More than 7 million people each year came to the Boston.gov site to tap into all sorts of city services: reporting a pothole, learning the assessed value of their property, paying a parking ticket, checking recycling schedules.

Boston wanted to create a beautiful platform that would make the process of finding and navigating information easy and intuitive, one that prioritized the needs of its people.

The Boston.gov site had outgrown its existing structure and needed an overhaul. The user experience was mired by the fact that Boston City Hall has nearly 50 different departments, each with its own microsite, navigation and content standards that feed into a centralized site.

So the City of Boston hired IDEO to design its new digital home, Boston.gov. IDEO designers worked with the major stakeholders—department heads, employees, and Boston residents, with a focus on those in underserved communities and those with varying levels of technical proficiency—to gather insights into what users needed.

The objective was to design something that would simplify how people navigate the site, to make it easier for residents to find answers to common questions, and, in the process, serve as a community facilitator—an up-to-date, reliable resource that makes life in the city more manageable.

Rather than organize the site by the city’s departments, the design solution was rooted in illuminating relevant content by topics—people’s life moments—many of which overlapped through different branches of government. Owning a car in the city, for example, is closely related to preparing for winter, so bridging those common threads allowed for a more intuitive organizing principle.

In the process of the site redesign, IDEO also helped to create a visual identity system that underscores Boston’s strengths: the city’s confidence, humility, personality, and optimism.

In addition to the web architecture and redesign, IDEO also produced a comprehensive style guide to help maintain design consistency, so departments can add content without compromising the overall integrity of the site, as well as a brand look that the city has decided to adopt across nearly all of its consumer-facing media. Now you’ll see the famous underlined B on T-shirts, banners, and even snow shovels.

Holding true to its mission to include Boston residents and all site users in its design process, the new Boston.gov site was piloted for six months, and the process document on the city’s blog (including the IDEO designed brand guide), before a full launch was rolled out in July 2016.

“The website should act like a helpful human. This is one of the big differences between the old site and the new site,” said Jascha Franklin-Hodge, the city’s chief of information technology in a Boston Globe article. “Oftentimes, when you looked at something on the old site, it would feel like you were interacting with some sort of lawyer-robot that was speaking to you in government-speak, using very formal language. We are trying to move away from that so your experience is akin to a person.”

The City of Boston was in need of a new digital home—one that emphasized a shift to a more welcoming tone and commitment to its citizens.

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In the Western Hemisphere, The North Face brand has long represented an active, sporty lifestyle that’s filled with challenges and adventures. But appreciating “the great outdoors” in China is less about extreme sports and more about connecting with nature in a communal, spiritual way. This research-based insight led the team to identify new opportunities for The North Face to better target its messaging.

Designers found a key opportunity: Encourage Chinese consumers to escape the pressures of hectic city life by enjoying the freedom and renewal that comes with spending time outdoors.

Today, as people find less time to enjoy the benefits that lie just beyond China’s large cities, there’s a tangible desire to return to the outdoors to refresh, reassess, and renew oneself. The North Face aims to help consumers do exactly that.

To create a compelling new brand vision for The North Face in China, the team’s design research tapped into Chinese ways of spending time outdoors. IDEO’s insights and creative brief provided the essential brand story for The North Face in China and informed the tagline of the company’s current marketing campaign, “Go Wild” (去野). The North Face brand’s new messaging links “old nature” and “new outdoors” through a combination of digital, retail, and interactive community channels.

IDEO also collaborated with the company on designs and prototypes for a new digital platform and an updated store-within-a-store merchandising display. The digital community aims to attract newcomers and connect them with more experienced outdoors enthusiasts and clubs. As the platform evolves, it will help aspiring adventurers plan trips, learn skills, and share their experiences through photos.

The retail community space aims to integrate this digital community with in-store shoppers and an effort to turn the “buy-a-product moment” into a “join-the-outdoors moment.” Both will be integrated to provide a holistic brand experience in China centered on nature and community.

In the West, The North Face, with its decades-long history, has long symbolized an adventurous, active lifestyle. In China, however, the outdoor market only began accelerating in the early 21st century.

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Success in this growing market depends on building strong and deep connections with Chinese consumers.

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20% sales growth in China

from 2012 to 2013—the year the project was completed—propelling the brand from sixth place to a market-leading position

Over the last 36 years, IDEO and Lilly, along with the pharmaceutical giant’s other design, development, and manufacturing partners, have collaborated on more than 250 projects. During this time, Lilly has not only honed its engineering-focused internal device-development team but also transformed into a human-centered organization with extensive, robust in-house innovation capabilities.

Early in the relationship, a team of IDEO designers and Eli Lilly leaders traveled the world to understand how people with diabetes live with the disease. Their findings led to the design of a series of award-winning insulin injection pens like SAVVIO. Portable, aesthetically pleasing, and discreet, the pens are suitable for use in both medical and personal settings. Combined with Lilly’s technical design prowess, this human-centered focus allows the devices to seamlessly integrate into patients’ lives and routines, making a challenging disease like diabetes feel more manageable.

Fast forward to today, Lilly’s innovative, easy-to-use auto-injectors are not only continuing to provide life-saving treatments to people with diabetes but also enabling the adoption of the popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, which together accounted for the majority of the company’s annual revenue in 2025. Perhaps most importantly, patients consistently rate the experience of using Lilly’s auto-injectors as relatively pain-free, easy to use, and preferable to competitors’ brands, improving adherence, satisfaction, and health outcomes.

This unwavering focus on driving innovation through a patient-first mindset is evident in some of the most impactful projects Lilly and IDEO collaborated on over the years:

GLP Auto-injectors
Convenient and cutting-edge, the first Trulicity injection device was originally designed to deliver the GLP-1 drug to treat type 2 diabetes. Today, it has been adapted for use with other GLP-1s, Mounjaro and Zepbound, which are increasingly popular weight-loss drugs and are also administered once weekly via fixed-dose injections. A wide base enables the pen to be held securely against the injection site, and the device automatically regulates the dose and needle depth.

Taltz Injectors
For most patients, living with severe plaque psoriasis means being your own medical technician—metering your drug dosage each time, and attaching and removing needles by hand. Taltz provides patients with clear visual and auditory feedback throughout the injection process through simple icons, bright colors, a translucent material, and clicking sounds. The devices are available in both autoinjector and prefilled-syringe formats and are adapted for Emgality, a preventive monthly migraine treatment, and Ebglyss, which helps treat eczema or atopic dermatitis.

HumaPen SAVVIO Injection Pen
Key insights informed the design of SAVVIO, including patients’ preference for insulin pens that look less like medical devices and more like everyday objects you’d find in a backpack or purse. The sleek, colorful device was created to help patients feel comfortable and confident about fitting mealtime injections into their everyday lives.

Refillable Human Growth Hormone (HGH) Injector and Reconstitution Device
Designed to be kid-friendly, the Refillable HGH Injector leverages insights into pediatric treatment adherence to create a more integrated, systematic approach to treatment, while the Reconstitution Device makes mixing Lilly’s powder-and-liquid drug easier and less intimidating for parents and healthcare professionals alike.

KwikPen Insulin Pen
KwikPen is a next-generation, prefilled insulin injection pen that builds on the success of two previous designs, reducing its size to 5.7 inches and enhancing ease of use for patients.

HumaPen(R) Luxura™ Insulin Pen
HumaPen Luxura combines several innovations into a robust yet elegant pen that can be carried and used anywhere—an insulin pen solution that improves dosing accuracy, dose setting, and injection force.

In addition to designing products to meet the needs of people with diabetes, IDEO and Lilly have developed innovations in areas of oncology, autoimmunity, and men’s health. The results of this collaboration and expansion have won numerous design awards and produced one of the longest and most fruitful innovation relationships in IDEO’s history.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Eli Lilly had a number of new, life-changing medications and two big challenges: Most of its drugs were self-injectables, not pills, so patients were hesitant to take them. And its drug-delivery device platform lagged behind its drug pipeline.

99%

of Trulicity users reported the auto-injector was “easy” to “very easy” to use in a JDST study

$36.5B

of Lilly’s $65.2B 2025 revenue came from sales of its auto-injectable GLP-1s, Mounjaro and Zepbound, a 45% increase from 2024

‍“…the Advisory Council will recommend transformational programmatic, cultural, and physical change to San Quentin that can serve as a practical model that can be replicated and scaled to other institutions.”

Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom: Governor Newsom Names Leading Criminal Justice and Public Safety Experts to San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council, May 05, 2023  https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/05/05/san-quentin-transformation-advisory-council/

The Advisory Council included the expertise of established criminal justice, public safety, healthcare, academic, reentry, and rehabilitation professionals, along with system-impacted/formerly incarcerated community leaders, and representatives of crime victims/survivors. The premise of IDEO’s involvement is to augment the Advisory Council Co-Chairs’ and members’ expertise in evidence-based best practices and lived experience living and working in prisons, with expertise in collaborative design, synthesis, visualization, storytelling and bringing visions to life.

Specifically, IDEO was brought in to facilitate input-gathering, and assist with incorporating the many viewpoints into a single, cohesive report of recommendations to the Governor. This included meeting the challenge of bringing together the viewpoints of 21 people on the Council (17 members, three Co-Chairs and an advisor to the Governor); incorporating the views of people who are most impacted (those incarcerated at San Quentin, San Quentin staff, community-based organizations, victim/survivor groups, among others); and formatting and designing the final report.

IDEO’s facilitation included workshops with the full Advisory Council, individual interviews and check-ins with Council members to gather their input to inform the recommendations. Each Advisory Council member was asked to speak with, and record feedback from, no fewer than five people at San Quentin or in affected communities and to share this feedback with IDEO. IDEO integrated this information and feedback into this report.

Research activities included visits to San Quentin to speak with and facilitate conversations with:

• San Quentin residents (100+) including the Citizens/Inmate Advisory Council, focus groups with Spanish-speaking residents, former gang members, ACT (LGBTQIA+), Voices Heal, People in Blue, San Quentin Citizens Advisory Council.
• San Quentin staff (100+) including interviews with numerous officers.
• San Quentin staff and residents together.
• Current participants and staff at Amistad (MCRP) and Beacon (former lifer) campuses (many who were previously incarcerated at San Quentin).
  
  

IDEO also organized listening, information sharing and feedback sessions, both at San Quentin and in the community, between Co-Chair representatives and various stakeholder groups, including victim/survivor groups, labor unions, and advocacy organizations. These perspectives were also brought into the report.  

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Knowing how to design community is a rare skill, and Rhonda did it better than anyone. She didn’t bring people together because it was her job. She did it because that’s who she was. Rhonda turned our studio into a home and coworkers into a family. Her creative acts of community-building were expressed through a million everyday things she did for us in the 10 years she worked at IDEO.

Over the last three weeks, we have been sharing stories of how we might be a little more Rhonda. Below are just a few:

Treat your coworkers as friends, not colleagues.

Jennifer Sarich-Harvey said that the moment she knew she was dealing with a special human being was when she received a care package from Rhonda while writing her thesis. Jenn had left IDEO as an intern the year before (not knowing that she would return a few years later).

Lindsey Turner told us of Rhonda’s detailed catering spreadsheet and how you could find little personalized notes therein: Graciella likes the Green Goddess with extra cashews, Noreen loves the almond cake, and no one ate the chicken tenders. Her thoughtfulness extended well beyond the confines of her job.

Treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Rhonda worked extraordinarily hard. She was always on her toes or running to tick something off her mental “to do” list. She even ate standing up. But no matter how busy she was, Michael Hendrix reminded us of how she never treated anyone as an inconvenience. Whatever she was doing, she would drop it in an instant to be truly present with you.

Make it special so people feel special.

Christina Abele chuckled warmly as she related the story of how Rhonda would always, always, re-plate the food—no matter if the caterer had already done so or she didn’t have the time. Rhonda knew that the way you made people feel special was through focusing on the smallest of moments, taking great care, and making them beautiful. This was her craft and how she showed her love in her own humble way. She would put “a little powdered sugar” on everything.

Make others successful.

No one brought this central IDEO value to life like Rhonda did. She was hospitality made manifest. She’d spend countless hours helping our design teams create an extraordinary experience for clients, of course, but she went above and beyond on a personal level too. Noreen Arora shared how Rhonda would sneak some food for her to take back to her new husband to make him fall even more in love with her.

Be the Rhocque.

“The Rhocque” was a nickname her best friends in the studio called her: Rhonda was unflappable, forever poised, and always put others well-being before her own. Nicole Howard recounted the time she was literally running through the studio, stressed before an event, holding paper in one hand and a binder in the other, with Rhonda right behind her. With a quick turn of the heel, they crashed into one another and, in a heroic move, Rhonda grabbed Niki and rubbed some calming lavender oil into her temples before scuttling off to stock the bar. Niki was dumbstruck. To this day, Niki keeps some lavender oil in her bag, just in case.

John Feole tells us how Rhonda once dropped a glass in the kitchen and, even though it broke, it didn’t shatter—it simply held itself together. And that, he remarked, was who Rhonda was: “You could be a little cracked, a little broken, but Rhonda helped you keep your form.”

Make memories, don't wait for them to make themselves.

Nicole Woods told us that Rhonda would intentionally create special moments between her and her daughter so that Ali would have memories for years to come—like recreating a scene from Frozen during the first snowfall. She did the same for us: Like that time she stood smiling as we “oohed” and “aahed” over how she had turned our studio into a woodland forest for an event.

Design random acts of kindness.

Rhonda had a gift. Design came naturally to her. She could anticipate our needs before we could, worked alongside us with our clients top of mind, and always made sure we left feeling better for it. From snow cones for an overworked team designing for snowboarders, rolling trolleys of hot chocolate on a chilly day with toppings only a child would dream of, cake pops in the hues of proposed brand identities and, Tom Kershaw confirmed, baby showers to rival the very best of weddings, she was “biologically incapable of not making things beautiful,” (thank you John Feole). She did so much for all of us and made it look effortless.

Many companies have their values plastered on the wall or policies on creating culture. We confess we have that, too. But, more importantly, we had the irreplaceable Rhonda.

Rhonda, we love you and we will miss you always. We hope to do you proud.

We collected a few suggestion from her friends and colleagues on how we can all be a little more like Rhonda. See their comments here.

You feel it the moment you walk into our studio—a sense of community. People come before deadlines. When someone makes a request, you drop everything, no questions asked, and lend a hand. Ask anyone here to identify the source of that feeling and they would have immediately pointed at the front desk, where every day, Rhonda LeRocque welcomed you in with a smile that could melt a glacier. Rhonda was one of the concertgoers in Las Vegas who never made it back home. This post is a tribute to her and how she brought us together.

I have always loved the sense of escape that dressing up allows. Ever since I transformed into a cardboard robot at a primary school fair as an 8-year-old (my brother is the blackbird), I have been fascinated by how differently people interact with me when I’m in a seemingly alien state.

That early fascination, coupled with my love of building things, has led me to create elaborate costumes based on Ghostbusters, Edward Scissor hands, and LEGO men, to name a few. And since working in the Play Lab, my costume obsession has truly bloomed. IDEO has a long tradition of extreme costume building, especially for our annual holiday party. Themes over the last few years have included Surrealism, County Fair, and Magical Forest.

Over the years many people have asked me how I approach costume creation. Here are 8 ways to channel your inner designer:

1. Stretch the theme

When it comes to themed events, I look for something on the fringe so there’s no chance I’ll be dressed the same as anyone else. For the surrealism party, Salvador Dali, whose paintings invite the viewer to interpret the work in more than one way, inspired me. I wanted to create a costume morphed two things into each other in black and white to achieve a striking contrast. After listing dozens of possibilities, I chose a zebra and a piano! I was pretty sure no one else would be thinking about mashing those together.

2. Plan, sketch, and simplify

When planning out a costume, I create an inspiration board of potential elements. Then, I explore compositions through quick sketches (often on bumpy commuter trains, forgive the roughness) to get a feel of what they might look like and how to construct them. Below are a couple of early sketches of my Zebra-piano and grasshopper costumes:

I try to simplify the execution as much as possible. Costumes do not need to imitate your reference exactly to create impact; just capture the essence of your theme/character in as simple and bold a way as possible.

3. Go wide with materials

Sourcing as many different material options as possible helps you be more creative with combinations and allows unexpected “discoveries” to happen. Don’t forget the fur and fairy dust!

4. Experiment and play beforehand

Try not to be too precious or precise as you start building. Try out different methods and do multiple tests. In painting my face to become a zebra I failed many times before I found a good quality paint and method of application. Here’s a picture to prove it!

Snazaroo paints are the best when applied with clean fingers, Q-tips, sharp-edged sponges and cereal-box cardboard. Dabbing a layer of powder or, with eyes closed, hairspray onto the paint helps it stay in place for the duration of the night.

5. Break the human silhouette

Costumes that break the usual form factor of the human body are the most striking and unexpected. For the County Fair event I built a Zoltar fortune-teller machine using laser-cut foam core decorated with acrylic spray paint. Don't have a laser cutter in the garage? Check out a local techshop or other makerspace, ask a friend who's got access to a shop to help out, or do a quick search for local vendors.

6. Be human-centered

Make sure you can easily drink and go to the toilet! I’ve made too many costumes that have made both difficult, which admittedly adds a layer of hilarity when you have to rely on complete strangers to help you use the facilities.

7. Light it up

Parties are often held in darkened rooms. Adding any level of lighting really helps your costume pop. When building the grasshopper costumes, I found cheap battery-powered LED strip lights on Amazon that brought them to life.

8. Multiples for the win

Team up with someone (as I did with my fellow grasshopper) to add clout to your costume. Two is always better—and more fun—than one.

Check out this gallery of some of my finished costumes:

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Happy escapism! Share your costume idea with us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook with #IDEOcostumedesign.

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It’s spooky season, and we’re feeling that familiar dread of what to wear, what to make, or even where to find inspiration flood in. At a company where design is close to a religion, coming up with an eye-popping costume is the Holy Grail.

Far from the client presentations I had previously known, here, the emotional stakes were much higher. This was my personal story, and I was learning the hard way—in front of an audience of my new peers, no less—that I was clueless as to how I might frame a compelling narrative.

In other words, I had no idea how to tell a story.

Feeling awkward as can be, with a bruised ego to boot, I knew I had to improve my public speaking ability. Luckily, I fast became aware that I was surrounded by the best storytellers I had ever known. I began observing, writing down, and absorbing all of the knowledge, coaching, and feedback that was offered up.

It has been nearly seven years since I shut my laptop in shame. In this time, I have compiled a list of my five favorite, go-to tips from the best presenters at IDEO:

1. Make it personal

Your audience wants to see more than just a portfolio of work or a few case studies they could read on their phones. They want to hear your story. Who are you, how did you get here, and, most importantly, what are you passionate about and why? This latter idea should tie to the work you present.

2. Create a narrative arc

Your talk should have a fully realized narrative, complete with dramatic tension and resolution. The tension in my personal story arrived when I haphazardly fell into the agency world, where the ideologies that drive me were completely at odds with the work I was doing. Resolution came when I left and made a major change in my career and my work.

3. Provide historical context

A bit of history provides a compelling backdrop for the story of your work. When I talk about IDEO’s efforts in the automotive sector, I first tell the story of Thomas Midgley Jr., a chemist and mechanical engineer who invented leaded gasoline (and CFCs) while working for General Motors in the 1920s and '30s. Understanding the disproportionate, planetary-scale impact of Midgley's work sets up the formidable challenge that designers must now overcome.

4. The bar exam

Ask yourself, is your story interesting enough that you would tell it to a friend over drinks at a bar? Bonus points: Conduct your bar exam with a friend who works outside of your industry, making it all the more challenging to capture their attention.

5. Stick the landing

Always end on a punchline. Your punchline does not have to be funny, but it will be the overarching idea that people take home with them. In the context of an event with multiple speakers, your audience is endlessly bombarded with competing ideas and inspiration. When you stick your landing, they remember—perhaps even share—precisely what it is you aimed to communicate.

I have now employed the above tips from friends and colleagues at nearly 30 events over five years on four continents. I assure you, they work.

Special thanks to Annette Ferrara, Neil Stevenson, Shoshana Berger, Paul Bennett, Jenn Maer, Tim Brown, and Katie Clark. I owe you each a lifetime’s worth of experiences and airline miles.

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Nothing makes me want to master a new skill like falling on my face when I first attempt it. Halfway through my new hire presentation—a get-to-know-the-new-kid-over-beers tradition at IDEO Chicago—I cut my talk short and shamefully closed my laptop.

But first, here are a few things to think about before you begin:

Consider what you’re trying to learn. Do you want feedback on the event format, content, experience, or outcomes? Whatever that may be, it helps to tell your audience that they’re participating in a prototype right from the get-go. In our experience, being up front that you're trying to build something better encourages participants to respond. You might offer some incentive for their input, too. Even a small gesture of thanks signals that you value their thoughts. And remember to use the data you get back to understand what happened, and conversation to understand why. Data alone is only half the story.

With all that in mind, here are some techniques we’ve designed to help us understand what worked, what didn’t, and why.

1. Do Live Polling

Collect information during the event, while it’s freshest in people’s minds:

• Pass out comment cards with a simple feedback prompt, “I like/I wish”.
• Leave prompts on a board like, “What did you learn today?” and Post-Its for guests to use.
• Digital tools like Meetmaps or polleverywhere.com do live polling, and you can choose to show the audience the real-time results to encourage participation.
• Biometric measurement can tell you what selected people are feeling in real-time, Megvii and XOX are two systems. You can also show the audience this data.
• Have your team create a list of the most common sentiments or attitudes you expect to get ("I'm Confused" or "I'm Learning"). Then work the crowd, giving people simple feedback prompts. Tally results in a Google survey form, capturing any notable quotes or outliers.

2. Make Data Viz Physical

Sometimes seeing evidence that people are really engaged gets others to participate. Bonus: these methods are fun, and social.

• Have people use a green door to show a “like” and a red door to show a “dislike”. You can also do this by asking people to move to certain places within a space.
• From the stage, ask the crowd before/after speaker: “Stand up if this is the first event you’ve been to….”
• Have people choose a button/pin with a word that describes what people value. For instance, if you’re talking about community, one button might say, “finding my people” and another might say, “building diversity”. Count the ones that are left over.
• Place dots on a spectrum or balls in a bin to vote what you think. The voting objects can be themed too, like fake coins for business investing.

3. Observe Cues

People don’t always accurately report how they feel. Take note of what they do, too.

• Count how many people download the presentation or video after the event, if there is one.
• Provide a hashtag for people to use on social media, then track both the number of shares/tweets, and the sentiment of them. Tools like Tint can help with this.
• Collect names and email addresses for future events (if no one signs up, that’s feedback, too).
• Measure sound volume hourly throughout the event to get a better picture of traffic and engagement timing. Compare different events in full swing in the same physical space to quantify the energy in the room.
• Watch people showing signs of comfort and belonging in their body language—are they loosening their ties or kicking up their heels, do they feel comfortable enough to move chairs into a circle?—all are signs they’re engaged. Sitting alone, checking phones or watches, falling asleep, leaving the room—you know what those cues means.

4. Take the Long View

In addition to immediate learnings, you may want to aggregate insights over time or across events.

• Ask people if they want to be on a feedback panel going forward. Offer exclusive access or information in exchange for helping you shape the program.
• Provide a platform for ongoing conversation about the themes that are important to both you and your guests. This helps you keep the pulse in an ongoing way, and reminds people to associate you with things you care about.

Got any ideas of your own to add to our list? We’d love to hear about them. Hit us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #feedbackdesign.

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You put weeks of work into designing a great event. You think it went well, and people seemed happy, but how do you find out what truly worked and what didn’t? Instead of circulating a survey that makes people's eyes glaze over (if they glance it at all) we've applied our design chops to the task. Here's how to get quality feedback that will help you up your game.

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.