Obesity exists at the complex intersection of a clinical condition and a cultural force. Clinically, it comes with a diagnosis and treatment plan. Culturally, it is influenced by beliefs, identity, and self-worth, making it deeply personal and often taboo. Families, healthcare providers, and experts tend to avoid the fraught “o-word,” opting for euphemisms instead. For families on Medicaid, these challenges are even more pronounced. Award-winning health-tech startup Clarity Pediatrics, together with designers from IDEO, IDEO.org, and with support from Rise Together Ventures, sought to uncover the obstacles to healthier lifestyles and create a free report for US pediatricians who want to bend the curve on the childhood obesity epidemic.

Research with kids and parents on Medicaid in Dallas, Texas, and California’s Bay Area, along with interviews with healthcare providers and experts across the country, uncovered stories of stigma and frustration. Parents spoke of the daily challenges of balancing multiple jobs, sourcing affordable healthy food, and finding time to make necessary lifestyle changes. They described rushed pediatric visits that left them with unclear next steps and feelings of blame. Provider conversations echoed these struggles, noting time constraints and limited follow-up options.  

Ultimately, food had become a daily torment for these families. Eating was unavoidable and also one of the few affordable indulgences low-income parents were able to provide. Once kids left their own homes, they were surrounded by unhealthy temptations, making it feel impossible for parents to maintain control. The popularity of costly new weight-loss medications and surgical procedures added another layer of complexity for families who had been underserved by—and therefore distrustful of—America’s healthcare system. With so much of the responsibility placed on parents to self-direct care, inequities deepened, adding to the burden of families already at a breaking point.

To design a path forward, IDEO and IDEO.org mapped a family’s needs before, during, and after pediatric visits. This work revealed critical parts of the journey where families needed more support: recognizing early signs of obesity, navigating provider conversations, and sustaining healthier habits at home.

These insights informed a theory of change framework that provides actionable guidance for stakeholders involved in obesity care. Grounded in three opportunity areas along the patient journey—building awareness, confidence, and capacity—the framework highlights how trust, dignity, and systemic support can lead to lasting outcomes.

IDEO and IDEO.org also developed 10 user-centered concepts spanning digital, physical, and service offerings to reduce stigma and empower families to sustain healthier lives. These ideas address dignified diagnoses and structural inequities, among other pressing issues. Complementing these concepts, IDEO created a short documentary of a mother discussing her family’s experience navigating childhood obesity to help pediatric providers—many of whom have had very different lived experiences from the families and patients they serve—better understand the realities of the daily struggles of many families on Medicaid.

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Designed for the public good, the interactive website and free downloadable report, Reimagining Childhood Obesity, contain research findings, design recommendations, and a theory of change framework. The goal: provide practical, actionable guidelines for pediatricians, educators, healthcare organizations, and innovators to meet families and kids where they are and support them as they move toward a healthier future.

21% of US children are obese. 40% of Latino youth are either overweight or obese.

26% of kids on Medicaid experience childhood obesity, compared with 11% on private insurance.

525,600 minutes: Total time per year parents spend caring for their children. 17 minutes: Average time a pediatrician spends with a child during their annual exam, a small window to address a complex chronic condition such as obesity.

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user-centered ideas to help pediatricians reduce the stigma of childhood obesity in an accessible report

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opportunity areas for building trust with young patients and providing family support

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With its reach, Acer saw an opportunity to power positive choices in the billions. ‍

But new products and services won’t succeed if consumers don’t want them, no matter how sustainable they are. A few years go, the Harvard Business Review’s report, "The Elusive Green Consumer," found that about two-thirds of those surveyed said they wanted to buy brands that advocated sustainability. But only a quarter actually did.

Meanwhile, the market for climate era products is only growing: In 2022, Forbes found that nearly 90 percent of the Gen X consumers they surveyed said they’d be willing to spend more on sustainable products, compared to just over a third two years before. The desire was only higher among Millennials and Gen Z; they just didn’t like what was on offer.

To drive sales and growth, and meet its sustainability commitments, Acer needed to capitalize on desirability, deepening the connection between Acer’s sustainable options and consumer needs, lowering the barrier to purchase. To that end, Acer and IDEO created the Acer Climate Lab, a cross-organizational team and initiative, to launch the company on a transformative journey to deepen the connection between Acer's conscious technology and the realities of people's lives and needs across four strategic areas.

Together, the combined team conducted extensive research to better understand consumer attitudes and behaviors toward sustainable products, and identified everyday areas where Acer’s conscious technology might be able to have the most significant impact: living, working, moving, and learning.

• Living: Envisions homes as hubs of energy efficiency and climate resilience, leveraging technology to optimize energy use, enhance air quality, and enable proactive climate management. These concepts include technologies like smart energy systems, adaptive air solutions, and integrated home management platforms explore how technology can support sustainable daily living.
  
  
• Working: Reimagines the workplace with flexible, sustainable technology solutions that prioritize resource optimization and circular practices. Concepts such as Acer Loop could provide a subscription-based model that ensures access to the latest technology, supports remote work, and reduces electronic waste through effective recycling and rehoming practices.
  
  
• Moving: Focuses on the transformation of urban mobility by integrating technology into systems that promote sustainable transportation. Concepts could include e-mobility hubs that highlight how urban spaces could offer seamless access to shared, low-emission travel options, reducing reliance on traditional carbon-heavy methods.
  
  
• Learning: Explores pathways to sustainable education by imagining environments where technology supports circularity and accessibility. This includes ideas like refurbished devices for students, repair and reuse programs, and educational spaces designed with climate-positive principles, nurturing eco-conscious habits in future generations.

Together with Red Peak and Sid Lee, the team launched the culmination of the work at COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, positioning Acer as a pioneer in climate positive technology. The exhibit included immersive experiences and interactive displays demonstrating how Acer's sustainable solutions seamlessly integrate into everyday life. Visitors could engage with scenarios depicting sustainable living, working, moving, and learning, emphasizing the practical benefits of Acer’s innovations.

Acer's journey through the Climate Lab project underscores a commitment to sustainability that goes beyond mere compliance. With this new cross-business team tackling the real-world barriers faced by consumers, Acer is paving the way for a more inclusive, sustainable future. This initiative not only aligns with global climate goals, but also sets a precedent for the tech industry, demonstrating that with the right approach, sustainability and innovation can go hand in hand.

In a survey, 65% of respondents said they want to buy brands that advocate sustainability, yet only about 26% actually do. 

Nearly one in two consumers say they either don’t know what information to trust, or that nothing can influence how much they trust a business’s commitment to sustainability.

1 cohesive strategy

for climate era products across 6 different fields

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With the introduction of generative AI, Ethiqly and IDEO saw a unique opportunity to help teachers, by cutting down the time it takes to provide each student with feedback on their writing assignments. But to get there, they had to learn from the experts themselves. To kick off the project, the team headed into the classroom to co-design with students and teachers.

One of the first problems they discovered? Traditional methods of grading essays are laborious and inefficient for high school teachers, who are already notoriously busy and overworked. What teachers really wanted was to spend time giving each student the personalized feedback that helps them grow. Meanwhile, students really struggled to get started on their writing assignments, overwhelmed by looking at a blank page.

Together, the team started to think about how it could harness AI to make personalized instruction more accessible for all students, helping teachers provide better feedback at scale, and giving students the support they need to not only get started on their writing assignments, but improve their work. 

With insights directly from students and teachers, the IDEO team built working prototypes, allowing them to beta test the product in schools, and demonstrate value to investors. They also developed a brand identity and style guide for launch, which came to life in a pitch deck, landing page, and other brand expressions.

The resulting product is a sophisticated blend of AI technology and user-friendly interfaces that empower teachers and inspire students. The goal isn’t just to get to a finished essay, but to assist students in developing critical thinking skills. Ethiqly's tools help students organize their thoughts and get writing by providing contextual prompts and suggestions—without doing the work for them. And the AI assistant supports teachers by suggesting comments based on evaluation criteria they have set, and teachers choose which feedback is relevant for their individual students. Students never see it without teacher approval.

As one teacher told the team, “With leveraging AI more in education, there’s this fear that it’s deprofessionalizing the field or it’s a direct replacement of a teacher in a classroom. I think it gives us meaningful data, so that we can actually teach the way that we want to in order to support our students.” Now, Ethiqly is in use in classrooms in 25 countries, positively impacting students across the globe.

Teachers know 1:1 interaction is key to student success, but an EdWeek survey found only 46% of teachers’ time is spent teaching, while 25 hours/week goes to other tasks like grading and making lesson plans.

25 countries…and growing

Ethiqly’s reach in classrooms around the world

Designing a piece of a city, like a park, doesn’t start with a blank slate. There are always traces of the past and the present, and the lived history of its residents.

To create a full picture of that story, the IDEO team built workshops for the community centered around questions about the unique experiences of living in Frisco. They invited them to reflect on the communities they grew up in, the city of today, and the public spaces that have played formative roles for them. 

From their answers, a common value emerged: heritage. Frisco is a rapidly growing city, with residents whose families have lived there for centuries living side-by-side with more recent neighbors from diverse cultures and ethnic groups. Participants shared a vision of Grand Park as a unifying, shared space, a backdrop where many families can form foundational memories in Frisco.

Next, IDEO brought in multisensory design prompts to help participants further conceptualize the park. How did they want it to feel, sound, and smell? In the built-up, suburban city of Frisco, residents imagined a space that was less planned, enabling guided wandering and exploration. They also hoped that the park would inspire loved ones and descendants to feel a sense of curiosity and wonder.

At the end of workshops and sessions with community groups, the IDEO team took Polaroids of participants, asking, “What’s one word you want to describe Grand Park in the future?” Those words informed the collective vision that IDEO delivered to the city of Frisco, which included spatial concepts, user journeys, and branding for the park, all designed to showcase its unique landscapes. In January 2024, Frisco City Council approved the vision statement, and officials expect to break ground in the second half of 2025.

The population of Frisco is growing rapidly; its population is up 516% since the year 2000.

At more than 1,000 acres, Grand Park in Frisco is even larger than Central Park in New York City.

Less than 1% of Blackland Prairie soil remains in the region, and some of it is in Grand Park.

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Frisco residents were engaged in the process, from City Council members to high school students

200+

respondents shared anonymous feedback on what they imagined the park should be

By creating microbe and bio-based materials that are both durable and beautiful, it’s proving that circularity and innovation can go hand in hand, and that the future of materials can be one of abundance and delight.

Hydefy’s model is in line with IDEO’s thinking—that we can make a far bigger impact on climate if our products are sustainable, yes, but more importantly, more desirable. I’m inspired by the way Hydefy is reshaping what’s possible, not just in fashion but in how we think about the everyday things we touch and use.

Recently, I sat down with Rachel Lee, Hydefy’s General Manager, to hear more of the story behind the work. From her career spanning BCG and the Gates Foundation, to her leadership guiding Hydefy from scrappy experiments to a Paris runway debut with Stella McCartney, Lee has unlocked a method for building breakthrough solutions.

We chatted just before Climate Week NYC 2025, where Stella McCartney was honored with a “Fashion Steward” award at the first-ever NAT Gala for her pioneering role in fashion sustainability, including the use of more eco-friendly materials such as Hydefy in her collections.  

Keren Ruth Wong: I’ve admired your work for a long time, both as someone who also works in the innovation space and as a dear friend, so this is a really cool opportunity. Would you mind starting by telling us a little more about Hydefy, and how it’s different?

Rachel Lee: At Hydefy, we create high-performing, planet-friendly biomaterials. We utilize nature-derived inputs to produce textiles and leather alternatives that minimize our reliance on animals and fossil fuels. The materials we are initially commercializing—the ones featured this year in Stella McCartney’s Paris Fashion Show Spring/Summer collection—use fermentation of sugarcane inputs and a microbe from Yellowstone National Park. That’s the connective tissue to Nature’s Fynd, the parent company that utilizes the same microbe, called “Fy,” to create alternative meat and dairy protein products. Both Hydefy and Nature’s Fynd are part of the Fynder Group. We’re both interested in creating new solutions for consumers that have a lower environmental footprint.

Keren Ruth Wong: So there’s this microbe-based alternative material. And now you’re looking at many different applications, whether it’s across both food and consumer products, is that right?

Rachel Lee: Yes. We started with Nature’s Fynd, where we created meat and dairy alternatives that we commercialized nationwide, mostly through Whole Foods Market. Those initial offerings truly represent the ethos of what we’re working on: delicious and nutritious products with lower environmental footprints. I joined the company to work specifically on biomaterials because there was a rising interest on the retail side around these new types of sustainable innovations and textiles. There were no other commercial options available, actually, when we started working on it.

‍Keren Ruth Wong: When we look at other products or materials on the market that are alternatives to leather, what are those typically made of? How are they different from the material you’re working on and the material that ended up being used in the Stella McCartney bag?

Rachel Lee: Most of the vegan leathers that you see in the market are made from polyurethane or polyvinyl chloride, so they’re essentially plastic, which means, in addition to using fossil fuel resources, there are also potential health implications, depending on what type of inputs went into it. We’re trying to give consumers a third category of options that don’t rely on animals or petroleum.

Keren Ruth Wong: Let’s go back to you and your rich career journey. You didn’t start out focused on sustainable products. You’ve gone from BCG to Gates to biotech entrepreneurship with Hydefy and Nature’s Fynd. What’s the throughline that connects these experiences for you? 

Rachel Lee: The connecting theme throughout has always been the mission of the organization, or a particular passion or problem that I want to contribute to. This has served as my North Star, particularly in relation to natural resources and equity.

I became interested in the innovation and biomaterial space, in particular, because while my work at the Gates Foundation allocating resources was extremely important, I also wanted to be a part of creating new solutions. I believe that’s what’s needed for meaningful change for the next generation. So my desire to create more options for consumers led me to Nature’s Fynd and Hydefy. I definitely do not have a formal materials science background, but I think it shows that sheer enthusiasm and passion can really go a long way!

Keren Ruth Wong: Can you tell me a bit about what’s gone on behind the scenes at Hydefy? What were some unexpected changes in direction or pivots that ended up being really interesting or beneficial for the company?

Rachel Lee: The sustainability landscape is constantly changing. Initially, we responded to brand requests because we wanted to make our customers happy. Eventually, we decided that we can’t just be swayed by whatever the new flavor of sustainability is that year. We needed to be intentional, take a stand based on our principles, do something that we feel good about, and build a business around that.

One big decision: we fundamentally changed the process and formulation halfway through. We started with a more traditional, tanning-like process, similar to the one used for animal hides. We would grow these sheets of microbe and bio-based materials and use different chemistries to achieve what tanning traditionally does: making the raw material stable, durable, and giving it a nice hand feel, among other benefits. However, we realized we were trying to play the game that a traditional industry is based on. Ultimately, we needed to leapfrog that. 

To truly have an impact, we also needed to be able to handle volume. So when we took a step back and thought about what would enable that, and also play to our competitive advantage and strength of being based in the US (a lot of the best tanneries and equipment are in Europe), we decided to redesign the whole process so it actually doesn’t look anything like leather processing. Thanks to the brilliant scientists on our team, who have cross-functional backgrounds in other industries, we now utilize plastics industry equipment used to produce materials such as flooring and laminates. 

So, that was the big pivot. There were trade-offs because some properties that high-end luxury companies valued were more feasible with the older process. It was an intentional decision to adopt a more scalable process that would enable us to serve a broader audience and, ultimately, relocate anywhere, as the equipment we use is widely used globally in manufacturing.  

Keren Ruth Wong: I would love to hear more about the early days at Hydefy. What it was like just to lead your team through trying to produce a breakthrough, both in terms of product and process. I’m sure there were a few moments of scrappiness.

Rachel Lee: “Scrappy” is the greatest compliment. With any early-stage startup, it’s critical to prototype quickly, de-risk at each stage in an iterative manner, generate proof of concepts that will convince investors to provide additional funding, and be able to hire talented people. In hindsight, scrappiness went beyond extending our runway and increasing ROI. I think the biggest lesson we took away from those early, scrappy days was the importance of team culture and mindset. The positive, compounding effect of a “can-do” spirit has propelled us forward, even as the stakes and our lab continue to grow and become more professional. To this day, it’s our greatest asset.

Another effective practice at Hydefy was creating a flat hierarchy. We have a culture that encourages every person to contribute—and contribute beyond what their role might traditionally allow. Because when you’re navigating new scientific breakthroughs, you can’t just follow an existing playbook and have a former fermentation engineer and a former F35 fighter jet scientist do the same things they did at their last jobs. Everyone has to think a little out of the box. I don’t think traditional manager-led team meetings and processes would have gotten us there.

People often discuss team culture, but I think the reason it’s been a superpower is beyond making it fun to go to work every day, which is special in a hybrid work world. It’s also a smart business decision. A solid team culture means you have good retention, low to minimal turnover, and very few HR issues. Because, at the end of the day, every company issue is essentially a people issue.

Keren Ruth Wong: I want to get a little bit more into the product itself, particularly because it made such a big splash earlier this year on the Paris runway. Can you tell us, in a few sentences, about the bag you created in collaboration with Stella McCartney?

Rachel Lee: The crossbody bag is part of Stella McCartney’s newest Ryder collection. She unveiled it at her Spring/Summer 2025 runway show in Paris. Stella McCartney is a vegan brand, so they already use a lot of vegan materials—predominantly polyurethane leathers. We’re one of their few suppliers of next-gen materials. The brand has been an innovative leader, consistently showcasing as many natural and sustainable materials as possible. We created a custom color for them: silver metallic. It was a very interesting collaboration—a new design, featuring a new material, in a new color.

Keren Ruth Wong: I want to do some myth-busting here. I think that we often view vegan leathers as being somewhat inferior to luxury animal leathers. To me, as an outsider, it’s remarkable that you were able to collaborate with such a renowned fashion and luxury brand as Stella McCartney. Yes, it’s a vegan brand, but how did you convince them that a mushroom-based material could be aspirational, desirable, and luxurious? 

Rachel Lee: Our strategy of working with luxury partners and brands is very attractive for a number of reasons. It creates a feeling that these materials are aspirational, rather than inferior. In this case, there was synergy because many European luxury brands have incentives to adopt these types of materials due to the upcoming 2030 emissions targets. From a business perspective, it makes sense. Luxury brands also have the highest standards, because their items are expected to last much longer than typical fast-fashion purchases. This means the development timeline may actually be longer if innovators were to target the luxury brands, which is a bit of a risk.

When Hydefy got started, there were maybe three other companies tackling alternative leather. Now, there are over 70. Novelty will only get you so far. For a product to endure, it needs to have a unique feature, value, performance, or something that goes beyond. In our case, we anchored on performance attributes and durability. With other products in our pipeline, we offer not only performance and durability but also customized aesthetics and optical effects, providing designers with something new. When the economy is strong, sustainability may be of interest on its own. When the economy’s not doing well, some of the first things to go are R&D, sustainability, or other nice-to-haves that don’t directly contribute to the company’s P&L and performance in the short term. It becomes even more important to have product features that go beyond traditional options.

Environmental regulation is really interesting because it changes the baseline. At a certain point, the base materials that manufacturers work with may no longer be viable, in which case they might have to scramble to find other options sooner rather than later. Personally, I would not build a whole business that relies on a specific regulation being passed within a certain time frame, because we have seen how unpredictable that can be. However, if new innovators are considering which materials to pursue within the biomaterial space, regulation is worth examining, as it can completely alter the rules of the business overnight.

Keren Ruth Wong: Ultimately, the breakthrough product isn’t just going to last because it’s shiny and new. It has to be attractive enough to sustain a business.

Rachel Lee: Totally. And it needs to align with the metrics that your customers care about. In our case, there are multiple “nested” customers. There are designers who value a material’s novelty, aesthetics, performance, and so on. Then, there are the strategy and sustainability teams, which focus on risk mitigation and carbon emissions. A material needs to be able to compete on all the factors. It’s a complex ecosystem of decisions.

Keren Ruth Wong: So, Climate Week NYC is underway, and Stella McCartney is being honored for her sustainability leadership. What does it mean to you to see a brand you work with be recognized this way?

Rachel Lee: Stella McCartney is not only at the forefront of publicly advocating for more sustainable practices and influencing key decision-makers, but also acts on her words by collaborating with numerous companies, such as Hydefy, as well as with some of our peers, who are working on equally exciting, bio-based, next-generation materials. It underscores the crucial importance of partnerships among like-minded individuals and groups in driving change forward.

Keren Ruth Wong: Looking ahead, what does success look like for Hydefy, whether it’s in fashion or any other categories? Where might Hydefy be making headlines next? 

Rachel Lee: There’s, of course, the typical business success around other collaborations we’re working on, which, hopefully, we can talk about soon. And then there’s thinking about our next wave of products. We’re continually striving to enhance our materials, making them stronger, softer, and more sustainable. 

But success is not just about our bottom line. For me, success would be if we encourage new innovators to enter this space. Or, if more brands adopt some of these materials. Or, more importantly, if we can shift traditional companies, such as large tanneries or chemical companies that produce plastic to develop more sustainable products. If some of the major manufacturers adopt greener chemistry, that will truly have an impact. Hopefully, Hydefy and other innovators in this space will demonstrate that there’s demand for creating more nature-friendly alternatives to the mostly petroleum-based ones, and move everyone forward.

Keren Ruth Wong: If you could wave a magic wand and change how the world thinks about materials, what would you wish for? 

Rachel Lee: First and foremost, I would want us to think about materials more. Whether it’s the laptop that we’re working on or the clothes we’re wearing, where are these materials coming from, and where are they going in their afterlife? Once we start thinking through these questions, I want us to evolve in how we think about the cost and value of these materials. The true value of a material should encompass its lifetime value, durability, circularity, carbon footprint, and impact on human well-being throughout the supply chain. My hope is that we can start moving away from a system that views materials as commodities and begin to appreciate them for their true value, which I believe is the precursor to any meaningful change.

Looking to create desirable sustainable products or businesses? Get in touch. We’d love to help.

In a world where buying “sustainable” products can often feel like a compromise (too expensive, not well designed, not the right aesthetic), the Chicago-based materials company Hydefy is taking a radically different approach.

Way back in 2015, we collaborated with IKEA and students from Lund University and Eindhoven University of Technology on Concept Kitchen 2025, an exploration of how we might cook, eat, and socialize in our homes in the future. Our focus was on behaviors rather than specific technologies or devices. The intent was twofold. One, inspire IKEA’s product development teams to look far beyond normal product development timelines; and two, inspire suppliers, manufacturers—even food companies—to design for future ways of living that IKEA hoped to support. We unveiled the full-scale prototype kitchen for 250,000 visitors to explore during the 2015 Salone Del Mobile and EXPO Milano that spring and summer. 

Fast forward a decade. Now that the future is here, we thought it would be fun to look back at a few of our predictions to see whether the 2025 we envisioned has come to pass.

👍 Cities are denser. Living spaces are smaller.

In 2015, we envisioned a future where cities would be more crowded and apartments more compact. Today, that’s more than an assumption—it’s a lived reality. Even in the US, a market not historically known for small living spaces, the average apartment size has decreased over the last decade. 

Around the world, micro-apartments and co-living arrangements have gained traction, and most of us think twice before bringing home large, single-function, bulky appliances that crowd precious real estate (think countertop ice makers or one-trick bread makers). 

In our design, we explored how the kitchen might blend into other spaces of the home. What if cooktops could completely disappear when not in use? What would happen if we stored and celebrated our food like we do our most important mementos? 

Now, the need to do more with less space is here. Not only do many IKEA products, such as mini kitchenettes and portable, hangable induction cookers, address this need, but modular kitchens, on the whole, are increasingly popular choices for their practicality, affordability, and instant nomadic style. 

👍 Food waste remains a pressing issue.‍

During in-home research with consumers and interviews with chefs, we observed how small oversights—a bag of forgotten spinach in the back of the fridge or confusion over expiration dates—could quickly add up to mountains of wasted food. In 2015, an estimated 31 percent of the US’s total food supply was thrown away. Food waste was one of the key areas we wanted to address in Concept Kitchen 2025. 

Back then, we designed a kitchen that keeps food visible and trackable, making it easy to use before it spoils. Open shelving with transparent containers put ingredients in plain sight, and a smart table recognized foods placed on its surface and suggested recipes to use them up. Another system tracked the freshness of foods, prompting timely action, while a compact composter turned unavoidable scraps into clean, odorless “pucks”—helping keep more food on plates and out of landfills.

Fast forward to today. Despite growing awareness and efforts to reduce food spoilage, households around the world still discard a significant amount of groceries. According to the FDA, US food waste is now estimated to be between 30 and 40 percent, resulting in more spoiled food reaching landfills than any other waste product.

 👎 People still use fridges—not induction-powered cooled pantries—to keep food fresh.

One of our more radical concepts? Eliminating bulky, energy-inefficient fridges from kitchens entirely, replacing them, instead, with induction-powered cooling technology embedded into pantry shelves. Food placed on these shelves in RFID-tagged transparent storage containers would automatically keep individual food items at just the right temperature. While this innovative concept didn’t make the journey to our current reality, more consumers today are buying glass-door refrigerators for their homes, which allow them to quickly see what food they already have on hand—a step in the right direction.

👎👍 Pivoting sinks, compost pucks, and gamified recycling stations haven’t exactly taken hold, but mindful waste reduction strategies are more commonplace. ‍

In 2015, the European Commission adopted a new Circular Economy Package, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation released its “Towards the Circular Economy” report, both of which encouraged the transition from a “take-make-dispose” economic model to one where resources are kept in use for as long as possible. They encouraged us to consider how the kitchen might help recycle and keep materials in closed loops—or even turn waste into value.

Our prototype kitchen’s thoughtful water disposal system (a pivoting sink basin that tipped to one side to drain off toxic “black” water and to the other to siphon off undrinkable, but otherwise safe “gray” water that could be used to wash dishes or water plants) pointed to a future where resourcefulness is second nature. A built-in grinder beneath the sink squeezed water from organic scraps to form tiny compost pucks, eliminating the mess (and odors) associated with traditional compost bins and providing fertilizer for indoor herb gardens. A sensor-driven recycling station even tallied how well (or poorly) recyclables were sorted, rewarding responsible behavior with energy credits.

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While teeter-totter sinks, compostable discs, and recycling bins that keep score aren’t commonly found in today’s homes, there is a larger societal push to reduce single-use plastics, and the concept of mindful disposal is more mainstream, thanks to companies like IKEA, Ridwell, and others. Many municipalities now offer compost bins alongside recycling bins, and several brands, including Patagonia and Kiehl’s, run take-back programs. Reusing gray water has become more commonplace, and zero-waste advocates on TikTok share tips to minimize waste. Additionally, there are compost solutions that aren’t too far off from our puck concept. With food prices rising in many places due to inflation, tariffs, and climate change, our initial focus on reducing food waste has become even more urgent.

👎👍 We’re not all cooking on AI-enabled induction tables—yet—but our kitchens are “smarter,” and we still crave coziness.

Our biggest challenge with Concept Kitchen 2025 was blending futuristic technology with the timeless, tactile pleasure of cooking. Our smart table concept—where you could place leftover vegetables under a camera that would then project recipes and cooking tips—predicted how multimodal large language models (LMMs) could radically simplify cooking routines. Today, AI can interpret images and text simultaneously, so the idea of a camera scanning your broccoli and instantly serving up recipe ideas is more realistic than ever. These new LLMs make visual interactions more intuitive, allowing you to rely on a single seamless system rather than juggling multiple apps or devices.

Today’s everyday home chef may not be chopping broccoli on a full induction cooktop table like we envisioned—even though they do exist!—but discreet smart speakers, subtle sensors, and AI-driven apps that suggest recipes based on what’s in your fridge are everywhere. While kitchens have indeed become smarter, the technology we continue to choose for them feels more like a thoughtful helper than a sci-fi intrusion, enabling our kitchens to stay cozy and comfortable. Ultimately, it’s about harnessing technology to enrich our culinary experiences, rather than overshadowing the human joys of cooking and connecting over good food.

‍👍 The kitchen continues to be the home’s social hub.

IKEA’s Concept Kitchen 2025 emphasized the kitchen as a communal, creative space—where a leftover tomato might spark a conversation, or a table’s camera might amuse and inspire friends who gather around it. A decade later, the kitchen endures as the heart of the home.

As part of our design investigations, the team also explored community kitchens for entire neighborhoods, ways to encourage kids to “play with their food,” and live-streaming cooking sessions via countertop cameras, indicating broader social, home-like experiences surrounding cooking. Today, cooking has indeed expanded its community dimension—from co-cooking apps to shared commercial kitchens—reinforcing the kitchen as a central gathering place, regardless of the level of technology involved.

‍👍 Prototyping remains a powerful way to explore future possibilities.

The future moves in spirals. Sometimes we adopt expected changes in unexpected ways, and sometimes we revert to old habits. What remains true, looking back at Concept Kitchen 2025, is the power of prototyping to make the future real.

A decade on, the project remains a fascinating blueprint for the kinds of everyday cooking and eating moments we’d see in our homes. Sure, not all details, such as shelves with RFID temperature tags or transparent cooling containers, may have become a reality, but that’s not the point. When we envision a decade or more in the future, we’re looking to identify the trajectory of desirable behaviors, rather than specific objects or technologies (as they are bound to change and evolve). By transforming the behaviors we hoped to see into an experiential prototype that 250,000 people could physically explore in Milan—and millions more online—we brought the optimistic reality of 2025 one step closer to the lived reality of 2015.

And that's the real takeaway: prototyping’s tangibility enables us to step into the future. It provokes conversations. Inspires us to make better decisions every day. And helps steer us toward a collectively brighter tomorrow. 

Looking to do some futuring at your org? Get in touch. We'd love to help.

“Det er svært at spå, især om fremtiden.” —Danish proverb

(“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.”)

Strategy can’t just exist in a three-ring binder. It’s the culmination of choices leaders and employees make across companies, brands, and organizations every day. It influences how employees communicate, how leaders make decisions, which opportunities they choose to pursue, and which ones they decide to leave behind. For any new strategy to succeed, it must be embedded across an entire organization, with choices, mindsets, and behaviors that are supported by workplace culture.

That’s why the art of activating strategy is just as important as the art of crafting it. It takes creative thinking to get buy-in across organizations and make it easy for folks to take action. And then, when employees are living the strategy in their daily work, their efforts must be supported by the systems and people around them. As the legendary management theorist Peter Drucker reportedly once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

We’ve found that involving employees in the strategy creation process, telling simple stories that stick with them, and fostering a culture that supports new ways of working can help pave the way for successful activation. Here’s how to do it. 

1. Distribute ownership 

“Socialization” is often tacked on to the end of strategy work, but simply publishing a framework can feel like the “Powers That Be” are dictating the “Grand Path Ahead.” Organizations can spend countless hours and significant resources on initiatives such as town halls, emails, and presentations, only for them to fall flat. This is not just a poor use of time and money; it’s a missed opportunity.

Instead, investing upfront in co-designing with a diverse group of stakeholders fosters a sense of ownership across all levels of the organization. When employees see their input in the strategy—or at least know someone who contributed—they are far more likely to engage, champion, and activate it. Beyond buy-in, this approach often leads to a stronger strategy, with a better understanding of its opportunities and risks, improving adaptability as the future unfolds.

In a recent engagement with KQED, a non-profit public media outlet in California, KQED leadership and IDEO took a deliberate and inclusive approach to designing a vision and strategy with the larger organization, not for them. We ensured that a broad cross-section of KQED employees, from on-the-ground reporters to board members, were involved throughout the process, not just at the end. We also created an interactive installation that showcased the work in progress, providing employees with a preview of the framework, an opportunity to give feedback, and a chance to connect with the KQED team members who were working shoulder-to-shoulder with IDEO. This approach gave everyone in the organization a sense of ownership over the strategy, while inspiring the core team to pursue new possibilities. “We did not want to just drop a new strategy on the organization,” says Michael Isip, President and CEO of KQED. “Quite the opposite. We wanted the organization to know that it was our shared responsibility to figure this out. We didn’t just need their buy-in, but their expertise and passion.”

2. Make the story stick

Human-centered design isn’t just about the end customer; it’s also about the people inside your company who do the day-to-day work to make things happen. These people are the lynchpins of change; the success or failure of your strategy lies squarely on their shoulders. That’s why it’s so important to help them understand their role in it and what it will take to bring it to life. 

This is where storytelling comes in. A good story doesn’t just paint a picture of aspiration. A simple, tangible narrative—with a clear call to action—can inspire the entire organization to get excited about the future and clearly define the behaviors, changes, and decisions that will make it real.

On a project helping American Express expand its customer base, an IDEO team created a series of short, internal videos about a new product called “Pay It, Plan It.” These videos helped employees develop empathy for new types of customers, understand their needs, and, of course, demonstrate how this product could positively impact their lives. “I often talk about it in terms of learning a new language,” says Kyoko King, VP, Global Commercial Services at American Express. “Amex internally thinks of itself as a rational company based on CBAs and models. The breakthrough—and the thing I’m most proud of—was bringing that customer emotion into internal decision-making, seeing Amex become emotional rather than purely rational.”

Video can be an excellent medium for these kinds of stories, but it’s not the only way to create emotional resonance in your organization. When we worked with a large midwestern corporation, their leadership viewed strategy as a deeply complex and weighty concept rather than a series of collective choices. To help the organization embrace the concept—and details—of its strategy, we designed an interactive museum-style exhibit to help connect the choices their founders made to the choices leaders were currently making and the company’s aspirations for the future. This pairing of artifacts and memorabilia with forward-looking brainstorm moments helped make the strategy more tangible, approachable, and less abstract for shareholders.

3. Enable new ways of working

A new strategy often means fresh mindsets and new ways of working. It takes time to create new behaviors, and even more time for those behaviors to become ingrained in the culture. It all starts with leaders. They must demonstrate them through their actions—in meetings, the questions they ask, and the decisions they make. By visibly embracing these behaviors, they give others permission to do the same. 

In a collaboration with a leading media and entertainment company, we developed and implemented an innovation strategy that necessitated a deliberate shift in priorities, working methods, and company culture. We hosted interactive sessions and panels to equip leaders with firsthand insights, tools, and mindsets that help foster innovation and identify behaviors that might be holding them back. To reach employees, we developed a communications strategy—including podcasts and videos—to celebrate small wins and new behaviors, and collaborated with their HR team to refine job descriptions and hiring strategies that aligned with the new direction. This is just the beginning of their efforts to support cultural change at scale, but already, they’re finding success and witnessing people change their behaviors and norms to align with the new strategy. 

Bringing strategy to life can sound simple on paper: Engage with stakeholders early and often. Share stories, simply and widely. Foster new ways of working, from the top down and bottom up. And then, live happily ever after! The end!

But it’s never that simple. People have been hired and rewarded for driving the previous strategy, so shifting priorities and rethinking daily choices isn’t just a task—it’s a fundamental change that takes time to ingrain. It’s important to be patient, stay focused on the vision, and create space for initiatives that enable activation of the strategy. Because the most successful strategies aren’t just launched—they’re lived, every day, by the people who bring them to life.

Need help embedding strategy in your org's culture? Get in touch.

(The original version of this story attributed this quote to Peter Drucker. While it is often credited to him, the true source remains uncertain.)

This piece is part of a series. Check out the first two installments, focused on methods for defining your organization's purpose, and moving from purpose to strategy.

Here’s a riddle: If a company chooses to spend time and money creating a new strategy, but employees aren’t clear on how to implement it, will it ever guide company decisions or drive progress?

Regardless of how much potential it holds, an idea in its early stages is like a flickering flame, easily extinguished by hesitation or misalignment.

Early-stage innovation is inherently fragile. It requires decision-makers to recognize this fragility and remain vigilant to potential oversights stemming from past success. Only then can organizations create the conditions of openness, encouragement, and support that nascent ideas need to take root and grow.

This is the story of how we helped a group of senior leaders move beyond the comfort of familiar formulas to create space for innovation.

Internal misalignment meets external pressure

In recent years, our client—a leading consumer goods company in China—had seen growth in its most successful product category begin to stall after decades of strong performance. In response, the company wanted to develop a new strategic offering in the same category to reignite sales. That’s where our collaboration began.

But from the outset, the project faced internal friction. The core challenge was aligning leadership levels on how to pursue future growth.

Senior executives prioritized scale: “Is the market big enough?” Earlier wins, where hero products had ridden the wave of urbanization to dominate their category, had shaped their expectations.

Business unit leaders, however, believed revitalizing the category required more than incremental change. They pushed to move beyond familiar playbooks and explore bolder directions, such as targeting higher-value customer groups. These approaches might not deliver immediate volume, but they offered long-term potential and a path to renewed relevance in a shifting market.

Yet, whenever these proposals reached the executive table, the conversation often came down to a single question: “How much volume can it deliver?” They dismissed ideas that didn’t meet past benchmarks before they had a chance to evolve.

Meanwhile, the market had already moved on. Competitors had introduced new offerings targeting younger middle-class consumers, with growing success—and our field research confirmed it. Across a wide range of households, we found consumers actively purchasing competitor products in the same category.

By the end of the research, the message was clear: the younger middle class represented a valuable growth opportunity. Whether the executive team could step beyond legacy benchmarks and make room for new thinking would shape not only this initiative but the future of the category and the company’s broader capacity to innovate.

Designing experiences that expand perspectives

Data and arguments weren’t enough to shift mindsets. So we turned to something more visceral: designing experiences to help leaders gently challenge their assumptions and expand their perspectives.

We kicked off a strategic workshop with an immersive exhibition in our IDEO Shanghai studio. The team turned key insights from internal research, market trends, and consumer home visits into tangible exhibits—concrete facts that couldn’t be ignored.

Some of the insights were blunt:

“Our so-called ‘new’ products are mostly cosmetic upgrades—not true innovations.”

Others hit harder:

“The biggest takeaway from this research? Young middle-class consumers are already buying products in this category—but not from us.”

Seeing these insights laid out physically prompted unfiltered reflection. The room fell quiet. One sticky note on a panel read: “Ouch.”

We followed with another activity—this time off-site. We took our clients to visit one of Shanghai’s most popular lifestyle destinations, known for its cutting-edge retail stores. Their task? Choose a gift they believed would resonate with a young middle-class consumer.

Many selections were easy to challenge: “Would this actually appeal to a young person?” Lively debates followed as our clients reflected on what younger consumers truly value.

One executive reflected aloud, “I’ve been in this industry for decades. But the pace of change is way beyond my experience... What should I do next? I really need to spend more time understanding this generation.”

A mindset shift was underway.

Building alignment through shared practice

As perspectives began to shift, we took the next step: building alignment through shared practices.

We designed a series of product innovation workshops. Participating client teams were intentionally diverse—spanning age groups, functions, and seniority levels—to simulate the kind of cross-functional collaboration innovation demands.

Each team was tasked with defining a product concept rooted in real consumer insight, building a quick prototype, and pitching their idea in a simulated live-streaming sales session to test resonance with the target audience.

The goal wasn’t to finalize a product. It was to rehearse the full cycle of consumer-centered innovation—from insight to positioning to storytelling.

To ground this work in real-life contexts, we recreated a series of “consumer life corners” in the space. Each corner depicted a typical lifestyle scenario based on our research, featuring everyday objects that illustrated the consumer’s routines and values.

For example, the “relaxed mom” corner included an air fryer, symbolizing this persona’s preference for convenience without compromising on quality.

Each scenario also included a puzzle. Certain key consumption choices—like what a young professional might eat for lunch during the workweek—were hidden behind covers. Teams need to decode them based on their understanding of consumers' true needs.

The exercise sparked rich dialogue. When a younger business unit leader suggested that busy professionals might opt for frozen konjac dumplings, a senior executive countered, waving a sandwich: “No way. There’s no time to cook those at noon!”

In those moments, hierarchy dissolved. Everyone was focused on a shared goal: What does the consumer actually need?

By the time teams took the stage for their live-stream-style pitches, the change was visible. The same executives who had once asked, “Is the market size big enough?” were now using phrases like “dopamine colors,” “punk wellness,” and “a feast for the eyes.”

The room buzzed with insight and energy.

Through this immersive journey, the executive team not only built a sharper understanding of the younger middle class, but also came to a deeper realization: bringing an innovation to life is far more difficult than it seems. 

As one senior marketing executive said, “I thought I understood young consumers and trends. But actually designing for them? That’s a whole different challenge.”

This shared understanding created space for innovation to flourish. Leadership greenlit and fully resourced the initiative to develop a strategic new product line targeting younger middle-class consumers. The client is also investing in broader product innovations across the company.

The larger win, however, was cultural. As a team, they learned how to protect—and nurture—the fragile spark of what’s next.
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‍“The Making of...” is a series of behind-the-scenes articles written by IDEO Shanghai designers about our innovation methods and work with major clients across industries in China. Read the original Chinese version here.

People often marvel at the impact of innovation once it lands, but reflect less on where it begins: with an idea.

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.