rely on proximity sensors, which are power hungry, and not the most reliable.

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What useful takeaways did you learn from the sensor data?

JW: The new concept was definitely popular. We had a 79% increase in people coming through the space in our first test site.

Okay, so more people walked through your space but did they stop?

JW: The number of people who sat down in the space went up by 80 percent, predominantly at times when those areas are usually very quiet (the early afternoon, for example). So not only did we increase use of the space, timestamps in our data showed that we did it at a time when it used to be empty. That, combined with data that showed food orders were being made at a time when the regular restaurant was closed, was a great selling point.

The sensors also showed us that the average dwell time in the huddle spots and nooks—spaces designed for four to six people work together—was 20-35 minutes, which confirmed our idea that these pieces should be used for quick perches and catch ups. It sounds simple, but it was huge. It not only meant that the design of the space itself was right, it also confirmed the importance of having drinks delivered within a 5-minute window, or having technology that empowers users to make an order in less than 1 minute. If visitors only hang around for 30 minutes, everything has to be really fast.

What’s the most exciting potential for sensors in future design research?

MF: As data collection methods and analytics tools become easier to use, we’ll use them as prototyping materials, much like we are using foamcore and hot glue at the moment.

JW: The ability for us to learn about user behavior remotely is most exciting to me, given that it’s something we haven’t been able to do before. With sensors, remote research can mean much more than learning how people are using a digital tool that we built. Being able to track patterns and see how people naturally interact with our prototypes (both physical and digital) when we’re not there is huge. Then it's about looking at the resulting data in creative ways and telling a more nuanced story about the type of impact we expect our ideas to have out in the world.

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Recently, at IDEO London, we’ve started to think more creatively about how to collect and use data for research during the design process. It’s easy to track user behavior when we work on digital design projects; the tools are built in. But what if we had those capabilities outside the digital space? On a recent project, design researcher Jenny Winfield and interaction designer Miha Feus found a way to collect user data in a physical/digital prototype, by using sensors to evaluate a redesigned hotel workspace for Crowne Plaza hotels. Here’s a little bit about how they did it, and how approaches like this one could change the future of design research.

I took this picture during my morning ferry commute along the Thames. As you can see, it's raining. (It rains in London a lot.)

I'm standing where the passengers get off the boat. The ferry was designed with a drainpipe to funnel rainwater off of the boat, but the water lands on passengers as they disembark. I guess the designers were thinking more about the boat than the people on it.

Conveniently, there is also a Costa coffee shop on the boat. So someone removed the base of a paper coffee cup, and stuck the cup on the pipe. This small fix extended the drainpipe, keeping the passengers dry. Brilliant.

Human-centered design requires us to observe human behavior with beginner's eyes, so that we can spot the innate ways people interact with the world around them. We call these intuitive and unconscious reactions thoughtless acts, and IDEO designers collect photos of them to inspire the invention of new products, services, and experiences.

But this afternoon, we're not here to talk about all things Frenchie, we’re here to talk about the “c-word”—cancer—but, also, comics and catharsis. See, in a few weeks, Laura is having surgery to repair her tear ducts, collateral damage from aggressive thyroid cancer treatment four years ago, when she was in her early 30s. The cartoons she drew during that nerve-wracking time are just like her: quirky, brave, weirdly hilarious, and unapologetically honest. They’re the equivalent of indie-rock visual therapy.

Wearing her trademark black-and-white French sailor shirt and vintage cat-eye glasses, Laura takes a few quick, surreptitious puffs off her e-cigarette and we start chatting.

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IDEO: What were you like as a child? Did you always make art?

Laura Park: My family moved around a lot as a child. My mom immigrated from Korea to Southern California and raised my brother and me by herself. I always drew as a kid. As the perpetual new kid, I wasn’t very popular, but the fact that I could draw meant I had some value. I’d sell kids greeting cards or drawings of their moms for Mother’s Day. I hung out at the food court at the mall where my mom worked and drew portraits of strangers. I’d go up to them, show them my drawing, and try to sell them to them. It was my side hustle. I was a very under-supervised, under-parented child. I had a lot of freedom. I eventually got a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago and fell into the illustration/comic book community here.

What was your first big break?

I was working as an illustrator for educational software company when I started doing drawings for indie record label Asthmatic Kitty Records on the side.

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I also drew magazine ads for Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 Illinois record, plus did some t-shirts and posters for his record label and illustrated an issue of Vice magazine. My other big break was illustrating two big book series for author James Patterson—Middle School and I Funny. They were #1 New York Times Bestsellers. I illustrated two a year until last year. They gave me enough money to do other projects and gave my mom something to brag about.

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You mainly do autobiographical comics, why is that?

They’re how I process information. They’re my second stomach, how I “Rumpelstiltskin” my depression and sickness. I draw about things that cause me both extreme stress and extreme joy because both are distortions of time. I’m either locked in an anxiety-ridden hellscape or I’m celebrating the awesomeness of my dog.

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In high school, I loved the Riot Grrrl movement and made my own zines because I didn’t see myself reflected in other comics. It’s a very powerful thing to make your own media and not wait for others to validate your experience.

I love it when other weirdos say to me, “I recognize myself in your comics!” Everyone thinks they’re singular and alone. It’s comforting to know that’s not true.

Can you tell me what happened when you were diagnosed with cancer?

It was 2012 and I was 32 and uninsured at the time. I lived for six months with a big lump on my neck. I avoided it. I knew it was bad when my doctor didn’t make me wait after getting the results back. It was thyroid cancer and it had spread to lymph nodes in my neck. I had a nine-hour surgery to take everything out, but the tumor had grown around my vocal nerve. The next day in hospital room, I woke up with a paralyzed vocal nerve. I went from someone who was always very loud, to someone who didn’t have a voice. It was very weird. I had to drink radioactive iodine as part of my therapy, which is nasty and why I’m having surgery to repair my tear ducts.

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Comics are how I process information. They’re my second stomach, how I 'Rumpelstiltskin' my depression and sickness.

I processed my cancer in terms of narrative. I asked, Who is my character? What is her arc? I did a better job of telling the story of my cancer in my comics than I did telling people in person. What really resonated with my fans was how expensive my medical bills are. They were hundreds of thousands of dollars and destroyed my savings.

Enough of this depressing cancer stuff! What are some things you’re excited about?

I just won an Emmy for some storyboarding work on the Cartoon Network miniseries Over the Garden Wall! I have the certificate on my fridge. I also just signed a contract to do a graphic novel adaptation of immigrant stories for StoryCorps and have a collection of early work and new stories for Drawn & Quarterly that's forthcoming. My biggest accomplishment, though, was figuring out a way to have Walt appear in as a cameo character in Over the Garden Wall. I’m pretty proud of that.

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*Post script: A few weeks after our interview, Laura did, indeed, have surgery to repair her tear ducts. She’s recovering well and, of course, fearlessly documenting the entire process along the way.

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A ridiculously photogenic French bulldog is why I'm sitting across from Laura Park, a humbly prolific Chicago cartoonist, in a trendy Wicker Park cafe one grey November Sunday. I started stalking Walter Wallet on social media a couple years ago. Turns out, his owner was pretty cool, too. Laura's the author and main character of the darkly funny comic series, Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream, among many, many, many other noteworthy, cool things that she hates to talk about. Lucky for me, soon we—and our dogs—were friends in real 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.