D4V is a Tokyo-based early stage Venture Capital in partnership with IDEO. Two years ago, D4V invested in healthcare startup Ubie, which develops a service called AI Monshin Ubie. The digital service was created with the goal of reducing the burden on healthcare professionals working long hours, under harsh conditions. AI Monshin Ubie automates a number of patient registration and documentation processes through digital tools, enabling doctors to spend less of their time on manual paperwork, and to dedicate their valuable skills and attention to the patients themselves. Currently, the service is installed in 200 medical institutions in 41 prefectures across Japan.

With AI Monshin Ubie, patients fill out preliminary forms on a tablet, rather than paper, entering information about their health history and current symptoms directly into their digital medical record. As patients fill out the questionnaire, the Ubie AI generates questions in real-time according to patients’ responses, which results in more appropriate and accurate data. The patient’s responses are automatically formatted for the doctor to review prior to and during the consultation. As a result, doctor consultation times and facility operation times are drastically reduced.

With the Coronavirus raising fears of a possible health system breakdown, Ubie has made improvements to anticipate and possibly prevent in-hospital infections. Until recently, Ubie’s services have been primarily used by large hospitals; but in light of the global health crisis, Ubie approached D4V—who partners with IDEO—to help rethink the onboarding experience and quickly facilitate the introduction of AI Monshin Ubie in regional clinics across Japan. D4V and IDEO have been working with Ubie for many years to collaborate in various areas, including UX, rebranding, international research, and more. Therefore, they had a foundation of knowledge from which to build these new features.

Typically, AI Monshin Ubie has been introduced to new hospital clients through direct, in-depth instructional visits from Ubie sales staff. This approach has worked well for rolling out the product to Japan’s 8,000 large hospitals; but for the 100,000 smaller clinics, Ubie needed a more efficient onboarding method to enable staff to get set up smoothly and independently.

During research, D4V and IDEO team members engaged with many different clinic staff members, including full-time doctors, part-time doctors, nurses and receptionists. The researchers found that staff tend to react skeptically to new tools and services, with a common preconception that they will add to their workload. One clinic director’s first impression of AI Monshin Ubie was, “It looks complicated.” But once he actually used the service, he realized that it was very user-friendly.

The team quickly understood that it was important to remove preconceptions by clearly communicating Ubie’s benefits and ease of use. They created a two-minute animation and designed three separate guidebooks. The animation adopted a friendly tone and expressed empathy for doctors, staff members and patients, highlighting how Ubie can bring benefits to each of them. The animation showed how Ubie fits into the existing workflow and explained complex systems in a straightforward and accessible way.

WATCH: A short video clip explains the benefit of their product and service to avoid the users’ concerns in advance.

The guidebook for doctors and directors explains how Ubie’s AI smooths the patient consultation experience and greatly improves the quality of medical care. It also introduces concrete how-tos around set-up, implementation, and ideal workflow. FAQs were also included, addressing concerns about whether or not elderly people would be able to use it.

Ubie business development leader Kenji Yamada says, “D4V and IDEO have a deep understanding not only of design, but of our entire business. They provide inspiration by bringing experience and knowledge that comes from working with other industries and clients outside of healthcare. We appreciate that they can share the knowledge that they’ve obtained with our business.”

Read the Japanese-language version of the Ubie case study here.
When You Feel Unwell, Ask Ubie: Check your symptoms for free
Learn more about Ubie: Global Company Website

In the emergency room, an intervention that’s administered too slowly could cost a patient their life. With COVID-19 fueling a surge in acute respiratory conditions, intubation—a procedure that involves inserting a tube through the mouth or nose and into the airway—is more common than ever. For patients struggling to breathe, the tube can be connected to a ventilator that pumps oxygen to the lungs, keeping them alive.

While a laser-focus on the present is critical for successful patient outcomes, hospitals and physicians often don’t have time to look ahead and anticipate the future of the operating room experience. As technology rapidly improves, there is a ripe opportunity and pressing need to evolve medical equipment to be more innovative and intuitive. Verathon Medical, a global medical device manufacturer, is supporting health care providers at the cutting-edge of care.

Verathon approached IDEO to redesign the existing product system for laryngoscopies and bronchoscopies—procedures that examine parts of the throat through intubation. During these examinations, a tube with a camera embedded in the tip is inserted through the patient’s nose or mouth. The doctor can then see inside the throat on a video monitor, and therefore more easily and quickly intubate and perform the exam.

To create a groundbreaking device, the team observed over a dozen laryngoscopies, bronchoscopies, and intubations. They noticed that many anesthesiologists relied on fixed equipment during the procedures. For example, some had grown accustomed to looking over their shoulder—away from the patient—to view the monitor.

During interviews, physicians and residents expressed difficulties with the current technology, sharing that the small screens aren’t conducive to team viewing or student instruction, and they must often use a separate computer to record patient notes. Others reported frustrating workflows, needing to constantly divert their attention and move their hands between the patient, prep tray, monitor, sterile bin, and disposal bin. These inconveniences and inefficiencies are not only cumbersome, but can increase the risk of infection and fatality.

The team relied on these insights to start designing a next-generation product. Through sketching, storyboarding, and building in real-time alongside doctors and clinic staff, designers quickly teased out additional findings and validated concepts.

This work led to the creation of the GlideScope Core: an all-in-one, portable product system that supports both video laryngoscopies and bronchoscopies. The base of the device—a wheeled cart—has built-in storage units for tools and a disposal bin, offering more mobility and accessibility for medical professionals.

The product’s tagline, “see more, do more,” points to the improvements made to the video system, including a large 10- or 15-inch high-definition touch screen monitor. Displayed images can be enlarged and rotated 180 degrees for improved visualization, team viewing, resident training, and classroom demonstration. To help doctors keep both the patient and monitor in their line of sight, the detachable screen can be secured to an adjustable arm that can be positioned directly over the patient. Additionally, the monitor’s patient annotation feature gives staff access to more of what they need in one device.

The product has been especially valuable for providers and patients during the coronavirus pandemic, when it’s imperative for doctors to keep their distance from patients’ mouths and noses. The GlideScope Core’s movable, detachable, and large, high-definition monitor makes it easier to take this precaution and intubate more quickly. This usefulness is reflected in the 5-fold increase in cart-based device orders for Verathon. While most providers typically order anywhere from 1 to 20 devices for airway procedures, one hospital system requested 600 GlideScope Core systems to meet current intubation demands.

Through modern technology and a focus on human needs, the GlideScope Core supports improved patient outcomes and creates a more seamless operating experience for medical professionals. The product underlines the key but often overlooked fact that often, in order to ensure the healthcare industry is patient-centered, medical device manufacturers and hospitals must also focus on improving the experience of providers.

Healthcare is notoriously difficult to change. Rules and regulations present complex barriers; health practitioners and organizations often have entrenched ways of working; and lives are literally on the line. Despite these significant barriers, the leaders at Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) boldly committed to improving patient care through a new approach.

NWH is a community teaching medical center in Newton, Massachusetts. Because of its proximity to Boston—a city known for world-class healthcare institutions—NWH needed to differentiate itself. The hospital's new president, Dr. Michael R. Jaff, reached out to IDEO for help: "I knew that providing an unparalleled patient experience would set us apart from our competitors." But, Dr. Jaff’s particular approach was unique. He and Dr. Jodi Larson, Chief Quality and Experience Offer (CQXO), saw an opportunity to drive better patient outcomes through cultural and organizational change.

"You cannot learn any more than when you get to listen to your potential patients say why they would never walk into your place." —Dr. Michael R. Jaff

IDEO partnered with NWH for a year of work together, kicked off by defining the vision for NWH and ramping up to in-hospital prototyping and the launch of several new initiatives. A pilot project with the Women's Imaging Center (WIC) focused on solving departmental and employee challenges to provide a better experience for women getting mammograms.

Fueled by this potential, the WIC team redesigned key work processes and created a set of experience principles that inspired new service prototypes. Guided by principles like "Express mutual gratitude" and "Honor every voice," the WIC team tested ways for patients to acknowledge outstanding caregivers and created tools to gather better feedback from patients and adjust quickly. The experience of designing better services inspired the WIC staff to become ambassadors for the power of design thinking across other departments inside NWH and they continue to build on the work through new prototypes and experiments.

Next, IDEO partnered with NWH’s ambulatory surgery group. They took an analogous research trip to Boston’s Logan airport to see with fresh eyes how other high-touch customer service organizations provide customer value in a complex setting. Insights from the trip were applied through live prototyping of several new experiences inside the hospital, including a pre-surgery visit summary and pre-operation care carts.

Analogous research helped us realize that we can learn from other industries and incorporate some (cool) best practices if we allow ourselves to get over the ‘that would never work in the hospital’ mentality. - Dr. Jodi Larson

One of the most impactful prototypes was Care Modes, a tool to empower the NWH care teams to tailor their approach and interaction with patients based on the patients’ unique needs, beyond simply their clinical requirements. Four distinct approaches were identified for engaging a patient before surgery—Explain, Partner, Embrace, and Encourage. The Care Mode is determined based on the provider's understanding of a patient's degree of self-advocacy and their confidence that surgery is the best solution to their issue.

Historically, care providers have been trained to deliver consistent care above all else. However, Care Modes powerfully acknowledge that patients respond differently to different types of care. The Care Modes empower the team—from surgeon to nurse to anesthesiologist—with a clear framework for how to interact with and provide care for patients so they feel most comfortable. Based on the prototype's success with patients and impact on the staff culture, NWH has incorporated Care Modes into EPIC, the hospital's electronic medical record.

The importance of being patient-centered has been central to the healthcare conversation over the past thirty years; but new explorations reveal that there’s far more potential for innovation and improvement when the provider experience is considered in tandem with the patient’s. Each enables the other, and design for both together yields stronger solutions and better outcomes. IDEO's work with NWH demonstrates this vital shift in user-centered healthcare—one can't design services and experiences for patients without designing for their providers’ culture as well. When these go hand-in-hand, meaningful institutional change in healthcare is more than possible.

The mission of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) is to inspire children to achieve their full potential in the fields of science, technology, medicine, and engineering. Leaders at MSI realized they needed to drive day-to-day operations and maintain historic exhibits while focusing on where to go next. To prepare for its next decade, MSI worked with IDEO to create a new business focus to support the museum’s aspirations for the future. The plan would allow MSI to respond to the demands of the marketplace and raise the funds to get there.

At the beginning of the project, MSI laid out its priorities: improve equity of access, enhance the museum experience, and create a more innovative culture. To dive into each of these areas, IDEO conducted immersive research with families, teachers, donors, and staff.

IDEO brought together 60-plus donors, board members, and staff members to engage in a design thinking exercise to unpack and address the tensions that come with choosing a new strategic trajectory. Instead of having a standard ballot vote, the IDEO team encouraged participants to get up and vote with their feet, helping the group of stakeholders physically align on the museum’s new direction.

At the end of the research and prototyping phases, MSI and IDEO developed a vision called Provoking Minds, Inspiring Futures, creating six detailed design briefs to equip MSI teams to bring initiatives forward. The briefs laid out everything from recommending a new Department of Next, dedicated to ensuring that the future is at the heart of everything the MSI does, to MSI Runway, a place for experimental, small-scale, and limited-run exhibits. The ideas were brought to life with an interactive exhibit, built quickly with everyday materials like plywood and circuit boards, to demonstrate that creating an inspiring vision of the future doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor.

The team also focused on insights that highlighted accessibility issues some families brought up early in the design process—travel across the city via public transportation can be lengthy, and the cost of admission to special exhibits could be prohibitive. To address these concerns, IDEO came up with the Mission Accessible brief: Inspired by casino buses, MSI bus stop signs would be posted in various low-income neighborhoods, signaling a way to take kids and families to the museum for free.

During the project, the IDEO team identified some low-hanging fruit, like rethinking ticketing and improving the student field trip experience, and helped the museum create cross-functional innovation teams to apply design thinking skills towards solving those challenges. They researched, brainstormed, and pushed forward new concepts, meeting weekly to share and build on ideas. At the end of the four week period, each team prototyped their ideas—new outdoor programming, software tools for visiting tour groups—and pitched them to each other.

In 2019, two years after the conclusion of the project, the collaboration paid off. With its new strategic plan and additional resources, the museum has renewed its commitment to serving youth, and MSI’s team, including donors, are aligned on a collective vision of the future. MSI raised more funds than in any previous year, including the single largest gift in its history—$125 million, nearly half of its $380 million fundraising goal—that will help ensure the years ahead.

There was a lot to celebrate. We’d launched an innovation lab and piloted new products as part of a larger, multi-year collaboration to expand the organization’s human-centered design capabilities and enable culture change.

And our collaboration had revealed something crucial: In order for the product to be successful we also needed to support the underlying organization, which meant looking more holistically at strategy, process, tools, and incentives.

That became an opportunity for me, an interaction and product designer by training, to apply my trade through an organizational lens. It turned out that the prototyping methods that I had learned could also be applied to people and processes. By experimenting, responding to feedback, and iterating, we could help nudge behavior change within the organization.

Here are the five big lessons I took away:

1. Speak their language

We were working with product managers, engineers, and designers, so instead of explaining what we planned to change with academic research and abstract frameworks, we used language they already understood. We were going to run scrappy experiments, learn quickly, and iterate. If the ideas didn’t work, we’d pivot and try something new. But instead of prototyping products, we were experimenting with people and processes.

Big insight: Meet people where they are. Ground organizational design in a familiar context, and make it tangible in order to build trust.

2. When facing big change, start small

Behavior change is hard. So, we started with small experiments. What was the least that we needed to design in order to learn—the minimum viable product (or MVP)—and to help nudge new behaviors? In one instance, to test our hypothesis on the need for a company-wide training program, we started by creating a workshop for one multi-disciplinary team of 10. Its success soon paved the way for a broader rollout.

Big insight: Organizational change doesn’t have to begin with big initiatives. Starting small with prototypes can lead to big learnings and start to shift behavior.

3. Measure impact in creative ways

Email surveys are an obvious way to take the pulse and determine whether experiments are resonating with individuals, but they can easily fall to the bottom of a priority list. We tested more lightweight, in-the-moment feedback methods. After prototyping a beer and knowledge-sharing gathering, we asked attendees to place a magnet on a board to indicate their responses to a few questions, like: “Would you come again?” and “Did you learn something?” It was an easy and immediate way to figure out if the idea was worth evolving.

Big insight: Simple and in-the-moment measurement tools can be enough proof of concept to move forward quickly.

4. Find the right ambassadors

Early on, I was determined to get all of the senior executives involved in our prototypes. What was I thinking? Their understandably divided attention and packed calendars made that next to impossible. In the end, some young, energetic community managers were the ones who embraced our ideas and helped push them forward. Not only did they have the time and passion for the projects, but they were also trusted leaders within the company. Community managers helped us organize an informal gathering of product people to share methods over beers. (Yes, beer again. When in Germany!) We asked a VP to simply show up. When he saw the overwhelming attendance and impact on the community, he became one of our biggest advocates. Teams that had been working in silos started to meet regularly. The more we demonstrated quick wins, the more senior leaders got on board to encourage new behaviors throughout the organization.

Big insight: The best agents of change may not be the most senior folks. Look for individuals with passion and social capital.

5. Make it stick

There are two things that we did that helped ensure that our ideas lived on after we were gone. First, we found owners within the organization who would commit to moving our ideas forward. Second, we helped create an internal group dedicated to maintaining momentum. This group provides leadership training and coaches teams to ensure both a top-down and bottom-up approach to behavior change.

Big insight: Prototypes are just the beginning. Organizational transformation requires dedicated owners and a multi-layered strategy.

It all adds up to a set of behaviors: Get scrappy, get tangible, find your people, and learn by doing. It never hurts to do some reflection from a rooftop, too.

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Not long ago, a coworker and I found ourselves contemplating the eclectic Berlin skyline. We were on the rooftop of our client’s office—a leading European brand in online retail—and thinking back on what we’d learned from embedding with them for a year.

I had been asked to create a newspaper for kyu, the design collective of which IDEO is a member, and I was ready to perform.

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My desire to explore the world using rhythm and sound on one hand and ink and paper on the other started when I was young. I was very quiet as a child. Instead of playing with friends, I created my own playground in a sketchbook. I listened to stories on a cassette player as I drew.

My mom, a violinist who played in an orchestra, taught me how each sound communicates a different feeling. Together, the instruments create a pleasing harmony.

I chose to play the cello, as its sounds comforted me. When I felt sad, I could play and the sadness was transformed into something beautiful. When I felt alone, the cello's mid-tones communicating with and supporting the other instruments made me feel less isolated.

I went to high school in New Zealand and focused on photography, art, and music. Playing in orchestra, string quartet, chamber orchestra, and musical show orchestra required rigorous practice, and I discovered that it was only with disciplined repetition that the ear could learn to hear the subtle distinctions between an almost perfect note and an imperfect one, between good enough harmonizing and exquisite music. Constant practice not only created perfect harmony, it also trained the soul.

Like music, calligraphy embodies many feelings. That was my father’s gift to me. He guided my hand, drawing with me. At first, I stood in his shadow, but I gained confidence over time. The calligraphic technique I now use involves moving very fast, every stroke following right after the one before, never taking time to look back.

The companies that make up kyu share a belief that creative collaboration will yield new solutions. To visualize the collective, I drew the first dot directly with the brush and then started to draw circles. Dots and lines, the basis of musical notation, helped me orchestrate the story visually. Rough strokes conveyed complexity and sometimes chaos, while the diffusion of ink into paper illustrated the calm conclusion of a journey. When the magazine reached a crescendo, the dots began to jump around wildly. The combination of ink and water unified sense and sense, and the story of the newspaper came to its happy end.

Just as each calligraphic mark and each musical instrument is unique, so too is each company in the kyu collective. Independent, but also located within the same “circle.” Sometimes the music of a page is the message.

“Music is the ultimate teacher.” ― Wassily Kandinsky

The day I got the assignment, I ran to the art store and bought brushes, ink, and a grindstone. I set the tools on my desk, which became the stage. I was the conductor, interpreting the text like a musical score.

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The secret is in iOS 11 Live Photo Effects. To make your own, access this feature, take a live photo, then, in the photos app, swipe up to reveal the Live Photo Effects.

Easy, right? Yes and no.

Creating a live loop is easy, but creating a cinemagraph requires a bit more planning. The difference is in the framing—too much movement, and you’ll just get a live loop. Here are a few tips to ensure you nail the combination of still photo and limited motion:

1. Find the shot: To create a beautiful cinemagraph, find a shot where most of the image will be still, and only a piece is in motion—perhaps a tree blowing in the wind, or raindrops on a puddle. If there’s too much movement in the frame, the shot will feel chaotic.
2. Plan it out: While it’s possible to pull off a clean loop without a tripod, don’t just point and shoot. I like to turn on the grid in my photo settings—these lines help me see if I’m holding still or wobbling slightly (I always use the grid to help create a level horizon or position subjects, anyway). Try to lock your body by leaning on something, or even by putting the camera on a table to keep it as still as possible.
3. Stage it: Don’t leave it to chance! When you can, control the shot. The pool shot below took a few tries, and it really helps that there were no other people wandering through.

Sharing the live loop

So you’ve perfected your technique and have a gorgeous loop to share! The problem is, iOS doesn’t exactly make it easy.

If you try to share natively to Instagram, it’ll tell you the loop needs to be three seconds or longer. And iOS doesn’t offer a lot of options to help—there’s no easy way to export your Live Loop into a format that’s shareable for Instagram. I found this out the hard way while I was traveling in the Philippines, and since I didn’t have my computer with me, I had to figure out a way to solve for this using only my phone.

One of my goals was to use only free apps—buying a bunch of apps I wasn’t sure were going to work didn’t sound very fun. After much Googling, trial, and error I created the workflow below. The first time through might take you a few minutes, but now that I’ve done it a few times, I can go from live loop to Instagram in less than two minutes.

Get the apps

First, download these three free apps:

1. Lively: Exports your Live Loop as a video
2. Splice: A free video editor that lets you extend the length of the loop to meet Instagram’s minimum requirements
3. Video Crop: Removes any letterboxing (black bars) in the video export

1. Lively

Start by using Lively to open the loop you want to export. In the top of the export panel select “Movie” and then tap “Export”, then save the movie.

2. Splice

In Splice, tap the + icon on the top right to create a new project and select the video you exported from Lively. Click “Add (1)” on the top right to add it to your project.

On the Add Audio screen, tap “Skip” on the top right.

Name it however you like, and use these settings:

• Format: Select Landscape for wide photos or Portrait for tall ones
• Default transition: set to “None”
• Outro: set to “Off”

Now you should be in the editing screen; all you have to do is tap your video and select “Duplicate.” Do this three or four times until your video duration is at least 0:05 or longer.

Lastly, tap the “Export” button on the top right and select “Save.” I always pick 1080p HD for the best quality.

3. Video Crop

One last step: Remove the letterbox (those pesky black bars) on the side of the exported video. Open “Video Crop,” tap the big red button, select your video, and tap the check mark on the top right.

Now use the crop tool to trim off the black bars, then tap the export button on the top right. When it’s done processing, tap “Save.”

Very Instagrammable

Cinemagraph loops look amazing on Instagram or Facebook, and they give you a unique way to share your experiences (Let’s be real—we’ve all seen enough Boomerangs.)

It takes a few steps, but once you get the hang of it, the process is quick and easy. And when your friends ask how you did it, you can point them this way.

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I’ve always loved cinemagraphs—those endless, hypnotizing loops where part of the frame is still while some areas are gently in motion. When I discovered that I could create these loops natively with iOS 11 (iPhone 6S or newer), I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Through the Swedish Energy Agency and its partners, the nation is focusing on reducing pollution from the transportation sector. It plans to reduce (but not entirely eliminate) the need for private car ownership by improving alternative travel options for people in everyday life.

In more wonky language, the focus is on sustainable mobility as a service, an approach that brings all means of travel together. It combines options from different transport providers into a single mobile service, removing the hassle of planning and one-off payments. It’s an environmentally sound alternative to owning a car, and an approach to mobility now being propelled by urbanization, economic shifts, artificial intelligence—and the social and economic impacts of climate change.

Through its initiative, A Challenge from Sweden, the Swedish Energy Agency invited IDEO to join the effort. Here are three lessons we learned along the way through working alongside our Swedish counterparts.

1. Get outside

Swedes live for fresh air and natural landscapes. Even the most committed Swedish city slickers retreat to a cabin at the weekend, or dream of an escape to the countryside. The natural world is imagined and felt as replenishment—as a valuable resource to be respected and enjoyed.

For our design team, it was a reminder to take our research far beyond Stockholm or Gothenburg, especially as we considered designing for a nation of travelers. We took long train rides to meet people in smaller towns, and walked as much as we could. It felt good, and it was necessary.

Going outside also means seeking out inspiration from beyond your own context. We were inspired by examples of civic and societal change from around the world, and brought them into the project, almost as if we’d discovered precious acorns on the forest floor.

2. Engage tradition

Cultural traditions and norms might seem strange or twee to outside eyes. But they almost always hint at a deep societal agreement. We discovered that in Sweden, for sure. Fika is not merely a coffee break during the day: it’s an invitation to pause, to reflect, to reconnect with one’s thoughts or emotions, and to restart.

We introduced fika in our project space, and observed it when we were with the team from Sweden. It added a note of calm and confidence to our work and to our individual energies, even as the work accelerated in intensity towards the end.

Similarly, we drew on Nordic storytelling tradition to share the story of our research in Sweden. Instead of using dry descriptions to describe the different ways Swedes might be triggered to make new transportation choices, we told a three-dimensional fable that told the story of a mythic waterfall, and the different paths that four people took to find it and use it.

The fable allowed us to invite our collaborators into a instinctive understanding of what we’d all learned together, as well as a logical one. The story resonated, it brought joy into an otherwise serious, complex topic, and it was easy to repeat.

3. Be brave

The scale of Sweden’s ambition is remarkable, but—in Sweden itself—commonplace.

Swedes recognize that their country is small, their population tiny, and their contributions to global climate change negligible. But they also understand that, by leading with bravery, they have earned outsized influence in the world. Other countries look to them as an example of how to set goals and make change in service of healthy, sustainable growth.

Sweden has set a goal of achieving a fossil neutral transportation sector before 2030. That’s a big ambition, and an exciting one.

Through a global innovation challenge, Sweden is now inviting engaged political leaders and some of the world’s most capable companies to help make sustainable mobility as a service a reality.

In other words, Sweden is going places fast.

Find out more about Mission Innovation 3 and A Challenge from Sweden.

Through IKEA, Sweden has already transformed the world of contemporary furniture and home furnishing. Now Sweden is taking on an arguably even more ambitious goal: leading the world in tackling some of the thorniest causes of global climate change.

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.