Named after Ernest O. Lawrence, UC Berkeley’s first Nobel Laureate, The Lawrence Hall of Science’s wide-ranging products, services, and tools developed organically over half a century. To begin to make sense of the breadth and depth of its offerings, IDEO asked leadership and staff to surface the myriad activities, audiences, and relationships with external partners, enabling the group to visualize—and make sense of—the totality of The Lawrence brand.

During in-depth research with parents and kids, educators, and experts, IDEO discovered that each of these audiences had distinct mindsets. Parents and kids engaged with The Lawrence to explore, have fun, and dive deeper into a specific topic. Educators utilized it for professional learning opportunities and to discover new, exciting classroom tools. While experts, including UC Berkeley faculty, STEM educators across the US, and funders, viewed the center as a resource for best-in-class STEM education research. The mindsets highlighted The Lawrence’s unique capabilities, but the complexity also created some opportunity areas, including ways to use storytelling to create emotional resonance around The Lawrence’s core values and how to design a unified narrative to connect the dots across audiences and offers.

Building on its strengths as an institution and the identified opportunity areas, IDEO created a modern, vibrant, and flexible brand that strategically and visually unites all of The Lawrence’s offerings, working across digital and physical media. Grounded by a grid system, the updated brand identity is simultaneously rigorous and fun, featuring a bright color palette and signature retro-cool super-nova mark. Different offerings are bundled together based on different audience needs, preventing confusion and easing navigation. Even the name of the science museum, The Lawrence Hall of Science, was updated to a more contemporary and approachable, The Lawrence, inspired by The Met.

The Lawrence unveiled its new brand with much fanfare in late 2018 as part of its year-long 50th anniversary celebrations. Visitors can see the updated identity across all public-facing elements, including The Lawrence’s website, curriculum and educator materials, letterhead, collateral, and exhibition and wayfinding signage. The redesigned brand has been credited with bolstering the popularity of the science center among families and schools and causing ticket sales to return to—and exceed—pre-pandemic levels. Internally, the rebranding effort has helped generate excitement and energy across departments, helping solidify a collective future strategy and vision for its next 50 years.

The Lawrence Hall of Science’s diverse offerings had grown extensively over the decades, creating a confusing and disjointed experience for its various audiences. On the eve of its 50th anniversary, Lawrence leadership sought a brand refresh to better connect with its target audiences and differentiate itself in the STEM education ecosystem.

Over $6M in new funding

raised to transform and modernize The Lawrence, thanks to IDEO's rebranding effort

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When Greene King approached IDEO in early 2022, it was (and still is) one of the UK’s leading hospitality brands, with over 2,600 pubs, restaurants, and hotels. At that time, consumers in the UK and other parts of the world were beginning to rediscover the joys of travel after years of pandemic lockdowns. Greene King’s newly formed Venture Hotels Team wanted to understand how guest expectations had shifted during Covid-19 and how a new customer-centric hotel brand and signature service experience might meet—or exceed—their expectations.

To get inspired, the IDEO team interviewed a range of travelers of different ages and backgrounds, met with hospitality and luxury experts, and conducted immersion visits, including visiting high-end hotels. The research revealed modern travelers want unique hotel experiences that cater to their curiosity, support local communities, and are environmentally sustainable. Luxury, which once meant “exclusive,” was now about enabling one-of-a-kind cultural experiences. Today’s travelers value inclusivity, accessibility, and well-being; they want to feel welcome, do things at their own pace and have thoughtfully curated options to choose from. They also expect hospitality practices to be ethical and sustainable, contributing to the welfare of local communities and the planet.  

Building off this research, IDEO crafted a new entry proposition for Greene King’s new Everly Hotels Collection called “The Discover Collection,” which leverages the best parts of a classic British pub and inn—bespoke historic locations full of character, culture, and stories—while offering guests a modern experience from pre-arrival to departure, all grounded in supporting the communities they are in.

Signature moments include a warm welcome during check-in, as well as staff recommendations and local maps highlighting neighborhood gems. During their stay, guests enjoy expansive seasonal food menus, as well as a beverage menu that includes a wide variety of locally brewed, distilled, and crafted drinks by local suppliers. Rooms feature a smuggler's treasure chest with a surprise treat. Art and books from local talent are on display throughout the hotel, and local experts lead activities and events. Guests tangibly experience Greene King’s commitment to sustainability through its use of local materials, produce, talent, and partnerships, all designed to support the surrounding community. Upon departure, guests receive a personalized postcard.

In addition to the hotel experience moments, IDEO delivered branding recommendations for The Everly Hotels Collection, including visual identity and tone of voice that provide a cohesive look and feel for the collection of hotels while simultaneously showcasing each property's unique character. This was all packaged as an experience playbook, with design principles and briefs to help guide implementation decision-making across Greene King’s marketing, digital, interior design, and food and beverage teams.

A few months after the project ended, Greene King launched The Everly Hotels Collection. Its pilot hotel, The White Horses in Rottingdean, East Sussex, opened within the year. The new brand and guest experience strengthened bonds with Greene King’s loyal customers and first-time guests, ensuring the brand's relevance and appeal in a competitive market. More hotels are planned in the future in other scenic UK locations.  

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Greene King wanted guests to have a consistent brand experience while maintaining the storied charm that makes each property unique.

2 years

from concept to the launch of Greene King’s boutique Everly Hotels Collection

1 pilot hotel

The White Horses opened in Rottingdean in 2024

The hard drive space is full of companies competing over technology and performance. But iodyne wanted to add another layer, focusing on user needs and product aesthetics to better position the company to meet the values of a broader audience and create compelling new entrants into this crowded market.

Together, IDEO and iodyne jumped into in-depth discovery research to learn more about the needs of their end users. The team sat down with photographers, videographers, and digital imaging technicians, asking questions about their file management systems, how they used hard drives in the field, and how they stored them for transport and at home. They also headed to the source, visiting studios and home office set-ups to understand the full range of potential use cases.

A few big discoveries leaped out. No one had a single storage solution to rely on. Users constantly transferred data from different hard drives designed for different purposes (in the field versus at home), accumulating hundreds of old hard drives over time. Traditional hard drives also don’t allow multiple users to work off them simultaneously or come with software systems that help keep projects and tasks organized, protected, and sharable. Meanwhile, the ever-shrinking size and weight of laptops—and people’s willingness to take them everywhere—set a new benchmark for portability, one that iodyne could lean into.

With these and other insights in hand, the team brought unrivaled performance and aesthetics together to create a far superior user experience. IDEO and iodyne developed Pro Data’s engineering architecture, collaborating on thermal performance analysis, material choice, inspection of sample parts, and even packaging design. By combining integrated venting, multiple laptop-quality fans, smart power management, and 20 thermal sensors, the team was able to minimize cooling fan loads and reduce noise and power consumption. A single, centralized, and consolidated storage space makes sharing data among teammates easy, too—up to four computers can connect to the Pro Data at the same time and access the same files. The redesigned Pro Data creates new value for consumers in a highly mobile, secure package that can go from desktop to backpack and back again.

The iodyne Pro Data hard drive launched in 2021 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Storage Review wrote “Nothing else comes close to this level of performance in a package this size,” while Jemery Boros of StarGate Studios said “I don’t think I could have done the shoot without Pro Data. It was easy to use, fast, and kept all of our data safe on the other side of the world.” The drives have since been used in the making of major motion pictures from F1 to A Complete Unknown.

Spurred by Pro Data’s success, iodyne decided to create a second product with IDEO, a Pro Mini that could provide the same cutting-edge performance and sleek design but scaled down to fit the needs of customers who required less storage capacity in an even more portable package. Pairing Pro phone-quality industrial design with a unique internal solid-state cooling architecture that imposed key constraints on airflow was critical.

IDEO worked with iodyne to create the Pro Mini’s internal layout and collaborated with an emerging engineering company to incorporate novel solid-state cooling technology, positioning the vents to maximize airflow and optimizing how users physically interact with the device. The team also addressed users’ durability concerns, advising iodyne on part selection as samples came in from vendors. The new Pro Mini is set to ship in the second half of 2025.

Hard drives are essential tools of the trade for people with large troves of media to store and transfer, like photographers and videographers. But beyond rolls of masking tape and label makers, there isn’t an easy way to see what’s on each drive without literally going through them one by one.  

Traditional hard drives generate a lot of heat and need fans to cool them, making them bulky, loud, and slowing transfer speeds.  

Many external hard drives are treated like commodities. They’re designed for mass production rather than for durability and aesthetics.

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2 cutting-edge hard drives

to market in 3 years

LACDMH is the nation’s largest public mental health department, serving over 10 million people. The agency provides critical support for the most vulnerable, including staffing a toll-free, 24/7 Help Line. Since late 2024, more than 70 Field Intervention Teams—comprised of mental health clinicians (social workers, psychologists, licensed psychiatric technicians, and registered nurses) and community health workers (trained peers or community members with lived experience)—have been dispatched around the county to help de-escalate mental health crises quickly, compassionately, and without force.

Because those experiencing a crisis are often too disoriented, confused, or otherwise unable to seek help for themselves, IDEO’s communication strategy targeted reaching “trusted messengers”—parents, spouses, siblings, and friends of people who have a mood or personality disorder like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The campaign aimed to define mental health crises, help people understand what to expect when they call, build trust in FITs, and divert mental health crisis calls away from 911.

To understand what drives these specially trained mental health professionals to do this type of work—and what sparks trusted messengers to call for help—IDEO met and interviewed former clients and loved ones who had reached out to the county for support during a mental health crisis. The team also interviewed multiple FIT staff to learn more about how they approach clients and families.

The research inspired the communication strategy’s central idea: position FIT members as real-life superheroes and first responders. By associating FITs with that term, the campaign changes the narrative and communicates their compassion and expertise to those in crisis. Custom illustrated portraits feature actual FIT staff in strong, action-figure-style poses, while a bright, eye-catching color palette and clear, direct language convey confidence and inspire trust.

The team explored their initial design directions in a series of focus groups with LA residents, trusted messengers, and county and mental health workers to better understand the impact of the potential messaging and visuals. The research uncovered the importance of clarity, even in an inherently emotional situation. The  IDEO team discovered that transparency—and real personal stories—would be the key to building public trust in ACR.

Between March and June of 2025, the robust awareness campaign will run across LA County in a number of languages on city buses, in Metro stations, on social media, streaming TV,  radio, and more. An updated landing page on LACDMH’s website includes in-depth information and educational videos about mental health crises, as well as heartfelt testimonials from staff and former clients who have been helped by the service.

LA County Department of Mental Health created an innovative new program to provide urgent, compassionate care to Angelenos experiencing a mental health crisis but needed help driving awareness of its service across the region.

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Calling 911 is an entrenched behavior in an emergency. However, dispatching police officers who are not trained in mental health can make a bad situation worse. In 2022, 39 percent of people shot by LA police officers were in the midst of a mental health crisis.

172 million impressions

delivered via digital and physical ads across LA

50% increase

in calls to the ACR helpline, year-over-year, attributed to IDEO’s awareness messaging

24%

of Angelenos now name LACDMH as the first to call in a mental health crisis, leapfrogging 911 or the police, which slipped 14.3 points

At IDEO, we approach CES the same way we approach any design challenge—with a human-centered lens. We’re interested in how new technologies fit into real lives, not just how impressive they look on a show floor. CES is valuable precisely because it reveals where ambition meets assumption: what companies think people want, what they think people will tolerate and pay for, and what they think people are ready to trust.

This year, alongside our partners at Autodesk, we spoke about preserving the human touch in AI-enabled design: helping teams move faster without losing sight of the people they’re designing for. That tension echoed throughout the show, from autonomous vehicles to health tech to gaming.

Here are the themes and ideas that stayed with us, and the questions they raised about how technology can better serve real human needs.

1. Are we designing better products or better outcomes?

Everywhere we went, companies were going all in on humanoid robots taking on mundane human tasks: loading dishwashers, tidying kitchens, picking up socks. But a conversation with  The Verge publisher Helen Havlak prompted us to wonder whether these machines were solving the right problem in the first place.

Training a robot to load a dishwasher in a private home is an astonishingly complex challenge. It requires object recognition, dexterity, spatial reasoning, and an understanding of a customized environment designed entirely for human hands. But if you step back to ask the fundamental question—what is the most effective way to clean dishes?—the answer is probably a box that washes them. 

We don’t need a humanoid assistant to load and unload dishes more efficiently. We need a system that reliably turns dirty things into clean ones—which, for the most part, we already have. The more useful design challenge may be less about building ever-smarter robots and more about rethinking the environments in which those tools operate. What if smart appliances adjusted their capacity, energy use, and footprint based on how many people were in the home that week—or even that day? Or what if companies focused less on replicating human motion and more on solving the parts of domestic labor that still lack good machine-based solutions, like tackling the mental load of household management? These questions shift the focus from mimicking human behavior to redesigning systems around real needs, constraints, and rhythms of everyday life.

2. The nostalgic appeal of ditching screens

In between the glut of AI demos and autonomous everything, we saw something unexpected: a CD player blasting Britney Spears. As much as we enjoyed the throwback moment, it captured something deeper than nostalgia. In a world defined by speed and abstraction, there’s a growing desire for technology that feels tangible and controllable. From pinball machines to screen-free experiences for kids (like Tonies), these products aren’t trying to do more on our behalf; they’re designed to restore our agency. You know what they do, how they work, and when to turn them off.

We’re seeing this play out culturally, too. Parents are buying landlines to give younger children agency and an option to connect with their friends and grandparents without increasing their screen time or exposing them to online risks. In our own research with a slightly older cohort—Gen Z—we found there is a clear limit to how much they want technology to interfere in their lives, particularly when it comes to developing their own creativity or building relationships. Choosing simpler tools can be a way of reclaiming agency. Sometimes consumers really want less, not more.

3. The body as a platform—and who gets to own it

“Longevity” was definitely a buzzword this year. The conversation is shifting from optimizing performance (the domain of elite athletes and body hackers) to how technology supports living longer, healthier, and more independent lives. We were encouraged to see this reflected not only in products for aging populations, with the continued presence of AARP and age tech, but also in growing attention to women’s health, fertility, and everyday wellbeing (areas we noted were missing or underrepresented in 2025).

What stood out wasn’t that so many products were collecting health data—it was how they were collecting it. At one end of the spectrum were products that relied on clearly defined wearables—such as Neurable or Plaud—which ask users to consciously opt in by strapping technology onto their bodies. On the other end were more ambient approaches, embedding sensors into everyday objects and places, from smart toilets (assessing biomarkers linked to hydration, infection, metabolic health, and digestive function) to doorways (tracking movement to infer activity, safety, or well-being). The benefits are convenience and invisibility, but such devices also raise questions about consent, agency, and trust. Does a guest who uses a toilet automatically consent to a urine test? Or having their movements monitored? Do aging parents, or teens who share your toilet?

And what about data storage? As more of our biological signals are captured, where does that information live—and who controls access to it? Alongside familiar cloud-based subscription models, we saw emerging alternatives that store personal health data locally at home. These approaches hint at a future in which people retain more autonomy over their most intimate information, rather than renting access to their bodies to a platform; but only if autonomy, consent, and control are treated as core design requirements, not tradeoffs made in the name of convenience.

4. The body as an interface

We were also heartened to see meaningful progress in accessibility: devices that translate on-screen text into dynamic Braille, glasses that support navigation for people with low vision, and exoskeletons designed not only for rehabilitation, but for recreation and everyday work. Together, these examples point to a broader shift: one where the body is increasingly treated as an interface. How exactly it will happen is still to be designed. Whether these systems empower people with greater agency and dignity will depend less on sensing technology itself and more on the choices designers make about desirability, consent, ownership, and control. We’d love to see these technology systems evolve to empower people to actively shape and adapt their own interfaces themselves, rather than being locked into assumptions companies make when they design. If past regulatory changes are any indication (such as the FDA’s move to establish a new over-the-counter hearing aid category), reducing friction and gatekeeping in these domains can lead to more inclusive, creative, and beneficial product innovation.

5. Joy, play, and delight are the end goals

In a year dominated by efficiency, optimization, and automation, the technologies that stood out were the ones that made us smile. As leaders in IDEO’s Play Lab, this wasn’t surprising—but it was still reassuring. As Steven Johnson explores in the book Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World, many of our most transformative technologies arrive through entertainment rather than technology alone. Play creates permission to explore and challenge existing ways of thinking. 

This year, the floor featured fewer technologies that simply automate the parts of life we tolerate, and more tools that help people live more fully and even celebrate the wonder of being human. From the Sweekar pocket pet (a Tamagotchi-like companion device that uses AI to grow with you) to LEGO’s experiments with smart bricks, we were impressed by inviting products that lowered the barrier to entry by making curiosity feel safe and fun.

We saw the same impulse in the recreation and mobility space: AFEELA cars greeted passengers with emojis; Zoox’s autonomous vehicles offered starry ceilings; and Garmin shared tools that help people fish, kayak, or explore more confidently. These moments of delight carry value—they build trust, emotional resonance, and attachment, qualities that matter just as much as performance when companies are introducing unfamiliar technology into everyday life.

If last year’s CES reminded us that kids aren’t impressed by AI alone, this year reinforced a related truth: joy is often the mechanism that makes new technology feel usable, trustworthy, and worth inviting into everyday life.

6. The infrastructure advantage

One of the clearest signals from the floor at CES: Novelty alone is not enough. Regardless of how cool or advanced your product is, it’s hard to sustain a business on product alone. In an increasingly crowded landscape, the companies best positioned for sustained growth are shipping impressive products AND building the infrastructure to support them. That includes faster iteration cycles, deeper integration across components, and ecosystems that support repair, reuse, and evolution over time.

The contrast between iRobot and Dreame made this especially clear. iRobot helped make our Jetsons-era dreams of home robots feel real—so real that for many of us, the Roomba became shorthand for the category itself. But its products were largely designed to stand alone, with new product versions debuting on predictable release cycles. Dreame, by comparison, is thriving because it’s built on a portfolio—from robot vacuums to beauty tools to electric vehicles—where components, intelligence, and manufacturing capabilities are shared, reused, and continuously improved.

We saw this same infrastructure-first thinking at a larger scale, too. Concepts like Panasonic’s Leaf integrate power generation directly into the built environment, using perovskite solar cells embedded in windows so energy becomes a byproduct of spaces we already live and work in—rather than a separate system to manage.

7. Supporting existing behaviors

Rather than asking people to adopt entirely new behaviors when they buy a new product (such as remembering to charge yet another device or embrace a new daily ritual), some companies are designing products that quietly fit into existing habits. The Pebble Index 01, for example, is a small ring with a single button and microphone that acts as an external memory for your brain, almost like a modern dictaphone. Its battery lasts for years, sidestepping one of the most common frustrations of modern tech: the need to manage endless charging cycles. Headphones with built-in cameras follow a similar logic, adding new capability to something people already wear every day. The Dreame Halo, a robotic hair dryer that doubles as an architectural floor lamp, pushes this idea to an interesting place, imagining a future where technology integrates so seamlessly into daily life that even chores can feel relaxing and luxurious. These choices may seem incremental, but they reflect a deeper understanding of human-centered adoption: market success often comes from fitting into people’s lives as they are, not asking them to reorganize around a product.

8. What we hoped to see—and didn’t

Compared to CES 2025, the conversation about investment in sustainability and climate-forward innovation felt muted, squeezed by the urgency of the AI race and tightening capital markets. 

We also found ourselves wishing for more attention to the content, brand, and systems that sit alongside hardware. As agentic commerce and AI-driven discovery reshape how products are discovered, it may become even harder for smaller upstarts—such as the many companies filling Eureka Hall—to stand out in a landscape trained on decades of legacy data and dominant brands. Designing a great product is only part of the challenge; investing in brand, narrative, and trust signals that help new ideas be recognized, remembered, and chosen may be just as critical.

(Special thanks to Tiange Wang and Zoey Zhu for their contributions to this story, and credit to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® for the header image.)

In this third year of AI-powered everything, CES once again raised a familiar question for us: Just because we can build something, should we?

From mammograms to messaging, parking lot payments to locked pharmacy shelves, we have plenty of ideas for human-centered upgrades. Here is what our community would love to reimagine, if only we had the chance. 

Products: 

I love vending machines. Truly. (Ask me about the Sagamihara Vending Machine Park and how obsessed I am.) Still, I would love to redesign them, not because they’re broken, but because we’re not using them enough. What if vending machines weren’t just for objects, but operated at the scale of buildings—part autonomous convenience store, part capsule hotel, part service hub/micro-amenities, and part museum? The infrastructure already exists; the possibilities just need permission to expand. —Tiange Wang, Cambridge

As a woman, I avoid certain streets for safety. But I can’t tell you how many times map apps have routed me down dark blocks, empty stretches, and places where I’m doing constant safety calculations at hours I’d rather not be. It would be much easier if apps had a safer streets option you could toggle on—like “daytime-only” routes or blocks that are flagged as more dangerous at night. I’m not looking for paranoid design; just an acknowledgment that navigation isn’t neutral. —Jenina Yutuc, San Francisco

Call me old-school, but oven timers do not need 70,000 different features. Why must the generic timer, timed start, timed stop, and clock updating features all be different combinations and permutations of the same buttons?!  And—did you know—if your oven happens to catch on fire (or has been on fire in the immediate past), it triggers an alarm that cannot be turned off by the controls on said oven, even after the fire is out? Sometimes a gal just wants an oven that tells you when it’s preheated—or maybe when it is on fire—but both situations necessitate an easy way to make the beeping stop. —Shannon Vossler, Chicago 

As someone who’s Chronically Online™, I often get confused about where I last had a conversation with someone. A simple text exchange might turn into an Instagram DM sharing a post I thought they might like, then I remember they’re applying for new jobs, so I send a link via LinkedIn, then follow up on Messenger to share an On-This-Day memory… whew! I might use as many as six or seven ways to have ongoing conversations with the same person. Is there a way to consolidate them all into a Super-App? —Ashley Demma, Chicago

Even in humane catch-and-release situations, animal traps are often loud, cold, and terrifying. The second the metal door snaps shut, the animal goes into full panic mode. What if we treated that in-between moment with more care? Traps could be temporary spaces that are quieter, softer, and a little more familiar. And while we’re at it, why not add smart notifications? There could be a small sensor that pings your phone when an animal is inside and identifies the species, so accidental catches can be released quickly and safely. —Meron “Meri” Fasica, San Francisco

Coffee is one of my everyday joys. Yet most coffee cups are wasteful and lined with plastic. Are there better, more sustainable options? Can I enjoy a cup of coffee without worrying about toxins entering my body? Let’s make a zero-waste, zero-plastic hot beverage container! —Francis Beavers, San Francisco 

Soft plastics appear so frequently in my life, and I never know what to do with them. When I research online, recycling/disposal rules vary by state, county, or even municipality. At some point, I gave up and started handing over my growing piles of plastic bags to a friend who scoops up dog poop with them. We can address this problem from the supply side (packaging and shipping have evolved with ups/downs) and the demand side (programs like Beyond the Bag) and with solutions in between (soft-plastic drop-off bins at retailers). —John Won, San Francisco 

My mum has had severe rheumatoid arthritis for over 40 years and has now started a biologic medication, which she has to self-inject, but she can’t use the auto-injector because of her condition. She lives on her own, so it’s become another task to find someone to assist her with and another invasion of privacy she has to navigate. How can we make self-injectable medications more accessible to everyone? —Tash Wass, London 

As we layer more wearables into our daily lives—smartwatches, rings, day-to-day earbuds, sport earbuds, smart glasses, even lightweight robotic companions—the burden of charging our wearables grows. First, each required its own charger; then came proprietary contact chargers; then multi-device pucks that promised simplicity but still demanded attention and choreography. Every device drains at a different rate, creating a constant, low-level cognitive friction: Is this charged? Should this be charging? What if charging stopped being a chore and instead became something that quietly happened in the flow of life? Whether through light, motion, ambient energy, or beautifully integrated surfaces, power could become pass-through rather than performative, an infrastructure rather than an interaction. The goal isn’t just convenience; it’s preserving the purity and purpose of the objects themselves. —Tiange Wang, Cambridge

I’ve never given birth, but as a Black woman, I’m already nervous about it because of our high maternal mortality rate. And learning that the standard birthing bed was designed primarily for doctors’ workflow rather than for the full range of positions our bodies can use while giving birth is not comforting. Our bodies can give birth upright, on our sides, squatting, on hands and knees, (and yes, lying flat, too, if that’s our choice). So imagine a highly adjustable, gravity-assisted birthing bed that makes all those options feel natural and easy to switch between. It still works for monitoring and exams, but actually lets your body lead—easing pressure, opening the pelvis, managing pain, helping the baby rotate, or just resting. In a moment as powerful as birth, the person bringing life into the world deserves to be the most supported, central, and active one in the room. (At least until the baby arrives, but that’s a topic for another list.) —Meron “Meri” Fasica, San Francisco

I take a lot of photos and videos, and eventually my phone runs out of storage, and I can’t capture anything new. Deleting files is slow, overwhelming, and stressful, forcing me to make rushed decisions that barely free up space. It would be so much easier if I could instantly delete blurry photos, accidental videos, screenshots, and unused downloads while clearly seeing how much space each action frees up. It would be great if duplicate and near-duplicate photos were grouped together with the best version automatically selected so I can keep what matters and remove the rest in one tap. —Brooke Ung, San Francisco 

We rely on our phones for everything—including identity verification for government services. This is particularly inconvenient for the elderly. Smartphones have advanced too rapidly; while there are “senior modes” that enlarge font sizes, the elderly still face difficulties with both basic user logic and visual clarity. Redesigning a phone’s hardware and software could enable seniors to benefit from technological progress rather than hinder their lives. —Catherine Yang, Shanghai

Hospice equipment is cumbersome, ugly, and uninviting to patients. It lacks warmth, comfort, or a home aesthetic and is designed solely to get the job done as efficiently as possible. Hospice care, on the other hand, is gentle, kind, and warm. It would be wonderful if the equipment they used better reflected their approach and promise to patients and their caretakers of a peaceful, comfortable death at home. —Vivian Barad, San Francisco 

Systems: 

Why does every arts funder require slightly different applications, language, and formats? Independent artists and cultural workers spend countless unpaid hours navigating fragmented grant systems—all while balancing gig work, caregiving, or housing insecurity—only to receive cold rejection emails more often than not. What if philanthropy and other grantmaking institutions agreed to a common application model, like the Common App for colleges? Artists could submit one core profile annually,  with funders opting in to review, dramatically reducing redundant labor and shifting the administrative burden away from those least resourced to bear it. —Ariana Allensworth, New York City

The current car- and plane-heavy American transportation model is unhealthy, inequitable, and incredibly expensive to maintain, not to mention that it’s a terrible experience! Prioritizing trains, transit, and walkable towns and cities would dramatically reduce emissions, lower traffic fatalities, and save households thousands of dollars a year in car ownership costs. High-speed, upgraded regional rail could replace many short-haul flights, easing airport congestion and slashing pollution, while compact, walkable communities would support local businesses and improve public health by integrating physical activity into daily life. It could be a long-term investment in climate resilience, economic opportunity, and a higher quality of everyday life.—Jennifer Lo, San Francisco 

Could health insurance help people stay healthier longer instead of just reimbursing them for drugs? How could the return on investing in human bodies and lives be about our happiness and not about making money? —Stuart Getty, Duluth

The cost of owning a home has been increasing disproportionately compared to average salaries. Home construction has not evolved or benefited as much from new manufacturing techniques as other industries. While there are many great innovations, from materials to new manufacturing processes, these systems haven’t scaled fast enough to drive meaningful change. How might we redesign home-building systems to result in better (nicer, more efficient, healthier) homes that are also more affordable and accessible?  —Juho Parviainen, San Francisco 

My current health system keeps nagging me about an overdue flu shot. I got one at Walgreens in October, but my health system wasn’t alerted. When my doctor asks me when I last had a tetanus shot, I have NO IDEA because my health records are scattered across every institution where I’ve ever been a patient. It’s on me to remember and manage multiple portals just to find different pieces of my own health history. Test results are often presented as cryptic numbers or in medical language that sends me to Dr. Google. When I’m asked about family medical history, I can’t ask key family members because they are deceased. What if our health records followed us, not the doctors or institutions that provide our care?  What if they could learn from pharmacies, communicate and share information more effectively, translate medical jargon, and remember what matters most, so we don’t have to? —Kelly Bjork, Santa Fe

The day we buy a product is also the day its technology and value begin to decline. I’m experiencing this now with my robot vacuum cleaner. In just its second year, newer models already offer more intelligent, thorough cleaning. The obvious solution is to buy a new one. If I want to be more sustainable, I can resell the old device through second-hand platforms. But what if we leaned into the circular economy? Could we design systems that anticipate this inevitable replacement cycle? In China, “Replace old with new” programs are a promising start. But what if we went further upstream—into product planning and development—and designed hardware and software together to deliver incremental value over time, while also taking responsibility for producing less, but better? —Xueqing Xu, Shanghai

Experiences: 

I used to leave my phone in the other room while I work; but now, thanks to two-factor authentication, I have to keep it next to me, and I pick it up on the regular. I often find myself scrolling through various apps without even realizing it. Could we make screenless two-factor authentication, so I’m not interrupting my focus every time my software signs me out? —Elise Craig, San Francisco

Why are all online recipes built the same way? First, a way-too-long intro that reads like a new Dan Brown novel, then the inevitable “jump to recipe” button. It’s all starting to feel a little bland. Cooking is joyful, experimental, and deeply sensory—recipes should reflect that. Give me recipes that adapt to my taste and whatever’s left in my fridge. Give me measuring units that don’t require a scale, and let the home chefs who’ve cooked it add their own notes and wisdom. Bon appétit! —Max Lackner, Chicago 

Every child deserves nourishing, healthy meals that support clear thinking and confident movement, as well as an understanding of what their body needs throughout the day. I learned how to truly discern what a food label means and where protein, fiber, and macronutrients fit into my life way too late. School lunch should be the first place kids learn what it means to be nourished—where nutrition is really clear and understood. The dream! —Jenina Yutuc, San Francisco

Imagine this. To complete your breast cancer screening, you have to hand over your breasts to a technician who stretches them in a way that seems like it shouldn’t be possible, then puts them into a squishing machine where you cannot move—or sometimes breathe. For a good 15 minutes. (They would never do this to male anatomy.) When you get your results, they’re clear—but there is an asterisk. Your breasts are too dense for it to really be effective, but your insurance will not pay for the alternative means of testing. There has to be a better way. (But still, get your mammograms!) —Elise Craig, San Francisco 

Can sperm testing be more human? Some hospitals just put you in an empty room with porn from the ‘90s. It’s just difficult when you can hear people chatting and joking outside… —Wai Tong, Shanghai

We have all had to do the awkward dance at the parking lot ticket machine. You stretch your arm out the window to realize you can’t touch the screen. You unbuckle, but still can’t reach. So you finally put the car in park, crack the door open to place one foot out, and balance on your tiptoes to grab that ticket. Then you get the pleasure of doing it again when you leave the lot. It shouldn’t be that awkward! What if the system scans your license plate when you pull in and sends you a message to pay on your phone when you leave instead? —Marielis Rosario, Cambridge 

The produce section could be more than a colorful cornucopia of fruits and vegetables—it could also be a place that educates and informs. There could be a gut health section, or a brain health section, or even callouts on what’s great for glowing skin, strong hair and nails, or sustained energy. Designed well, it could inspire people to shop, cook, and eat differently. —Vivian Barad, San Francisco 

When you have surgery, they cut you open, rearrange your innards (maybe they take something out or put something in!), sew you back up, and then send you home the next day. Your family totally knows how to do major wound care, right? We’re gonna show you how this new catheter works once. Hope you’re paying attention! And here are a bunch of meds, make sure you take CAREFUL NOTE of the times you take them, even though your brain is swimming in painkillers. You’ll be fine! Am I the only one who feels completely unqualified to care for a loved one after they get out of the hospital?

What if there were a middle step between hospital and home where families and their care team could establish temporary care for those in recovery? Or at least have some way to help family members build confidence in their abilities to dole out the right medicines at the right times? —Shannon Vossler, Chicago 

More and more stores are locking up everyday products to deter theft, but they end up punishing the shopper instead. I can’t browse or compare products until I flag down an employee—and then they have to stand there while I anxiously rush to make a choice, and feel guilty for taking up their time. It solves one problem by creating three new ones. What if we flipped the model entirely and turned locked shelves into smart, vending-machine-like displays that preview every product—front, back, sides—without restricting access? Customers could take the time they need, employees could focus on service, and stores could maintain security without compromising dignity or discovery. —Tiange Wang, Cambridge 

I’ve yet to use an automatic car wash that actually leaves the car clean all over. Plus, they seem so inefficient with water usage. Can’t we have lasers and LIDAR that can scan your car and efficiently jet every nook and cranny? —Dan Read, Austin

As someone who deals with frequent migraines, I am regularly reminded how many spaces are awful to be in during an attack. Most recently, I was reminded of this in a hotel. Bright overhead lights, strong room scents, and tricky HVAC temperature controls are tolerable or annoying when you’re well, but when you’re sick, they are terrible triggers. And don’t get me started on grocery stores... —Jamie McCoy, Chicago

Most in-home kitchens in London feel designed for one person. If two people are cooking together, you have to say “excuse me,” because you need to wash your hands while the other person is rinsing vegetables, or you need to get a pot from a drawer that the other person is standing in front of. Kitchen islands might be a solution, but they won’t work for compact homes. How might we redesign the kitchen to encourage cooking together rather than hindering it? —Annie Liu, London 

Even those who don’t have to queue for the ladies’ room have surely had to wait for a friend or partner stuck in lines that snake on and on and on. It simply doesn’t make sense to continue allocating toilet space 50/50 (which isn’t even as equal as it sounds, as urinals take up much less space and are quicker to use, so the men’s room already has a leg up). How might we rethink the toilet experience to be more efficient and more inclusive for all? (Because just having a he/she on the toilet is dated as well.) —Jen Ives, London 

“Third spaces” like coffee shops and gyms, once solid places to casually connect, are becoming less accessible due to cost, time, and privatization. Many neighborhoods aren’t designed for bumping into people, especially if you don't live in a walkable city. What if the physical and digital environments we live in pushed us toward more organic connection? What if buildings and systems were designed to make spontaneous gatherings not only possible but inevitable? How might we design systems and spaces that make community-building joyful, low-effort, and sustainable? —Sindhura Sonnathi, San Francisco

We have all this sleep-monitoring hardware and software, but it only tells me to sleep better, rather than helping me sleep. Thank you. I know my sleep is not great, I can feel it! Continuing to tell me that is only going to increase my anxiety... —Wai Tong, Shanghai

In many urban areas, there’s more parking than housing. “Seattle had 30 parking spaces per acre, roughly five times the number of residential units. In Des Moines, the parking-to-housing ratio per acre was around 20 to 1.” This may just sound normal to Americans. But in places like Europe or East Asia, people’s daily lives are enabled by a built environment that’s people-centered, not car-centered. What might it look like to break free of a one-car-per-person rule? What would our public spaces look like if we weren’t required to reserve multiple parking spaces wherever we live, work, shop, and hang out? Denser neighborhoods where we can walk around safely? More green spaces and parks? More places that can be used for living, including affordable housing?  —John Won, San Francisco 

I love supporting my local coffee shops. Many of them have rewards programs built into their POS systems that track each order you place and award a set number of points, giving you a few dollars off or even free items. But you can’t see your total points until AFTER you place an order, and there is no option to use them along the way. Most baristas don’t acknowledge the rewards system, and by the time they bring your coffee, you’ve completed checkout and have hundreds of unusable points just mocking you. It feels like a digital version of the punch card that always gets lost in your wallet. There has to be a better way! —Rebecca Bass, Los Angeles

The attention economy has done a number on everyone’s… attention… and the kids are onto it. It’s so interesting how some youth are, in their own words, “rawdogging boredom” (AKA sitting still and doing nothing for an extended period of time without their phones, unplugging). The term’s vulgar, cavalier vibe suggests a generation treating boredom like a prohibited substance. Which does seem to be the message many digital experiences are suggesting. —Danny DeRuntz, Cambridge

Unfortunately, so many great restaurants and bars are closing in the Bay Area. This month, it’s an organic restaurant run by a renowned female chef. Last month, it was a Black-owned pizzeria with a killer happy hour. Why’s this happening? Owners report lower foot traffic, higher costs (from food to rent), and difficulty retaining workers. There are strong efforts out there: La Cocina is an incubator for BIPOC and immigrant women chefs that builds hard and soft skills; businesses are shifting to fast-casual formats to streamline operations and headcount; and I’ve seen a rise in restaurants run by worker cooperatives. But we can do more. How can cities help them stay open, via grants, financing, and advising? How can we shift our thinking to see restaurants as delicate nodes in the rich ecosystem of our communities, adding vibrancy and fighting loneliness? —John Won, San Francisco

Looking to partner with us on your own redesign?  Get in touch. We'd love to chat.

When your work life revolves around rethinking all kinds of products, experiences, and systems, you can’t help but see opportunities to redesign everywhere.

But it also brought great inspiration, as leaders we admire moved forward with confidence, embracing change as an opportunity to innovate and succeed throughout the year. As Michelle Lee, Co-Managing Director of our San Francisco studio, says, “There will always be things outside of our control, but that also means there's always something new to learn or something unexpected that's waiting to surprise us.” 

Here is advice for leading with confidence in 2026 from many of the partners and leaders we admire. Want even more leadership advice? Head over to IDEO U's Creative Confidence Podcast or blog to hear from more partners of IDEO U.

Get out of the scarcity mindset

One of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome in the last year was keeping myself away from a scarcity mindset. There's a lot of fear in the environment, and it's really easy to think that there's not enough: there aren't enough jobs, there aren't enough corporate contracts, etc. And the truth is, there are. I like to tell myself, “I just need one.” I just need one good corporate contract. I just need one good job. I find that mindset to be really, really powerful because it puts me in an energy of openness, creativity, curiosity, and abundance.

—Amy Bonsall, Founder, Collective

Embrace strategic flexibility

It’s time to stop treating uncertainty as a temporary disruption and start treating it like the complex operating environment that it is. Leaders don't need perfect predictions. They need the ability to hold multiple plausible futures in their minds at once, and make smart but very flexible bets on those futures. The organizations that will thrive will be those that can stay focused above the noise of ever-changing emerging technologies and stay close to real human needs. They’ll need to fail smart, learn fast, pivot quickly, and build strong capabilities and nimble adaptations to a shifting world. And to do this, they’ll need to hire leaders and frontline employees with the right skills to make that level of strategic flexibility happen. It’s my guess that most organizations don't have those people yet. If not, it’s time to invest in building that capability.

—Jennifer Lo, Futurist-in-Residence and Senior Director of Organizational Design, IDEO

Psychological safety should be a KPI

AI can't break the rules like creative people can. Not yet anyway. But AI is great at collecting inputs, which makes it an amazing brainstorming partner. I would use this to motivate my team and to embrace AI, not as a threat, but as a value add. But to do that, leaders need to reskill their team members. Which brings us to the next point.

Instead of instilling fear, talent re-skilling can be a confidence builder. Leaders must actively train their team to be expert prompters, whether on LLMs or diffusion models. The more they know how to use and play with the tools, the better it is for their confidence and sense of safety. I experimented with this at LEGO. One of my reports, an editor, felt lost. Partly due to a reorg, partly due to the fact that he had been there for almost two decades without moving up. Around the same time, there was a project that required us to create bespoke music. I saw it as an opportunity to experiment. I asked him to use his editing background and legacy knowledge of the brand as a kind of training data and generate a bunch of different songs using Suno. I could see how that whole exercise gave him a new sense of purpose. He's not just the “editor guy” who's tasked with making sizzle reels all day. He's now a member of the creative team, contributing ideas and prototypes using AI.

—Rudi Anggono, Global Head of Creative, Snap

Revisit your roots

I’d encourage leaders to resist the temptation of chasing every shiny new object. AI and innovation are powerful, but they should amplify what has always been true about your brand, not reinvent it. It’s important to stay grounded in what’s real to you, your brand, your leadership style, even in times of uncertainty. It’s a good time for organizations to revisit their company roots, history, and purpose. Remember what made your brand trusted in the first place. Then ask, “How can AI help us supercharge that?” 

—Joelle Park, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, BWH® Hotels

Slow down to take action

One of the most crucial things for leaders to keep in mind as they head into 2026 is this: slow down to speed up. Slowing down means: observe more. Listen better. Seek evidence-based reasoning. Ask good questions. Suspend judgment. All of this is in the service of more quickly eliciting rich, multivalent perspectives and making new discoveries to drive your work forward. Another way to put this: reframe your bias toward action. Include thinking deeply together with your teams, clients, and colleagues before you solve, decide, and execute. Thinking together is action. Being curious in this way is a gift to yourself and to everyone you have the privilege of working with. 

—Dabney Hailey, Founder and Principal, Hailey Group, and lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management

There’s always something new to learn

Maintaining creativity in uncertain times really comes down to how we choose to meet the unknown. And I say “choose,” because it really is a choice. We can either shrink away from uncertainty or embrace it with a sense of awe, excitement, and wonder at being part of something that's bigger than ourselves. There will always be things outside of our control, but that also means there's always something new to learn or something unexpected that's waiting to surprise us. And that, frankly, is really fun. When we meet uncertainty with curiosity instead of fear, it flips the script. The unknown stops being something to avoid and becomes something we're eager to explore. That openness is what fuels creativity. On my team, I try to nurture a culture where questions, experimentation, and healthy risk-taking are all welcome.

—Michelle Lee, Co-Managing Director, IDEO San Francisco

Make space for human creativity

It's more important than ever to cultivate a culture of creative taste. A lot of creative technology tools are becoming more impressive and seemingly more magical, and getting really close to mimicking the human hand—especially when it comes to generating video and art. There’s that temptation to use it across the entire board for every single task. But it’s really important to look at AI tools critically, and understand what they are best used for, while keeping space and time for human creativity to do what it does best. 

—Takashi Wickes, Founding Designer,  OpenStudio

Champion daring concepts

Playing it safe is anathema to my understanding of creative leadership. When your primary responsibility is to do things differently, you have to be stubbornly committed to the cause. Stripping the ease and comfort of familiarity creates uncertainty, and there’s a very human impulse to avoid the unknown by clinging to the way it’s always been done. 

As a creative leader, it’s my responsibility to lean all the way into the audacity of delightfully unprecedented ideas. To champion concepts so daring, it feels like a fever dream to pitch them. To encourage willful weirdness and silly side quests as vehicles for creative disruption. More than anything, my job is to set a working example that refusing to play it safe isn't for the faint of heart—but the reward makes the risk well worth it. 

—Ellen Foord, Chief Creative Officer, City of Boston

Imagine starting over

In 2025, the LA fires completely derailed my life right at the beginning of the year, when I had all the best-laid plans. We were really fortunate not to lose our home, but we were displaced for a really, really long time, and we had to live in extreme uncertainty. Would we lose everything? How would we rebuild? What would we do in a landscape where everything had changed? 

What got me through was leaning into that uncertainty—asking myself what might open up if I had a radically new landscape to explore and build upon. That might sound like deluded optimism, but it was actually a genuinely powerful tool that helped me enter that imaginative landscape where everything had to be built anew. It became both a creative challenge and an opportunity.

—Catherine Connors, Co-Founder, StoryQuo

Build your own confidence

Confidence doesn't show up before you act. It shows up because you act. So every morning, before I checked my email or picked up my phone, I started asking myself a very simple question. “If I choose fear today, what possibility will I miss?” It didn't make the fear disappear, but it gave me back my agency. 

The second thing that helped me came from a conversation with Robert Waldinger from Harvard University. He leads the longest study on human happiness and how to live a good life. And he told me something simple and profound. The quality of your relationships is one of the strongest predictors of well-being.

—Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt, Google's first Chief Innovation Evangelist, formerStanford d.School lecturer and author of What’s Next Is Now

Get hands-on

One of my biggest challenges this year was staying focused amid a relentless stream of new technologies—especially AI—and separating what’s transformative from what’s simply trending. I relied heavily on a trusted network of peers to bounce ideas off of and sharpen my perspective, which was crucial. I also made it a point to get hands-on again—something many senior leaders of large organizations tend to drift away from over time. Continuing to stay in touch with the technical details by playing around with the technology myself or inviting my team to walk me through demos and new ways of building things proved invaluable. It has kept me grounded in reality and equipped to make confident decisions in an unpredictable environment.

—Artem Fishman, CTO, Dow Jones

Build your knots

I had an interesting start to 2025—a number of my senior people left for competitors. I thought it was going to be an extremely challenging year, despite all the wins we had in our business. I couldn't quite understand their reasons for leaving. But I decided to shift my attention, focus on supporting my clients and my team, and deliver really good work.

I couldn't have done it without a good network of relationships. I view them as knots in a net. You don't know when you're gonna need them, but they need to be reinforced. I've been able to build and grow a team that I wouldn't have thought possible. So I'll take this moment to thank everybody who has been there for me. And I think as leaders, we need to take the time to build our knots and to thank them for everything they have done for us. I couldn't have done it alone.

—Wardah Malik, Chief Executive Officer, BEworks

(Additional contributors: Heather Boesch, Jenna Fizel, Leah Marcus, and Lindsey Turner)

For many of the world’s companies, big and small, 2025 brought significant uncertainty—from tariffs and supply chain challenges to shutdowns and unexpected market changes.

The updates were promising—proof-of-concept work was progressing, releases were on schedule, and the mood was upbeat. Then came the question that changed the conversation: “Are our people really ready?”

The discussion quickly unraveled. Despite strong technical progress, the team had given little thought to how employees would adopt, use, and adapt to the new tools. The assumption was that technology was the solution, rather than designing for the people and outcomes the company needed to be future-fit.

We’re hearing some version of this story from the majority of the organizations we speak with. They’re sprinting to implement new technologies, but few are fundamentally rethinking how their teams learn, collaborate, and adapt. The result is a growing gap between technological capability and human capacity, driven by tech-first initiatives. And in that gap lies the real risk: technology will keep advancing, but without adaptable people, processes, and systems, organizations will struggle to turn potential into progress.

We know, because we’ve seen it before. Over the last four decades, we’ve watched many companies jump on new technology without considering what it will mean for their workforce. The organizations that thrive in this new era won't be those that automate fastest, but those that adapt fastest. Category leadership and growth will come from distinctly human strengths—creativity, curiosity, empathy, agility, and a growth mindset—unlocked by leaders who create the conditions and structures for them to flourish.

Here are those five strengths, and ways smart leaders can set employees up to thrive through moments of change.

1. Creativity 

Gen AI is only too happy to give us the answers. But by embracing human creativity, we can ask the right questions, make the right connections, and find innovative new solutions for our most pressing challenges.

Creativity gained quite a bit of traction as a business priority in the digital era, when an IBM study of more than 1,500 CEOs named it the single most important skill for leaders. Now consistently included in the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report as a “skill workers need to thrive,” creativity is something the whole workplace should embrace. Achieving long-term sustainable competitive advantage will require shifts in corporate behavior, like encouraging teams to borrow and remix concepts from entirely different parts of the business to stimulate new ideas; asking more questions to push beyond business-as-usual; and brokering conversations outside of self-made silos should become the norm. 

What does that look like? A few years ago, H&M Group came to us for help reducing overstock. The company was constantly running out of small t-shirts in-store and had a surplus of large ones. The first answer could have been to simply stock more small t-shirts. Instead, we got curious about the root cause, asking questions across the business—everyone from the designers themselves to garment suppliers, logistics managers, and in-store employees—to understand why the problem existed in the first place. It turned out, there were many different systems across the supply chain that simply weren’t talking to each other. By bringing curiosity, we identified and solved the real problem, and by applying a creative approach, we created and piloted an algorithm that not only reduced overstock by 22 percent but also increased sales by 34 percent.

To achieve defensible growth in this new era, we’ll need to combine irreplaceable human curiosity with emerging tech tools and foster the conditions for leaders to be more imaginative in how they solve challenges. The companies that do so will move beyond short-term efficiency gains toward more innovative thinking, ultimately leading to better solutions and, in turn, better toplines.

2. Human insight 

Human insight is what turns data into differentiation. AI can rapidly reveal what is happening in a system—the spikes, dips, bottlenecks, and patterns that form the surface-level story. But it will flatten the nuance of why those patterns exist in the first place. It won’t show you how they appear in the lives of the people behind them. And it won’t uncover the ingenious workarounds people invent to navigate systems that don’t fit their needs. This is where human insights are most valuable. And every one of those insights represents an outsized opportunity for design. As AI makes sophisticated analytics more accessible, human insight is fast becoming one of the most valuable differentiators a business can invest in.

Our work with an EdTech disruptor demonstrates this power. A few years ago, before the introduction of gen AI, a startup came to us looking for help creating an AI writing tool. Though at the time EdTech companies were in a tight race to get to market first, the client team wanted to make sure they were creating a tool that educators and students would really want to use. So, we went into classrooms, researching and co-designing with teachers and students who were very clear about what they wanted. Students weren’t looking for a tool that could write for them; they wanted a boost to get past the blank page. And teachers really wanted to provide personalized feedback for each assignment, despite heavy course loads. Together, we built Ethiqly, a writing tool that makes suggestions to help students organize their thoughts without replacing the critical thinking crucial to their learning, and drafts teacher feedback based on criteria they set for their classes (which students never see without teacher signoff). 

This is the value of human insight: it helps teams design the right things in creative, transformative ways that meet real needs. It ensures that organizations solve the right problem. And it grounds decisions in deep human understanding.

For leaders, this means treating human insight as a core organizational capability—not a research phase, not a niche discipline, and not a “nice-to-have.” It requires anchoring insight rituals in leadership meetings, reshaping organizations to codify human insight into your operating system, and creating structures that support ongoing contact with the real people your organization serves. It means rewarding curiosity at the moments that matter. And above all, it means recognizing that the organizations that thrive will be those that pair the speed of AI with deep human understanding. Leaders who make space for that understanding won’t just build better products and services—they’ll build companies that remain relevant, resilient, and genuinely connected to the world they are shaping.

3. Growth mindset

When technology rewrites the rules every week, the need for certainty becomes a liability. What teams need instead is a growth mindset: an instinct for curiosity and the belief that, with the right strategy in place, running experiments will not only help them learn, but also help them develop and grow. Even in the face of setbacks. That mindset isn’t just critical for navigating AI shifts; it’s the foundation for adapting to any moment of rapid change. Whether you’re activating a new strategy or going through a complete restructuring, you’ve got to be able to unlock maximum performance from your teams—and make them believe they can achieve it.

Building belief through experimentation is an early expression of a new way of working and gets people thinking not only, “we can do this,” but “this is going to help us grow in ways we can’t even imagine yet.”

Take Ford, for example. We supported former CEO Jim Hackett through Ford’s transformation from a 115-year-old carmaker into a future-fit mobility provider by helping teams build belief through a series of explicit “beacons”—experiments that created permission for teams to pilot, learn, and adjust. Commercial Vehicles was one of our areas of focus; Ford identified its market-leading transit vans as a key opportunity space. Through a series of prototypes and two-week sprints, we built a pilot for a new, connected security service, which ultimately became a $100 million joint venture with the IT security company ADT. The team’s growth mindset was part of what enabled the Commercial Vehicles division’s shift from selling vehicles to delivering integrated, data-driven solutions. And more broadly, they were empowered by a CEO who explicitly granted permission from the top to challenge existing ways of working and learning from what did and didn’t work. It’s that permission that will be crucial to help employees discover and adopt new ways of working in the face of rapidly changing technology and systems.

4. Psychological safety 

Of course, none of the above will deliver what you need if teams don’t have the space to experiment, which brings us to our next strength: psychological safety. If a growth mindset is the fuel for adaptability, psychological safety is the ignition. Whether you’re running the company or working at mid-level, your teams will only take smart risks when they trust they won’t be punished for speaking up or trying something new. 

Creating these conditions requires real talk and acknowledgment of team dynamics, designing new rituals to shift those behaviors, and—as is often the case in our work—making tangible interventions or prompts to help the behaviors stick. Recently, we worked with a global professional services firm on another beacon project for culture change. The task was to help them up the ante on how they deliver a world-class visitor experience. The challenge was that the visitor experience wasn’t delivered by our client’s firm itself, but by four groups of service providers from four external partners. 

By interviewing and observing the four groups, we discovered that no one felt comfortable sharing openly, especially when it came to being honest about problems. There was also no forum where they could all come together for even basic conversations about how to collaborate. So, we piloted an incredibly simple ritual with them: a daily standup meeting that gave us a platform to encourage conversation. But perhaps the biggest unlock in that pilot (and something you can start doing today) was having members of the leadership team there to model the desired behaviors. Showing up and openly narrating uncertainty (“Here’s what I don’t know yet”) and inviting dissent (“What are we missing?”) set the tone for others to follow suit.

Throughout the pilot, we captured conversation patterns via a digital dashboard prototype to ensure a consistent meeting agenda and to make it easy to follow up on action items. Post-pilot analysis showed a clear shift from an “us-and-them” mindset to more proactive visitor-centric actions, consistent feedback loops, and a sense that the four partners were part of one team working together.

In a world where change and uncertainty are constant, whether driven by advancing technology or other factors, psychological safety is the condition that gives your team the space to think creatively, the belief they can do it, and the confidence to reject the status quo in service of growth.

5. Culture of change  

Change is no longer a project—it is the daily rhythm of modern organizations. Treating it as an episodic event with a beginning, a middle, and an end will leave companies perpetually behind. Leaders need to build cultures where adaptability is practiced every day, where every person knows how to respond, influence, and move forward amid uncertainty.

That begins with a focus on change literacy: the mindsets, tools, and systems that enable an organization to collectively understand, interpret, and actively shape change. It enables your teams to read situations, articulate why change matters, experiment with new ways of working, and scale what works. When this capability is concentrated, change is slow, fragile, and dependent. But when it’s distributed—when teams understand and embrace that culture of change—it becomes a shared mission rather than a top-down mandate.

A powerful and enduring example comes from our decade-long partnership with Intercorp in Peru. What began as a strategic engagement to explore ways to empower an emerging middle class in a growing economy evolved into a deep cultural transformation across more than two dozen enterprises. We built an innovation lab with teams that created entirely new businesses through research, co-creation, and a relentless focus on design-led experimentation. Intercorp shifted from a traditional corporate structure to a culture where people at all levels were empowered to test ideas, model new behaviors, and shape the organization’s evolution. The result wasn't a single transformation, but a sustained effort to reimagine everything from pharmacies and banks to health clinics and schools.

When organizations invest in a culture of change, transformation stops being disruptive and starts becoming a habit. People move faster, teams stay aligned, and companies develop the collective capacity to evolve at speed—essential components for fluency in continuous change required to match the pace of AI today. Leaders can invest in the most cutting-edge technology and tools, but if their employees don’t exist within a culture that embraces change and empowers the humans within the system, these investments will fall flat.

Under the pressures of constant, unrelenting, and accelerating change and hype, it is tempting for leaders to focus solely on technology investments. After all, the gains that AI promises will be extraordinary, and everyone wants to get out in front. But implementing technology alone will not deliver the outcomes everyone is looking for. True transformation designs for the humans in your organization and ensures they are set up for success.

We know because this isn't the first time we've been here. The cycle of new, emerging technology repeats. And we know from our long history of working with successful clients—like Ford, Intercorp, and many others—that the organizations that embrace technology while doubling down on these human strengths are the ones that succeed. Because it is the people, not just the technology, that will ensure your organization thrives in the age of AI.

Picture this: A leadership team at a major life sciences organization was reviewing progress on an important initiative to better integrate generative AI across the business.

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.