

From incremental change to breakthrough innovation
How Master Kong reinvented the instant noodle, from the inside out.
Looking to understand the role of instant noodles in middle-class Chinese life, the IDEO team conducted in-home research with consumers across a range of life stages and levels of attachment to noodle culture and convenience foods. The first finding was reassuring: Everyone kept instant noodles at home. The category still had a place in middle-class kitchens. But beneath that was a more complicated, emotional story—and an unmet need for convenience and quality to coexist in a single product.
The team discovered that instant noodles are more than just a quick, on-the-go meal; they are a nostalgic comfort food that evokes fond memories. But since their heyday, their role in daily life has evolved. Once a complete meal in itself, instant noodles now often function as a versatile flavor base or culinary accent in other dishes. Because they don’t align with the healthier, higher-quality, and more novel food choices that middle-class consumers aspire to, noodle shops, delivery noodles, or fresh-cooked instant options often win out. Yet, even these alternatives come with trade-offs. Delivered noodles lose texture during transport. Sit-down noodle shops preserve quality but offer limited flavors. Cooking from scratch meets the bar for both texture and flavor, but requires a significant time investment. As one young mother said, “If I could get the texture of fresh-cooked noodles without turning on the stove, I’d buy that instant noodle for sure.”

The research inspired the creation of a new category, which the team termed “fresh-brewed noodles.” More than just a noodle or broth upgrade, Master Kong’s fresh-brewed noodles would offer the speed of instant noodles with the quality of freshly cooked options, plus flavors not found in traditional noodle shops. The strategic positioning was clear. Executing it by making fresh-brewed noodles mass-producible, affordable, and eventually profitable presented a category-innovation challenge. To get there, IDEO designed a series of dual-track co-creation workshops with the Master Kong team and consumers.
One track focused on prototyping the core product experience: noodles, broth, and toppings. IDEO and Master Kong’s R&D team began by studying the traditional craft of Chinese noodle-making, starting in Shanxi, a region renowned for its noodles. Through successive rounds of prototyping and consumer tasting, the team identified a critical insight: for “fresh-brewed noodles” to be convincing, the innovation had to be centered on the noodles themselves.
Texture alone was not enough. Consumers needed to see a meaningful difference before they tasted the product. IDEO translated this insight into a distinctive noodle profile: irregular, dimensional shapes designed to remain springy, hold sauce and broth, and mimic the resilience of freshly cooked noodles using only hot water. Because this visible shape represented the product’s core value proposition, it became a hero feature on the packaging. The graphic design made a bold visual statement about the noodle form, turning a technical R&D breakthrough into an immediately legible consumer promise: these are not ordinary instant noodles.

A parallel track explored the broader commercial experience: trend-forward and reimagined classic flavor profiles, light yet deeply satisfying broths, carefully selected toppings, and packaging that signals a new level of quality on store shelves. One key insight was that utensils carry meaning. Conventional instant noodles are often associated with disposable plastic forks, while higher-quality noodles are eaten with chopsticks. IDEO translated this cultural cue into the design of the bowl’s lid.
Instead of treating utensils as an afterthought, the team designed a solid, rounded, heat-retaining lid that embeds a pair of small wooden chopsticks. The gesture creates a small ritual of anticipation and reframes the product—not just a convenient instant meal, but a more considered noodle experience. Once opened, the product fulfills that promise with satisfyingly bouncy noodles, a rich liquid broth pouch that replaces the traditional oil-and-powder packet, and a vegetable packet reformulated with more premium whole ingredients.

The first batch of “Te Bie Te” Fresh-Brewed Noodles—Chinese wordplay that emphasizes “special”—launched in August 2025 with three trendy and tried-and-true flavors. Within just three days, sales exceeded 100,000 bowls. Within a week, “Te Bie Te” topped the instant noodle category sales ranking on Douyin, China’s domestic counterpart to TikTok. The outcome was bigger than a product launch—it served as proof that a mature, declining category could be fundamentally reinvented to meet consumers’ real needs. For Master Kong, the project became a North Star and a model for internal category innovation in beverages, ready-to-eat foods, and beyond.

Once a popular, affordable staple, the instant noodle category in China has been declining rapidly due to shifting demographics, rising food delivery options, and increasing customer demand for healthier, more nutritious meals.
According to the World Instant Noodles Association, between 2020 and 2023, China’s instant noodle consumption fell by 4 billion packs.
100,000+
“Te Bie Te” bowls sold in the first 3 days on the market
#1
on Douyin’s instant noodle category ranking within one week of launch


Making international education future-fit & affordable
Lexel brings world-class learning to Malaysia’s middle class.
Taylor’s legacy began in 1969 with the founding of Taylor’s College and soon expanded to include Taylor’s University, one of Southeast Asia’s top private universities, as well as many other institutions that serve 35,000 students per year. The family-owned group also operates Taylor’s International Schools, Garden International School, and Nexus International School for students ages 4 to 18. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city, annual tuition at premium private schools like these ranges from about $10,000 to $25,000 USD. Taylor’s wanted to do something different: provide the same level of academic rigor and immersive learning experiences at one-third the cost.

IDEO began by speaking with over three dozen students, parents, teachers, and experts across the capital to understand what was working, what wasn’t, and what was missing from such moderately priced international schools.
A few themes quickly emerged. Families, students, and teachers were worried about the stability of these new private schools, which tended to have higher-than-normal teacher turnover rates and were plagued by financial instability, negatively impacting talent attraction and retention, as well as student learning. Parents appreciated that the schools offered holistic learning experiences, such as field trips to rural areas, including jungles, but wished they were more consistently part of the curriculum. And now, the looming challenge of AI—how to use it, how to teach it, and how to teach with it—was in the background, a persistent cause for concern. The big unmet need? Reassurance that Taylor’s was thinking long-term and systematically about developing the skills, knowledge, and mindsets that would prepare students for an ever-changing world. Parents wanted a school that measured growth in academic, social, and character terms over generations, not just school semesters.
With these insights in hand, IDEO began developing a design Playbook for Taylor’s new brand—Lexel International Schools. A combination of “lexicon” and “excellence,” Lexel’s mission is “building what lasts, learning for life.”

The schools are centered around three key differentiators:
- Always Ahead: Lexel schools commit to staying current with the topics and subject matter they teach, as well as the tools they provide to students, parents, and teachers.s.
- Learning That Builds for Life: The schools ensure programmatic, systemic, and consistent learning experiences from Pre-K to Year 11. Interested students can even continue their post-secondary journey in partnership with Taylor’s University and other higher education institutions within the Taylor’s ecosystem.
- Educators for the Long Run: These schools commit to ongoing investments in professional growth opportunities for teachers and stable learning environments for students.
Four Lexel Literacies—AI, Digital, Financial, and Nutrition—integrated into the Cambridge Curriculum bring the school’s vision and mission to life.


By systematically integrating AI literacy into its spiral education framework, in particular, an approach where major topics are revisited multiple times through a curriculum to build fluency over time, Lexel ensures parents that the school is thinking a decade ahead from Day One, setting the school apart. In addition to enhancing AI fluency, Lexel offers unique end-of-term experiences called Jungles & Junctions.

Combining three important strands of learning—community engagement, nature-based personal and interpersonal development, and career and university exploration—Jungles & Junctions leverages Taylor’s extended educational network and Lexel’s strategic founding campus within the Gamuda Gardens development in Selangor. Surrounded by tropical rainforests, the township’s residential neighborhoods, theme park, and various sports facilities, including an Olympic-length swimming pool, are transformed into an extended Lexel campus, with a GenAI-driven planner to help teachers streamline the organization of class outings. “The Township is Your Campus” became the tagline for this approach.
In September 2025, just months after IDEO’s collaboration ended, Taylor’s began classes at its first Lexel International School. By mid-year, the new school had achieved 115% of its year-one student enrollment target, with significant inbound demand for Year 2 already demonstrating the school’s market resonance.

The modern campus features spacious classrooms, science and technology labs, a library, a multipurpose hall, and a canteen. Annual tuition ranges from about $2,800 USD for pre-K students to about $6,100 USD for secondary students.

Most importantly, by combining Taylor’s deep academic expertise, Gamuda Land’s development prowess, and IDEO’s innovative design Playbook, Lexel brings quality, affordable international education closer to home for Malaysian families. According to one parent, “My daughter looks forward to going to school every day … and has a lot of opportunities to express herself. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give [Lexel] an 11.” Based on the IDEO Playbook, a second flagship campus in the Southern Klang Valley, which is scheduled to open in September 2026, has already exceeded its year-one target enrollment expectations, with plans to continue extending the Lexel network to other parts of Malaysia and the wider Southeast Asian region in the near future.
Malaysia’s private international school sector has grown significantly as parents seek quality English-language education. However, high tuition fees and limited access to reputable schools are continual challenges for those in the emerging middle class.
115%
of Lexel’s student enrollment target reached during the launch year of its first campus
Year 1 enrollment target exceeded
at Lexel's second campus several months ahead of classes commencing


Delivering an unbiased news experience
Straight Arrow News transforms fact-based news consumption.
The American news industry has long been a competitive and saturated market. This has only intensified with the emergence of social media outlets and AI-generated news. Even so, SAN’s rigorously unbiased, fact-based reporting style and rich video storytelling had enabled the ambitious startup to rise above the media fray in just three short years.
With a strong foundation to build on, IDEO sought to further differentiate SAN’s cutting-edge news product and build deeper engagement with a wider audience through a new user experience.
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Collaborating closely, IDEO and SAN began by delving deeply into media consumption habits. They met with early SAN superfans, news consumers who spent hours a day absorbing content from traditional outlets like Fox and USA Today, and those who looked to their Ring doorbell app or Reddit for news. The takeaways? People were tired of clickbait and clunky interfaces. They sought clear, factual news that was easily accessible, with additional context to help them interpret events and understand their significance. They craved more than one perspective on important topics, so stories felt balanced rather than polarized. They also valued having control over how they consumed news, so making it easy to switch between text, video, and audio formats was crucial.

Together, IDEO and SAN created features across SAN’s website and app that put facts, trust, and transparency at the core of the product experience. Fact Cards distill key data points into clear, shareable units, while the Sources feature allows readers to trace information directly back to its original source. To make complex stories easier to grasp, Big Picture insights drill down into why events matter, surfacing underlying themes, historical parallels, differences in reporting, and common ground. The Why This Story Matters section provides readers with clear framing and sets the story within a broader context, while the Timeline illustrates how events unfold over days, months, or even years. An antidote to news polarization, See All Sides presents left, right, and center narratives for key topics side-by-side, and Media Landscape visualizations reveal how coverage varies across outlets. Finally, to ensure SAN fits seamlessly into readers’ daily lives, the redesigned Today Page is organized into three highly scannable sections: Latest News, Top Stories, and SAN Originals. The combined features create a balanced, clear, and non-polarizing news experience, making it easy for readers to delve deeper into the sources of their news.

SAN now delivers a news experience as modern, dynamic, and trustworthy as its journalism. A month after its debut, the SAN app’s page views increased 1,170 percent year over year compared to June 2024, while active users rose 700 percent. Readers also give the updated mobile experience a 4.8 rating on the Apple App Store. “Our team is delivering reporting that’s both deeply factual and accessible,” said Derek Mead, SAN’s Chief Content Officer. “This redesign is pivotal to the direction journalism needs to take and the leadership role Straight Arrow News is taking on as we help guide the news industry into a brighter future.”
SAN built a loyal readership and gained recognition for its unbiased reporting. To expand and stand out from legacy media, SAN wanted a redesigned user experience that reflected its commitment to fact-based journalism.
1,170%
increase in app page views YoY
700%
increase in active users
4.8 rating
on the Apple App Store


Preventing newborn RSV
A toolkit to increase global adoption of Beyfortus, the world’s first RSV immunization for babies.
Sanofi was the first company to supply the polio vaccine worldwide. Because of the global fight against the disease, endemic wild poliovirus transmission is now limited to just two countries. However, attitudes toward vaccines and immunizations have shifted significantly. To ensure a smooth launch of Beyfortus in a time of increased vaccine hesitancy, Sanofi asked IDEO to conduct research across four important and very different healthcare markets: Germany, Spain, China, and the US.

IDEO worked with parents, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and healthcare administrators to identify potential barriers to vaccine adoption and understand the emotional needs of all stakeholders involved in the immunization process. Navigating cultural differences and diverse healthcare environments, the team uncovered a set of insights.
For healthcare professionals, the team discovered there was no one-size-fits-all approach to immunization training across Sanofi’s 20-plus global markets. While consistency of key information was important, trainings needed to be flexible and customizable. This way, regardless of whether the vaccine was administered by midwives, OB-GYNs, nurses, or doctors, they could confidently discuss the pros and cons across cultural contexts and administer the drug correctly.
For new parents, receiving information about a new immunization immediately after giving birth could be too stressful. But simply leaving pamphlets about Beyfortus in waiting rooms didn't address their real concerns, either. Caregivers needed to engage in conversations earlier in their pregnancies and continue them after leaving the hospital, when they might have additional questions.

IDEO translated these research insights into a highly accessible global communication toolkit that uses simple, straightforward language, metaphors, and illustrations to support informed conversations between healthcare providers and parents before, during, and after a child is born. IDEO then conducted a series of market-fit co-design workshops with representatives of Sanofi’s global immunization business to iterate on the print and digital tools, make them more resonant with regional customers, and ensure compliance with local regulations. IDEO handed the toolkits over for development to support the launch of Beyfortus in January 2024, just in time for RSV season.

Beyfortus saw enormous demand in its first year, demonstrating strong efficacy in real-world applications and achieving blockbuster status as a $1.8 billion therapy. Sanofi’s global launch team credits the patient-centric toolkit with increased requests for communication materials from its regional markets as well as from healthcare and government organizations that have typically been hard to reach, key goals of its global-local launch strategy.

Since its development, Beyfortus has received swift regulatory approval from the US, EU, China, and Japan, with patient demand causing Sanofi to triple its worldwide manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of the 2024-25 RSV season. Ahead of the larger global distribution of Beyfortus, IDEO and Sanofi partnered with equity expert consultants, Fearless Futures, to conduct a DEI review and worked with doctors and nurses who participated in the initial drug launch to make the materials even more accessible, relevant, and successful for 2025 and beyond. To date, six million babies—and counting—have been immunized with Beyfortus.
Worldwide, childhood vaccination hesitancy among parents fluctuates between 25-45%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a trend it considers one of the biggest global threats to public health.
85.9%
reduction in hospitalizations for infants who received Beyfortus compared to those who did not (2023–24 RSV season)
$1.8B
in first-year sales of Beyfortus


Design Thinking for Libraries
Design Thinking for Libraries is an approach to improving libraries through creative problem-solving.
This toolkit guides you through design thinking so you can start coming up with solutions to everyday challenges within the library. Design thinking, or human-centered design, is all about starting with people—the users that visit your library.
IDEO has been using similar methods to envision new products, services, spaces, and experiences that bring them to life. IDEO created this toolkit specifically for the library setting and is looking forward to seeing how you might create impact by seeing your work through a fresh perspective: the design thinking lens!
Learn more here.
Design Thinking for Libraries is an approach to improving libraries through creative problem-solving.


5 Invaluable Work Tips from Introverts
Introverts are the sleeping giants
Apparently I’m not the only one. Aya Jaffar’s exploration, “Introvert at IDEO”, reveals that I am healthier and far less freakish than I ever could have dreamed. As an intern, Aya took on the task of asking her fellow IDEOers how they embrace their introversion in such an extroverted environment.
IDEO is filthy rich with fascinating people. Every week we have stimulating lunch-hour talks and raucous happy hours. Our office is the ultimate embodiment of an extroverted workspace. We think out loud! We brainstorm together! We eat in teams! We have walk and talks, just like in The West Wing!
That’s all well and good for about half the population. But the best work cultures make space for those of us who seek occasional refuge from the chatter.
Here are a few comforting things I learned from Aya’s “Introvert” piece:
There's a spectrum
Carl Jung was a pretty smart fellow. He suggested that everyone falls somewhere on the Introvert <---> Ambivert <---> Extrovert scale, so none of us are purely one thing or another. Big Bird? Michelle Obama? Your bus driver? Probably all extroverts with introverted traits. Just like me.
Introverts recharge with solo time
Introverts aren’t shy! They’re exhausted and they need to step away from others to think things out or recharge. That’s also why they have monstrously large noise-cancelling headphones on. Always.
They've got skillzzzzz
While extroverts’ positive qualities are easy to identify and praise, we should be quick to notice the greatness and strengths of introverts too. They are world-class listeners, thoughtful synthesizers, and often gifted at lifting others up. They also thrive when working independently so they can get just about anything done if you leave them alone for a bit.
Introverts need thoughtful workspaces
While our colorful, collaborative work style might suggest otherwise, our office actually considers introverts more than we know. We have phone booths built for one, the hushed Lighthouse workroom, enclosed project spaces, and breakout couches that allow anyone to focus in a way that works best for them. Plus, IDEO expects us to manage our own space and schedule, allowing us the freedom to work from home on occasion without ever being judged.
So bring on that big dinner! And some wine! And a cheese platter!
You’ll find me in the bathtub, gearing up for tomorrow.

Hi. My name is Tal. I have to go home and hide in a bathtub. That’s not exactly a socially acceptable thing to say at a client dinner, but as an introvert in extrovert’s clothing, the thought has scurried through my head many times.


OpenIDEO: A Platform to Harness Collaboration for Social Good
OpenIDEO is an open innovation platform where people from all corners of the world collaboratively tackle some of the toughest global issues through launching Challenges, programs, and other tailored experiences.
OpenIDEO is an open innovation platform where people from all corners of the world collaboratively tackle some of the toughest global issues through launching Challenges, programs, and other tailored experiences.
A Challenge is a three-to-five month collaborative process that focuses attention on the topic and creates a space for community members to contribute and build off each other. This approach is modeled on IDEO's design thinking methodology.
You can learn more about it here.
Active Challenges
The Beyond the Bag Challenge, launched in partnership with Closed Loop Partners and leading retailers, seeks to identify, test, and implement innovative new design solutions that serve the function of today’s single-use plastic retail bag. Winning Ideas are eligible to receive a portion of $1 million in funding, participate in a Circular Accelerator program to receive further assistance in scaling, and access testing and potential piloting opportunities. Find out how you can be involved in the Beyond the Bag Challenge and sign up to receive email updates
‘Agents of Change' Atopic Dermatitis Challenge: Navigating Uncertainty
The ‘Agents of Change' Atopic Dermatitis Challenge: Navigating Uncertainty aims to find creative ways to help people with atopic dermatitis navigate through the ambiguity surrounding the condition with confidence while building awareness and empathy among those around them. Sign up to receive email updates and join the Challenge starting on September 14 to help change the way people think and feel about atopic dermatitis.
The $2M Food System Vision Prize is an invitation for organizations, institutions, companies, governments, universities, and other entities across the globe to develop a concrete and actionable Vision of the food system that they aspire to see in the year 2050. Together, we’re seeking answers to the question How might we envision regenerative and nourishing food futures for 2050? $2M will be distributed to the Top Visionaries, who will be eligible to receive a prize of $200,000 each.
Intrigued? Read about the many ways to be involved in the Food System Vision Prize and sign up to receive email updates.


5 Mindblowing Things We Heard at SXSW
Our pick of the techfest's best panels, people, and provocations
1. "85 percent of cancer can be cured in the next five years."
—Dr. Sanjay Patil
The health care industry missed the PC and internet revolution, but they won't miss the big data and analytics revolution, said Dr. Sanjay Patil, chief medical informaticist at MDLIVE, and John Sculley, a board member. According to the American Medical Association, 75 percent of in-person visits could be handled virtually. But they cautioned that it took 10 years for people to get comfortable with online banking and ATMs. Still, Patil and Sculley believe genomics and precision medicine will trigger massive shifts sooner than we might think, and had some very hopeful predictions. —Betsy Fields Smith, senior design and research lead

2. Robots would be smarter if we didn't interrupt them.
If we want robots to learn from us, we have to design them with the human capability of expressing their intent and emotion said Panellists Leila Takayama, senior UX researcher, Google[x]; product designer Nuri Kim, Fellow Robots CIO Thavidu Ranatunga, and Stanford Center for Design Research executive director Wendy Ju spoke about
For example, a robot often learns that a door is a door by staring at it for hours on end. If a person walks in front of a robot while it is learning, this can compromise the training session and hours of work. We need to design careful and intuitive indicators as to what state robots are in. If, for example, a robot was learning by staring at a door while scratching its chin or tapping its forehead, it would serve as a reminder to not interrupt their lesson.
This relates to work we are doing with autonomous vehicles. We will need to develop a new vocabulary of mobility through which vehicles and people can communicate. What sort of cues, both subtle and bold, have we come to expect drivers that help you anticipate their behavior? How might we thoughtfully design some of these cues into autonomous vehicles to make the future safer and more intuitive to move through? —Danny Stillion, partner/executive design director

3. The Jetson’s-style kitchen of the future is here.
The "kitchen of the future" technology exists and there are businesses being built upon it right now. We heard why in a panel called "From Palate to Plate: Defining a Taste Platform." It was framed as a panel about food data, but spoke more to how we interact with food today and might do so in the future, including replacement cycles for appliances, the lack of a portable “taste profile”, and so forth. We're thinking about these things at IDEO, too. Check out the Concept Kitchen 2025, work we collaborated on with IKEA.
While we've realized much of the Sputnik-era vision of the kitchen of the future, there's a fourth circle—system interconnectivity—that we need to start to consider. —Justin Massa, director of business strategy

4. Data will reform our criminal justice system.
What does the rise of information design for a complex social problem such as criminal justice reform look like? There is a growing movement to use open, public data for political advocacy and reform. And yet, even with a wealth of data, we’re unable to design for more accurate, immediate, and actionable ways of using it.
This panel, made up of experts and innovators using data for policy reform and program development said the most vulnerable in the system—offenders and their families—could benefit from the use of more transparent and actionable data, such as preventing false confessions in interrogation or exonerating prisoners from false convictions with DNA testing. They also spoke about the power of predictive policing in cities, and protecting those who are re-entering civilian life with data privacy so that they can secure a job or a loan. —Yennie Lee, impact manager, IDEO.org

5. Virtual Reality may change your beliefs.
Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of hype around VR at SXSW. But outside of finding a second home outside gaming, the use cases I'm most excited about are empathy building, and overcoming trauma. VR can deliver sophisticated, deep storytelling that stays with you. It puts you very close to being in someone else's shoes.
Planned Parenthood is doing just that, showcasing its seven-minute film "Across The Line", which follows one woman's journey from her car to the abortion clinic as she confronts a sea of pro-life protesters. Some footage is live action, some animated, but the audio is a live recording from outside a clinic in Illinois. It’s upsetting. And it may just change someone's mind on this issue. —Karoline K, communications designer
Huge thanks to Karoline K for the illustrations in this story.
President Obama, the hyperloop, Wired's Kevin Kelly, Microsoft's HoloLens, Twitter's Biz Stone and, wait for it... Pee Wee Herman! Among the thousands of conversations at SXSW, it can be hard to separate the signal from the noise, so we asked IDEO's SXSW speakers to share their greatest hits. What they came back with—robots, genomics, VR, criminal justice, privacy—proves that design is going places it's never gone before.


Lindsey Turner
I’m passionate about building brands, products, and experiences that help organizations show up with meaning and momentum.
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.


Rachel Young
My work helps organizations see who their products aren't working for—and build the will and the tools to do something about it
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.


Brian Pelsoh
I lead with craft, ensuring our work is creatively excellent: rooted in deep human insight and imagination, while also grounded in the realities of business and technology.
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.


Tony Wong
I am responsible for IDEO’s long-term success in China and working with clients to use design as a tool to enable growth.
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.
6 Patterns for building organizational agility: Clay Parker Jones
Mina Seetharaman speaks with Clay Parker Jones, Director of Organizational Design at Airbnb and author of Hidden Patterns, about six practical patterns for building a more agile, adaptable, and human-centered organization.
How great teams leverage tension as a source of innovation: Daniel Coyle (Replay)
In this replay, bestselling author Daniel Coyle explains how high-performing teams channel friction into forward motion, why vulnerability builds trust, and how leaders can turn tension into energy, learning, and innovation.
What gets in the way of trust on teams: Q&A with Ben Swire
Mina Seetharaman sits down with Ben Swire, co-founder of Make Believe Works and author of Safe Danger, for a practical Q&A about hidden barriers to trust, why feedback can feel risky, and what leaders can do when trust begins to erode.
Building risk-taking teams: Ben Swire
Mina Seetharaman speaks with Ben Swire, co-founder of Make Believe Works and author of Safe Danger, about building trust, psychological safety, and creative collaboration by helping teams practice productive risk-taking before the stakes are high.
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