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.

Name: Loren Flaherty
Location: New York
Role at IDEO: Senior Communication Designer, which means I work collaboratively with project teams, helping them visually tell the story of the project. Through compelling visual narratives, I move from complex business challenges to strategic solutions.
Joined IDEO: 2014
Instagram: @lorenipsum
Titillating Fact: I have an obsession with finding numbers and keep a blog called A Number Of to record them. I started the blog in 2009. I find most of the numbers myself, although friends that know about it give me numbers that they find. A couple rules: Numbers must be dominant on the piece that's found, and the piece has to be smaller than 8.5 by 11. I especially like finding pieces when I travel.

1. Tortus Copenhagen

As a result of doing pottery for a couple years, I try to keep my eye out for inspiring ceramicists. I recently found the work of Eric Landon and Karin Blach Nielsen of Tortus Copenhagen on Instagram. I love the depth and gradient of the glazes on the large curved forms.

2. Numero Group

I spend a lot of time listening to music while working. I found this label when I lived in Chicago. The label finds otherwise unreleased, dusty, forgotten-about tracks and re-releases them. If you like soul music, check out their Eccentric Soul Series. They have a couple sample playlists on Spotify.

3. Photofit: Self-Portraits

This is an older project but I just re-found it. Fourteen people were asked to create self-portraits using a police Photofit kit from the 1970s, without referring to a photograph or mirror.

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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: This week's guest star: Loren Flaherty.

In our first episode, Berlin-based digital design director Anne Pascual sat down with London's senior editor Ed White to talk about how technology is changing intimacy, and what that means for designers.

We set out to speak to some people designing at the edges of intimacy, to better understand both sides.

We spoke to Pia, the founder of a "paid dating" app called OhLaLa, to talk about mobile, expanding choices, and the ever more complicated boundaries of the modern mating game.

We chatted to the founder of OffTime, an app designed to help you get offline and focus on meaningful, real-world moments with your family and friends.

Technology needs to support us in our efforts to reconnect with others, to find intimacy instead of what most of the technology is doing, which is just exploiting our weaknesses.

OFFTIME, MICHAEL DETTBARN.

Lastly, we caught up with Internet activist Zara about how technology both empowers vulnerable people and minority groups. But while people can find comfort online, they’re also increasingly exposed to the dangers of sharing their data.

What will the next episode bring? The future of work, the circular economy, ageing? Let us know what you think: IDEOEurope@ideo.com.

We're always connected, but are we actually connecting? Billions of mobile phones and Tinder hookups later, many feel increasingly lonely, overloaded, and disenfranchised. IDEO Europe’s first podcast, How Might We, digs into how technology is changing intimacy.

The Teachers Guild is a professional community that activates teachers’ creativity to solve the biggest challenges in education today. While learning and doing design thinking, teachers build their creative muscles and connect to diverse partner organizations that are committed to bringing their solutions to life. It’s an initiative run by a team of educators and designers from IDEO’s Design for Learning Studio and PLUSSED at Riverdale Country School.

Learn more about the Teachers Guild here.

WATCH: Welcome to the Teachers Guild!

Two years ago, I ordered wood, frets, a few parts, and a couple of guidebooks. After watching hours of instructional YouTube videos, I built a mold and got going.

I’m entirely self-taught. I learned mainly by doing, common sense, and from my experience building models as a product designer. There’s a violin maker next to our office who helped me understand old techniques like hot-bending wood, working with hot hide glue, and using and sharpening wood hand tools.

I’ve finished two guitars, and I’m working on a new one now. I do all of my work on them in our IDEO Munich workshop. The first took about 140 hours to make, over six months. The second one took less time. (A professional builder takes about 40 to 60 hours, for reference.) You can’t rush it and there’s not much room for iteration—it has to be right the first time. I sign the inside of each soundboard so people know where and when it was built, in case someone takes them apart after I’m gone.

I build off a 1930s plan by CF Martin, a German who emigrated to the US in the late 1800s and founded the famous Martin Guitar Company. He invented the American steel-string guitar. The model is called OM (Orchestra Model). It was the biggest guitar made at the time, and was for playing in orchestras and, of course, without amplification. I find its shape beautiful, and it has a fine voice. It’s still built today. It has passed the test of time, I guess.

My latest build is European: a gypsy jazz guitar like one played by famous jazz guitar inventor Django Reinhardt. Created by an Italian guitarist named Maccaferri, it was produced by Selmer, Paris, from the 1930s to the late 1940s. I love that genre, and this guitar has a unique sound.

With the shift to a management position, I’m turning my design skills more towards consulting and away from product design. I miss the focussed work that goes deep, spending time on one project, and having a tangible result after hours of work.

Guitar making gives me all of that. It is extremely rewarding. The result of your work becomes increasingly evident, and at the end you can make music on your own creation, while other guitarists can enjoy what you’ve built. It is an exercise in learning, prototyping, craft, and design.

Guitars have been a love affair of mine since childhood. I was surrounded by music at home: My father plays guitar and taught me to play my first chords. Since I am an avid tinkerer, craftsman, and maker, it was a logical step to build them myself.

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.