There’s a lot of excitement in the education sector about the need to equip students with skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, to prepare them for a global, innovation-driven economy. But that’s easier said than done. Major changes are needed to move from a decades-old model towards creating new ways to educate students. Schools and their leaders, particularly in low-income contexts, often lack the necessary resources and support.

But given the right tools, school leaders can be the key to bringing this much-needed change to their schools. Knowing this, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation partnered with IDEO and the Stanford d.school to create School Retool, a four-month-long professional development fellowship that trains principals to take a do-it-yourself approach to school change by conducting small, scrappy experiments called “hacks.”

The best part: They use the resources they already have available to address their schools’ needs now, without waiting for external funding or assistance. School Retool is available to principals at public schools where 60 percent or more of students qualify for free and reduced lunch, which is a common measure of poverty. The School Retool program provides research-based strategies for improving student outcomes, as well as training and one-on-one coaching on how to redesign school culture through easily achievable changes.

A Scaled Approach

School Retool addresses a common challenge in creating change across schools: Each school has its own people, culture, and needs, so programs need to be flexible. The fellowship helps school leaders define their aspirations, and provides them with inspiration through “Big Ideas” that have proven to be successful in different contexts in education. It then supports them to start small with hacks that help them learn how to implement these ideas in their own school. The program scales through regional cohorts of principals who learn from each other as they go through a process of setting goals, designing hacks, reflecting on the learning and progress, and making improvements to the next iteration.

Small Steps Toward Big Change

As School Retool has rolled out at schools across the country over the past two years, it’s becoming evident that small changes are adding up to major progress, and that the small hacks approach is helping leaders go from planning to doing. Take, for example, Marthaa Torres, the principal of a low-income San Francisco high school who started with a small experiment with one struggling student, trying to create a more personalized learning plan for him. “The hacking approach is a framework that will help me eventually get to the kind of school that I’m trying to create,” Torres said. To build on the learnings of her “hack,” she created and expanded a personalized coaching program for the student’s peer group of older Latino boys. Her goal is to roll out additional advisory support in the next school year. What started as a “hack” to give agency to a single student is beginning to affect the school-wide culture by incorporating student voice into decision making.

Creating a Movement

The School Retool fellowship launched in 2015 with a pilot for 16 principals from seven San Francisco Bay Area school districts, reaching more than 12,000 students. School Retool has since hosted cohorts for school leaders in Washington D.C., Detroit, Virginia, Idaho, and Colorado. By the end of 2016, 164 school leaders of over 114,000 students had participated in the fellowship program.

In addition to the in-depth work with school leaders, School Retool is creating a national dialogue around change in schools. Its first national effort drew more than 1,500 principals in the Shadow A Student Challenge, who spent a day walking in students’ shoes to build empathy and gain insight into their students’ school lives.

Learn more about how more school leaders are enacting change: bringing a sense of true belonging to a school’s culture; engaging students as active learners; hacking towards literacy; retooling for equity; and more.

WATCH: Marthaa Torres: Adopting a Hacking Mindset on Vimeo.

Remember your first View-Master? The sound and feel of that iconic camera-snapping motion, the excitement of seeing those vivid images in the form of your own personal slideshow? Introduced in 1939, this stereoscopic toy brought beautiful landscapes and famous attractions to the eyes of kids around the world.

Flash-forward more than 75 years, and the View-Master has been reincarnated to spark that same sense of wonder for the digital age. The redesigned model, the result of a project collaboration between IDEO and Mattel, is a modern case that bridges technology with play. The new View-Master preserves the classic features of the original toy, such as the original lever and wheel, but offers a much more immersive, 360-degree virtual experience.

Here’s how it works: Download the View-Master app and slide a smartphone into the sleek new red-and-white headset. From there, the phone’s camera will scan the QR codes on the reels to view a wide variety of images, such as wildlife, outer space, and a dinosaur landscape. Two slightly different images are displayed side by side on the device's screen. As each of your eyes looks at just the image directly in front of it and tries to reconcile it with what the other eye is seeing, a 3D effect is created. By moving your head around with the viewer over your eyes and taking advantage of the sensors within your phone to sense direction and position, you can travel through each of the scenes, exploring each of the different settings.

After working alongside Mattel to understand the heritage of the View-Master brand, researching the potential for VR and play, and exploring a variety of materials for the new device, designers created several prototypes that they tested with their core market: kids. As a result, the final design accounted for things like whether it could pass a drop-test or fit into kids’ hands.

Beyond the joy of pure play, the technology that powers the new View-Master also opens up a new world of possibilities for learning. Imagine turning a page in a textbook and seeing dinosaurs come to life. Or a virtual tour of an art museum through a set of View-Masters.

"We view this as just the beginning," said Doug Wadleigh, a Mattel executive, in an interview with CNET. "Obviously, we're getting in this space pretty early. The goal is to create the View-Master brand for the next 75 years."

Genentech is a biotech company that tackles difficult-to-treat medical conditions across the globe by creating innovative treatments. As a sponsor of the TED2012 conference, Genentech approached IDEO to partner in creating a “social space” for the TED exhibit hall that would captivate participants in an interactive brand experience and garner excitement around the future of personalized medicine.

To make leading-edge science more accessible to the masses, the team landed on an exciting new provocation: What if we could turn genes into music? IDEO worked closely with Genentech to develop an immersive genetic experiment that could incorporate traits of the TED community, using the company’s brand new technology for overnight gene analysis. A TED participant would choose a colorful trait pin packaged with a cheek swab kit and corresponding barcode, allowing them to leave a genetic sample one day and return the next day to discover that four SNPs of DNA had been analyzed overnight and translated into a unique musical track.

The IDEO team developed the concept, prototyped it with scientists, musicians, and sound engineers, and designed every element of the physical and digital experience—from the swab kit and packaging, to the built space and listening stations, iPad app, and other digital touchpoints. At the heart of the experience was music, including an algorithm that could generate 6500 unique musical combinations to reflect the genetic diversity of the TED participants.

Genentech’s “Infinite Variations” exhibit at TED2012 created the world’s first genetic symphony, an innovative and colorful blend of science and music. With the exhibit, Genentech sparked novel, approachable conversations about the role of genetics in medicine.

Of the 1850 attendees, over 1100 joined the genetic experiment in music and walked away with a new understanding of personalized science—and of their own genetic makeup.

What happens when you serve kids food made with cricket flour? And what do parents think? That’s what IDEO and Bitty Foods sought to learn during a collaboration to explore new kinds of lunchbox foods as a means to discover opportunities for alternative sources of protein.

We talked to Megan Miller, cofounder of Bitty, the Bay Area startup that makes delicious foods with cricket flour, about the collaboration.

Listen to the full audio story below, or go to Soundcloud.

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.

1. What inspired #clientwork?

I had been drawing for about six months, specifically for an art show, and I was sorta cashed and looking for the next rabbit hole. We hosted another Fortnight (our artist-in-residency program) in the Chicago studio, and I was really lucky to act as a mentor to C.M. Ruiz, from Seattle.

He is a Xerox machine master; he just makes incredible art with the most humble tools. We spent a lot of time just hanging out in the studio talking about art and making shit. It was a three-week jam session and I got super inspired and just started making the ugliest designs possible using only the Xerox and markers, paints, etc. FUN.

The Clientwork hashtag is just something that has bounced around in my brain for the past few years. We as makers, designers, artists, etc., often try to separate our lives into two buckets: the work we get paid to do (Clientwork) and the other, fun stuff. I really dislike that idea! I feel like the entire body of making should just be THE WORK, dig? My IDEO jams for Allstate or Chicago Fire or ConAgra should feed my weirdo artlife and my weirdo artlife should come with me inside project spaces.

Freelancer and IDEO contractor Kyle Fletcher has been influential in helping me learn this lesson, as he is constantly bouncing back and forth between design and art, yet it all feels very KYLE FLETCHER.

I tag things with #clientwork that obviously are not client work to (hopefully) push this idea. The idea of doing really dumb, silly, sometimes provocative ads for companies that aren’t paying me is scary. I’m making something and I think it looks AWESOME and I write NIKE or VANS on there because, to me, IT SHOULD BE A VANS AD. I suppose that part is my own little secret joke. No one knows if I actually like Nike or not, or if I eat Hormel Chili (I do, duh). It’s not like I’m tagging them super hard or trying hard to be seen by the brand puppet masters… but there’s something really frightening about half-assedly drawing a corporate logo on a terrible collage or drawing and sending it into cyberspace. I’ve told myself that I’ll either do this as long as it’s fun or until I receive a cease-and-desist. I actually sorta worried if anyone from IDEO was going to come down hard on me, but so far only a minor slap on the wrist that I deserved.

2. Does this work make doing your day job easier?

Easier is a strong word. DESIGN IS HARD, and I’m not taking the piss. Doing the daily art jams does help keep my brain active. I’m trying so hard to get in the zone and stay there. IDEO can be so stimulating sometimes that I find it hard to focus. Everyone knows what it’s like to get that precious two hours of heads-down time when you have to work FAST to get something on paper. Trying to think like a designer/artist 24/7 takes practice. It’s hard to be in the zone all day!

3. Name one artist or designer you consider unassailable and tell us why.

Ian MacKaye will never re-form Fugazi to play Coachella for millions of dollars. And for that I am very grateful.

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If you're not following designer Zach Hobbs on Instagram, you're not truly living. The sheer volume of artwork he posts there and on his website makes us wonder how he manages to stay awake in the office. We asked him about a pleasingly tart series titled #clientwork (which is occasionally #NSFW).

I had just relocated to the Bay Area after five inspiring years at IDEO Chicago. The Chicago studio is a tight-knit family of roughly 70 or so friends, often known for taking extra moments out of our day to inspire, uplift, thank or prank one another in the course of the work we do.

The IDEO San Francisco mothership, however, is much larger; nearly 200 strong across four independent studios. As such, it can be difficult for a new guy to know exactly how our forgiveness in lieu of permission culture manifests itself across locations.

It turns out quite well, I found.

Nine days into my tenure at IDEO SF, someone snapped a photo of Ethan, who had come up with a clever solution to shade his eyes from the passing sunlight as he worked (see above). The photo went out in an email to the entire location. The subject line: "Innovation".

If you're anything like me, you simply cannot see a photo like this without your mind beelining to Photoshop Battle. So, I made a few quick edits and offered up my reply-all:

It would be an understatement to say that I succeeded in learning what I set out to about my new colleagues. When the dust had finally settled, the thread was comprised of more than 50 unique entries submitted over three days.

Check out some of our favorites, below:

The original photo is on Instagram now. Share our glory.

I was barely into my second week at IDEO's San Francisco location when a particular opportunity to get to know my new colleagues presented itself.

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Less apparent to outsiders is the fact that the creative license that comes with making IDEO eye-candy serves a very important purpose: It’s an antidote to the intense and often prescriptive nature of designing for clients. Event posters allow us to stretch our legs, color outside of the lines, and take a new tool for a walk around the block. And in a collaborative culture that is driven by the “we” and not the “me”, these one-offs offer a rare moment in the spotlight for the artist.

Check out the entire collection on Pinterest.

Be visual. It’s one of IDEO’s seven rules of brainstorming. Not too tall an order for those who are quick to start sketching when attempting to communicate pretty much anything. So when a special event gets dropped on our calendar, lots of hands shoot up volunteering to design a poster.

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.