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Sparking a conversation around policing in NYC

Helping the New York Civil Liberties Union activate a city-wide, nontraditional campaign centered on listening.

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Case study
Case Studies
Creative Capabilities
Public Sector

New Yorkers experience policing differently depending on who they are and where they live. Some communities are patrolled; others are profiled. When your neighbors’ experiences are starkly different from your own, it can be almost impossible to understand their perspective.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), a state branch of the ACLU, hoped to spark a dialogue around race and police tactics in over-policed communities, and to engage voters on this divisive issue before New York City’s mayoral election. But the NYCLU also understood that traditional slogans and billboards weren’t enough to foster deep personal conversations and effective political action—the city needed real talk.

The organization engaged IDEO to help create a city-wide, nontraditional campaign. In talking with New Yorkers, the NYCLU advocates and IDEO designers honed in on two simple truths: Transformative conversations happen only when people feel safe enough to listen—and to speak. And people become more compassionate listeners once they themselves feel heard. In a time of entrenched interests and growing social conflict, listening can be a radical act.

Together, IDEO and the NYCLU designed Listening NYC, a grassroots campaign to promote interpersonal listening, meaningful discussion, and collective action around policing.

Left: A sandwich board in Union Square invites residents to join the conversation. Right: A New Yorker browses through the Listening Room's Conversation Cards. The deck of cards use Mad Lib-style prompts, trivia questions, and open ended questions to help people connect and better understand others' experiences.

To get New Yorkers—famously brash and always bustling—to stop and listen to their neighbors, they created a pop-up installation called the Listening Room that travels through the city to catalyze one-on-one conversations. It’s a portable safe space, with tables, chairs, two walls that provide a degree of intimacy, and two sides left open for a feeling of psychological safety.

At the center of the experience is a deck of Conversation Cards that encourage New Yorkers to share their stories and hear those of others. Simple prompts like “I believe the role of police is to _____,” and questions like “A cop stops you in your neighborhood. What do you do?” empower people to find common ground. Through straightforward but structured activities like these, many New Yorkers who enter the Listening Room expecting to disagree instead find themselves sharing stories and opinions in ways they never imagined.

Beyond face-to-face dialogue, the Listening Room also features a radio loaded with stories from different neighborhoods across the city’s five boroughs. By turning the dial, visitors can learn about encounters with policing culture from fellow New Yorkers, including two NYPD officers.

To turn talk into action, visitors are invited to send a postcard to the mayor. People choose the policy proposals most important to them—from, “Police shouldn’t be disciplining kids in school” to, “If police want to read our emails, they should have to get a warrant”—and add them to a pre-stamped postcard dropped into a special “ballot box.” The NYCLU delivered more than 2,000 of these cards to Mayor Bill de Blasio upon his reelection in late 2017.

IDEO and the NYCLU also led an interactive campaign event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Residents, students, philanthropists, and police were led through an exercise called Creative Tensions, positioning themselves around the room according to their views on everything from surveillance technology to school safety. Experts helped guide the conversation including Sheriff Jerry Clayton, director Liesl Tommy, and NYCLU organizer Brandon Holmes. The process allowed participants to see how fluid people’s positions can be.

Listening NYC has now reached thousands of New Yorkers at more than 35 locations. Schools, from a public middle school to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, have requested visits from the Listening Room, and the installation’s modular design has inspired new incarnations on topics including student safety and discipline.

The NYCLU has sent Conversation Cards to celebrities, influencers, and every member of the New York City Council. Sending postcards to Mayor de Blasio and Conversation Cards to the city council led directly to passage of the Right to Know Act—legislation that incorporates some of the NYCLU’s proposals for police reform.

Today, the impact of Listening NYC has moved beyond city limits. The NYCLU’s Syracuse chapter is introducing the pop-up installation there, while in Boston, mayoral candidate Tito Jackson even promised a visit from the Listening Room if elected. To keep dialogue flowing, the ACLU plans to distribute Conversation Cards nationwide.

The New York Civil Liberties Union activates a city-wide, nontraditional campaign centered on listening.
The NYCLU activates a city-wide, nontraditional campaign centered on listening.
New York Civil Liberties Union
New York Civil Liberties Union
Sparking a conversation around policing in NYC, policing, public safety, civic dialogue, New York Civil Liberties Union, public sector innovation, government services, civic innovation, civic design, government innovation, citizen experience, innovation, government

Driving growth at Europe’s largest online fashion retailer

How Zalando redesigned the way it works and saw profits soar.

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Case study
Case Studies
Creative Capabilities
Consumer Products & Retail

Fashion thrives on reinvention. Now, digital platforms and tools are reinventing fashion. E-commerce has reshaped the shopping experience and social media has democratized the once-exclusive industry.

Amidst this furious whirl of change, the fashion platform Zalando, founded in 2008, has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies. Headcount has ballooned to 15,000 and revenues grew 23 percent year over year. More than €1 out of every €100 spent on clothing in Europe is spent at Zalando.

In 2014, Zalando’s co-founder and CEO Robert Gentz approached IDEO to help think about the organization’s future in the face of increasing competition. Gentz realized that building design thinking capabilities across the company would allow Zalando to make systemic business shifts, like building better experiences for customers, and balancing operational excellence and execution with innovation.

So, he invited a team of IDEO designers and Zalando employees to create an innovation lab in its Berlin headquarters. They called it The Studio, and in the three years since its launch, it has helped the company build new products, experiences, and modes of working that are powering a digital transformation across Zalando and in the broader fashion world.

Finding purpose

Gentz came to IDEO with a simple request: “I want my daughter to be proud of the company I created.” With that directive, the first order of business was to home in on the organization’s new strategy—to shift from an e-tailer to a full-blown fashion platform—and resurface purpose. After a series of interviews and workshops across the company, a unifying intent emerged:

Zalando exists to reimagine fashion, for the good of all.

To share that message, the team designed a five-day Festival of Purpose at the company’s Berlin headquarters and satellite locations, coupled with a long-term plan to help leaders and their teams weave that sense of purpose into everything they do.

WATCH: Learn how Zalando used purpose to mobilize its community

Building Innovation Capacity

With a shared purpose to rally around, Zalando started to design and build at a clip. The Studio experimented and prototyped, launching products like Seen At, a mobile app that allows members to upload street style photos, and a digital tool called Collabary that connects online fashion influencers with brands. Projects are enabling cross-disciplinary teams to get into the practice of aligning around joint goals, making fast decisions, and building with agility.

But just as important as identifying growth opportunities for the company has been The Studio’s role as a hub. Zalando employees from across business units cycled into the Studio, teaching IDEOers about their business and the company’s culture, while IDEOers helped them master the design thinking process so they could lead future projects.

Studio graduates ensure that anything prototyped there is implemented, and integrate what they’ve learned into their day jobs. Their experience makes them design ambassadors who spread the practice of experimentation, prototyping, and storytelling across the organization.

WATCH: Learn how Zalando pioneered a new innovation studio

Teaching Leaders How to Scale Change

It’s one thing to start working differently in a small innovation lab, but how do you scale change across an organization and determine how it will affect each major business unit—product, technology, commercial, and logistics? IDEO interviewed Zalando employees to better understand how to embed what we called new Ways of Working (WoW), a method that combines design thinking with lean and agile approaches. WoW was then deployed by a centralized team that ran workshops and coaching sessions to help leaders adopt it, measure its impact through OKRs, KPIs, and NPSs, and help their teams understand the new processes.

Today, the Ways of Working method is being rolled out across the entire organization, reaching all 15,000 employees.

Together, the relationship between IDEO and Zalando and their multi-year project of change is spurring double-digit growth, and making good on the company’s vision of reimagining fashion, for the good of all.

WATCH: Learn how Zalando scaled new ways of working across their organization

Zalando
Zalando
Driving growth at Europe’s largest online fashion retailer, Zalando, consumer products, retail, consumer experience, retail innovation, digital transformation, digital experience, digital product design, UX design, growth strategy, business growth, scaling innovation, retail experience, store of the future, mobility design, future of mobility, innovation, strategy, product design, design thinking, prototyping, experimentation, transformation, mobility, change management

Elevating the craft of Chinese cuisine

Helping a packaged foods company in China define its purpose and take its place on the international stage.

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Case study
Case Studies
Strategic Futures
Food

IDEO helped position Shinho’s ingrained respect for food, family, and good health as a guiding principle for how the organization interacts with its employees and the wider world. The IDEO team integrated a new motto—“treat the world as family”—into every part of Shinho’s work, from sourcing and hiring to new ventures to the care employees take in handling each bottle of sauce destined for someone’s table.

To help transform Shinho’s internal culture, the IDEO team also crafted a narrative to communicate the company’s beliefs to new staff and outside partners. The team expressed Shinho’s foundational story through a published brand book and film, reimagined logo, and codified employee values.

“My proudest moment was when we brought the brand identity IDEO developed to life, and interpreted Shinho’s mission and vision through that lens in front of 2,000 employees at our annual meeting,” said Hanzhong Dong, Shinho's Head of Product, “It made me feel that even though we’re a group of ordinary people, we’re working on a great and meaningful thing."

Shinho’s heightened confidence and focus on supporting families has empowered the company to expand beyond soy sauce and snacks and explore new offers, from culinary training to sustainable farming to food experiences.

In July 2017, Shinho stepped onto the international stage as a tastemaker by participating in an event called Food Forward, hosted by the Michelin Guide and IDEO. Michelin-starred restaurants are synonymous with superb ingredients and service. Shinho crafts safe, organic, high-quality products that are staples for Chinese chefs, and the company shares the Michelin Guide’s aim to celebrate and expand the role of fine dining in China. IDEO brought all parties together with the shared goals of elevating China's culinary craft and culture, inspiring people around the future of food in China, and encouraging fruitful connections and partnerships.

IDEO and the Michelin Guide organized the day-long event, which included guest speakers, panel discussions, and tastings with four international, Michelin-starred restaurant chefs. Speakers and panelists discussed culinary education, inclusion, and the interplay between tradition and innovation in food. More than 200 people attended from across the food ecosystem: chefs, restaurateurs, journalists, investors, and educators. The event’s livestream garnered 30 million global views and 800,000 engagements.

Shinho’s products now reach 30 million families in 232 cities around the globe, driven by a cohesive mission and brand message. This kind of values-driven growth and hunger for new partnerships is setting the course for the future of food in China and throughout the region.

Despite the rapid growth of China's economy and increased access to a wider variety of food since the opening up, the market is saturated with unhealthy, processed snack foods. Consumers are increasingly seeking better-quality options, highlighting a significant gap in the food system.

30M families

purchase Shinho’s products

60 countries

around the globe offer Shinho products
Over the past 30 years, as China’s economy has grown, Chinese consumers have gained access to a greater volume and variety of food. But more doesn’t always mean better; unhealthy, processed snack foods are everywhere, and consumers are hungry for better-quality fare. So, forward-thinking manufacturers, chefs, and tastemakers have begun to transform China’s food system, led by businesses like Shinho. The family-owned food maker boasts more than a dozen condiments and snack brands, including Shanghai’s best-selling soy sauce, Liu Yue Xian. But the company has larger ambitions to elevate the quality of food in China and nourish families around the world. Shinho asked IDEO to help articulate this vision and define the company’s plan for the next decade of growth.
Shinho focuses on values-driven growth to redefine the future of food in China—and beyond.
Shinho focuses on values-driven growth to redefine the future of food in China.
Shinho
China
Shinho
Elevating the craft of Chinese cuisine, restaurant experience, restaurant innovation, food systems, food system innovation, Shinho, food innovation, food and beverage, brand strategy, brand design, brand identity, brand experience, packaging design, product packaging, packaging innovation, growth strategy, business growth, scaling innovation, business transformation, organizational transformation, culture change, systems thinking, systems design, service ecosystem, food experience, future of food, future strategy, strategic futures, designing for the future, how to build a brand, innovation, strategy, transformation, sustainability, education

Defining values to set the stage for future growth

In helping a startup codify its values, IDEO prepared its team to scale—fast.

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Case study
Case Studies
Creative Capabilities
Breakthrough Products
Technology

Narvar, a software-as-a-service startup that provides a post-purchase engagement platform for retail clients, was scaling fast. The company had grown from 20 to 90 employees, and was well on its way to reaching 300 over the next two years. As the company grew, its leaders wanted to make sure it could sustain its vibrant, innovative culture. Narvar came to IDEO for help identifying and defining its values in a way that would would scale with the organization.

For the IDEO team, that meant articulating a system of values that supported existing behavior, reflected the company’s aspirations, and aided in evaluating new talent and development. The team started by interviewing key “culture carriers,” from the CEO to new hires, to learn what makes Narvar special. Based on this research, the team crafted a working set of values, then invited the entire company to share their feedback. In doing this work, IDEO was also able to surface organizational issues and tensions within the company for Narvar leaders to address.

Narvar's values line the walls of its headquarters in San Francisco.

Now, Narvar lives its values every day. Team members use them during candidate interviews, employees see them daily on company walls, and managers reinforce them during performance reviews. Every quarter, leadership gives out a Narvar values award to reinforce their importance. Through this project, Narvar was able to not only capture its core values, but also use them as an active ingredient in the company’s growth.

“We engaged IDEO to really understand the challenges we faced as an organization, and IDEO helped us define and articulate our culture and values. I can honestly say that all the growth and success we’ve achieved in the past two years—we couldn’t have done that without the foundation from IDEO,” said Narvar CEO and founder Amit Sharma.

Narvar
Narvar
Defining values to set the stage for future growth, Narvar, technology innovation, digital products, venture design, new business creation, business model innovation, growth strategy, business growth, scaling innovation, employee experience, workplace design, team collaboration, future strategy, strategic futures, designing for the future, how to launch a new business, innovation, strategy, research, startup, leadership, retail

10 Exercises to Build Your Creative Confidence

Activities to help you approach challenges from a new perspective

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Article
Articles

In The Octopus's Build Your Creative Confidence series, we’ve shared exercises and activities from the book to help you approach challenges from a new perspective. We’ve compiled all ten exercises here in hopes that you’ll hit the ground running on your creative journey and excel in a future where creativity is currency.

1. Mindmaps: Push yourself to think divergently and creatively

When searching for innovative solutions, mindmaps can be a powerful way to come up with new ideas or gain clarity about a topic of exploration.

2. 15 Seconds of Brilliance: Increase your creative output

Even if you never get to experience Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame, you’re likely to have your own moments of brilliance once in a while. When that happens, be ready to capture the magic.

3. 30 Circles: Jumpstart an ideation session

This quick, simple exercise is perfect for getting warmed up. Use it with a group as an icebreaker or on your own when you need a jolt of inspiration.

4. Empathy Maps: Lessons from observing human behavior

You’ve gone into the field in search of knowledge, meeting people on their home turf, watching and listening intently. But synthesizing all that data can be a little daunting. Organize your thoughts with this tool.

5. I Like, I Wish: Encourage and accept constructive feedback

We all instinctively know that constructive critique is essential, and yet it can be hard to listen to and absorb feedback without letting our egos and defensiveness distract us from what may be a valuable message. Use this exercise to help introduce feedback into the innovation process.

6. Speed Dating: Warm up a group and break down barriers

Creativity thrives amidst free-flowing social discourse. To get a roomful of strangers to innovate, start by breaking down some of those pesky social barriers. By carefully thinking about your group, you can craft this exercise to prime your participants for the work that comes next.

7. Nickname Warm-Up: Eliminate hierarchy to improve idea flow

While the previous exercise useful in situations where people don’t know each other well, sometimes you’ll encounter the opposite problem: a group meeting where people know each other too well. This warmup allows folks to “try on” a new persona and new behaviors.

8. Customer Journey Map: Empathize with customers, employees, and other end users

A journey map helps you think systematically through the steps your customers—internal or external—have when they interact with your product or service. Use this exercise to drum up new insights about your end users.

9. The Dream/Gripe Session: Define a problem to work on

Dreams and gripes are both a normal part of the innovation process. In this exercise, pair folks up to translate conversations into creative thinking challenges.

10. The Wallet Exercise: Help your group understand innovation thinking

The exercise uses a simple object that most people carry with them as a prop to discover needs, design and prototype solutions, and get user feedback. It gives everyone a chance to cycle quickly through the human-centered design process.

Creativity is on the rise as a top skill leaders will need to face the increasingly complex challenges the future has in store for them. For those who identify as "creative types," this is likely music to your ears. For those who don't, stay with me! As luck would have it, IDEO was founded on the belief that everyone is creative—and that creativity, like any other leadership skill, can be learned and practiced. In 2013, David Kelley and Tom Kelley put that belief down on paper in their best-selling book, Creative Confidence.

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10 exercises to build your creative confidence, leadership, creativity, creative confidence, music

When Building a New Venture, Friction Isn’t Just Inevitable—It’s Invaluable

Nine lessons from the front lines of corporate venturing

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Article
Articles
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with a new venture friction isn't just inevitable-it's invaluable, venture design, entrepreneurship

The 4 “Love Languages” of Design

Techniques to ensure your audience will fall in love with your idea

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Article
Articles

I must say: Designers have an advantage when it comes to communication. We have the benefit to use not only our words, but also visualizations, from sketches and 3DCAD to infographics and physical objects. Designers are capable of making words real, expressing an idea in form, color, material, and finish. We truly are tangible storytellers. But having the means to make ideas tangible doesn’t necessarily solve all communication issues—we all speak nuanced languages and carry biases toward the things we already love to hear, see, or experience.

You may have heard of the 5 Love Languages, a tool to help characterize the ways we give and receive love. What if a similar tool could be built for designers? What if, before sharing an idea, you could learn the “design love language” of your audience? You learn your romantic partner’s love language to better connect with them; you might learn your colleague’ design love language to better collaborate, or a client’s design love language so you can craft the perfect presentation.

Here are 4 “languages” to help you communicate the value of your design straight into the hearts of your audience:

1. Storyteller’s Circle

For many people, it’s the story behind your idea that will really make it sing. This goes far beyond how the idea solves a problem for people and the business; that should be a given. It’s about the thoughtful descriptions of how the idea came about, why it will make a positive impact in the world, how it was better than other ideas, and why you feel confident about that.

The team we worked with at PillPack did this masterfully. During the research phase of the process to redesign how patients engage with pharmacies, we heard personal, painful stories about dealing with the US healthcare system. Standing in long lines, keeping up with expiration dates, making sure you take this medicine with food and that one on an empty stomach—patients told us it's overwhelming. We could immediately tell there was a huge opportunity to design something to solve for these problems, and the stories we heard inspired the team to create a single vision, strategy, experience, and identity that consumers quickly understand.

To gauge whether your story will resonate, try rehearsing it as if you were speed dating. If people understand your concept in a single sentence or get excited in the first 30 seconds, you’re on to something.

2. Make it Zing

There are some ideas that make us express feelings that are beyond words—“oooohs” and “aaaahs.” For people who need that ah-ha moment to really make a new idea click, it’s your job to make them say, “Oh, wow.”

When sharing IDEO’s vision for the future of mobility, I’ve heard people remark, “So that’s what our city could look like.” The project explores the many ways that we imagine transportation—of people, places, ideas—evolving over the coming years. Though they’re purely conceptual, the ideas are brought to life through visual renderings and context clues that make them feel tangible—they transport the viewer to The Future. Try not to gasp when you realize that.

To get started, think about which of the senses you want to appeal to, then work to amplify them. Use visual cues or sound to your advantage—the “zing” happens when the idea flirts with us and tickles our senses, gut instinct, and imagination. Lean into the unpredictable, the whimsical. Make someone sigh or shout.

3. Straight to the Heart

What was the last performance you gave a standing ovation? When was the last time you cried at a movie? Which book moved you so much that you bought all your friends copies for the holidays?

This love language is about emotional resonance—tapping into the power of human emotion to impact your audience on a deep, personal level. I’ve found that it works particularly well for helping people build empathy for the human elements of large, complex systems and structures.

Our approach to telling the story of IDEO's work to design the voting system in Los Angeles County was to tug at the heartstrings, which helped make complicated and bureaucratic topic more accessible. The photos, videos, and audio stories were designed to highlight the humans who are casting ballots—the hardships, the triumphs, and everything in between.

Body language and word choice are key to nailing this one. Take cues from your audience—when you see someone lean in, nod, let themselves smile, you know you’ve landed on a moment that made things click. Practice your story with a friendly audience and observe those moments, then design your storytelling experience around them.

4. Lights, Camera, Action

For some, actions speak louder than words, and they can only fall in love with the idea after seeing or trying it. They want to use it over time, test it, live with it, break it, and have others do the same. For these people, ideas need to be on a movie set, including the actors, the scene, and the props.

For this audience, make sure to bring your idea to life as a prototype, and allow them to experience it out in the wild. That’s what we did when we helped Swarovski build a new chandelier. We didn’t just look at renderings—we built a whole living room in our office to test our prototype.

Prototypes don’t have to be perfect. In fact, they shouldn’t be. Showing up with a prototype made of cardboard and Legos is better than arriving empty handed. Do whatever you can to make your thing real and I guarantee you’ll see lightbulbs go off over people’s heads.

As designers, our job is to create things that improve people’s lives. To do so, designers must learn how to speak the languages of the various audiences we design for. It’s important for us all to recognize our own biases towards our favorite language, and have the empathy to listen and adapt to the other ones. Your design love language might be different from the person using your design.

Language matters. That’s an obvious statement for anyone working across cultures, and it especially holds true in design. As a designer, I’ve always used my skills to create tools that enable shared understanding. This mainly came about out of necessity: I was born and raised in the Netherlands, and I’ve also lived in Sweden, the UK, and for the past seven years, the US. In my 14-plus years as an industrial designer, I’ve collaborated with clients from almost every continent, from Saõ Paulo to Seoul. By working closely with people from different countries, I’ve learned first-hand how language connects us to our cultures and to one another.

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the 4 love languages of design, product design

To Become a Better Designer, Make Time for Make Believe

Silly as it sounds, it’ll make you better at your day job

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Article
Articles

Every other week, I host a creative playdate for our studio called MakeBelieveTime (MBT). We always come up with something different. Maybe we’ll combine magnets and mirrors to invent our own games. Maybe we’ll use a needle and thread to learn the basics of computer coding, or fold our hopes and fears into paper airplanes. MBT has become one of the tentpoles in our community’s calendar—a ritual that brings our bodies out of project spaces and our minds out of design mode. It’s playtime for adults.

How do you fingerpaint a scent? Without getting yellow up your nose, hopefully.

The value of these exercises has become clear to us, but when visitors happen to be around for MBT, all the natural questions bubble up. Sounds fun, but you do this during work hours? (Yes.) Are these exercises used with clients later? (Sometimes, but not always.) How does this apply to paid project work? (It doesn’t.) So what’s the point?

That is the point. MakeBelieveTime is actually most valuable when it does not directly relate to project work in a typical, measurable way. It’s play for the sake of play, and that’s okay—in fact, it’s essential. Here’s why.

It’s about process, not product

I once had an art teacher who would sketch all over my work to show me different techniques. At first, I was frustrated because my brilliant piece was being scribbled on. But then I recognized his assumption—that an artist will do it again and again and again. That learning a new technique meant focusing on the hand, not the paper.

In our design work, we rely on our own experiences and intuition, so it’s essential that we become fluent in exploring our memories and feelings. MakeBelieveTime gives us a chance to practice that with new and unfamiliar tools. That’s why, whether it’s colored sand or temporary tattoos, the real materials of MakeBelieveTime are our personal joys, hopes, and fears.

It preps the mind for design

When I was a kid, my grandfather told me about Louis Pasteur’s belief that “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Show up and do the work, Grampa explained, so that when the magic happens you’ll be sharp enough to recognize it. Making space for “sensorial, analog, hands-on radness”—that’s how one colleague described MakeBelieveTime—gives designers a much needed mental reset.

Blind contour drawing is an intimate exercise, but all of the portraits end up being silly and disarming.

Plus, MBT actually has made an impact on client work. A handful of insights and concepts that originally came out of MakeBelieveTime actually made it into an experience we designed for a major NYC landmark.

But that’s not really the point. It’s about helping our designers spread their nets as wide as possible, and to lighten things up with a moment of pure, playful joy, so that when inspiration comes they’re ready to grab it.

It broadcasts both values and value

Most designers will sing the praises of play. It opens you up and makes you braver, more optimistic, and more creative. We pepper client meetings with pipe-cleaner sculptures or a little improv to get the blood and imagination flowing. We put a lot of thought and energy into those activities, thinking about our clients’ needs and the best way to get them comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Taking advantage of pareidolia—the human eye's tendency to see familiar patterns in inanimate objects—we combed the pillar forest of IDEO New York's office, searching for faces or characters.

Most designers will also admit that when deadlines loom, proposals beckon, or clients push back, play is not always top-of-mind. That’s a problem. An organization’s beliefs come through in their actions. To show that play is worth the time, you have to make time for it.

How to build your own MakeBelieveTime

We want MBT to be much more than a free-for-all with glue sticks and googly eyes, so we use three key design principles to guide the activities:

  1. Make the familiar unfamiliar. To think about senses we take for granted, we infused finger paints with essential oils and asked everyone to visually illustrate the experience of smelling that scent.
  2. Explore safe danger. Blind contour drawing is a great example. We all sit and draw the person across from us—without lifting the pen or looking down at the drawing. It’s always a mess, which guarantees a joyful, public fail, but also allows us to look deeply at each other and practice seeing and being seen.
  3. Dig deep. We used Halloween as a prompt to create a mask that evokes a moment we were horrified by our own behavior. This allowed us to acknowledge the full spectrum of our feelings, exorcise that shadow, and leave it to the past.

The first, despairing thought that hit one of my colleagues when he first saw MBT in action was, “IDEO’s gone soft.” And, quite frankly, that's not an unfair concern when you see a room full of world-class designers finger painting.

But MBT serves as an opportunity to nourish a perspective rather than achieve an objective. It’s less about the scented fingerpaints, and more about exploring new ways of understanding and sharing an experience. It’s also about laughing together. It’s about exposing our soft side so that we can trust each other more when we take those lessons back to our project spaces and have a hunch about trying something untested but exciting.

That’s why we believe that designing a cocktail that tells the story of your first kiss doesn’t cost you your edge. It’s how you keep it.

Think back to your first kiss. Remember the place, the smells, the nerves, the lips. If you had to create a cocktail to tell the story of that experience, how would you do it? Would you make Jolly Rancher–infused vodka to conjure the candy-loving kid next door? Would a popcorn garnish nod to the movie you barely watched? Answering these questions is how the designers of IDEO New York spent a Valentine’s Day afternoon.

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to become a better designer make time for make believe, urban design, cities

Lindsey Turner

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

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Leader
Leaders

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.

My tween twins teach me more about technology and gen-alpha than the last decade of trend reports.
Making things that matter
Consumer Products & Retail
Media & Entertainment
AI & Emerging Tech

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

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Leader
Leaders
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.

The greatest project to which I’ve ever contributed is raising my two daughters with my husband.
Uncovering unmet needs
Consumer Products & Retail
Learning & Work
Media & Entertainment
Play
Public Sector

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.

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Leaders

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 love a good crit.
An inclusive, hands-on approach
Health
Learning & Work
Media & Entertainment
Public Sector
AI & Emerging Tech

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.

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Leader
Leaders

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.

I have a thing for antique maps.
Developing China-led innovation and capabilities'
Consumer Products & Retail
Food
Learning & Work
Industrial & Manufacturing
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How to use AI as an editor, not a writer

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Ed White shares how he uses AI as an editor—not a writer—to sharpen storytelling, rehearse ideas, and preserve the productive friction that makes creative work better.

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Ed White has a rule he's tested on his own writing: hold yourself as the writer, and let AI be your editor. Ed is a Senior Design Director at IDEO's London studio, where he co-leads the firm's AI portfolio across Europe. Before IDEO, he spent 12 years as a writer and editor at the Financial Times, Wired, and Contagious. So when he talks about when to use AI for storytelling and when not to, it comes from two decades of crafting his storytelling skills.

In this episode, Mina Seetharaman talks with Ed about two specific tools he uses to keep AI in an editor's seat: a "roasting agent" prompted to critique his drafts without any sugarcoating, and a simulated audience he rehearses pitches on before the real thing. They also get into what Ed is hearing from design leaders at Anthropic, Lovable, Shopify, and Google Creative Lab about how creative work is changing, and why he thinks the friction of writing something yourself is worth protecting rather than automating away.

AI & Emerging Tech
Media & Entertainment
Technology
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Building a personal AI for the messiness of life: Sida Li

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Becca Carroll talks with Cue co-founder Sida Li about designing a personal AI for the messiness of everyday life—not just work. They explore how Sida stays anchored to human needs while navigating fast-changing technology, product tradeoffs, business-model experimentation, and the realities of building an AI company today.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Health
AI & Emerging Tech
Technology
Learning & Work
Episode image

Designing GenAI for the emotional side of money: Johannes Seemann

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Designing financial tools around the feelings that shape money decisions.

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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.

Health
AI & Emerging Tech
Technology
Financial Services
Learning & Work
Episode image

The curious leader's edge in uncertainty: Scott Shigeoka

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How genuine curiosity helps leaders navigate uncertainty with greater confidence.

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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.

Learning & Work
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