Hello everyone. Today in our interview we will meet Isabella Sa. Isabella is a design researcher and she works for a very well known design consultancy called IDEO, in its San Francisco office. Some of you might have heard about IDEO, for some of you it might be new, but it's probably one of the largest and one of the best-known design consultancies in the world. They started with product design but have since then grown to a multinational consultancy with offices in Tokyo, in London, several offices in the US including San Francisco, Palo Alto, Chicago, Boston, etc. And they do a whole range of work from product innovation to branding to service design to social elevation in a really broad range of fields. It's a company well known for its work in design. Isabella who's been there for several years has an undergraduate degree in business from Brazil. She comes originally from Brazil. And she also has a master of science in design research from Arizona State University in Tempe. Ans so Isabella has a job as a design researcher and what that means is that she is interested in understanding what human centered design means. How do you understand people's daily lives, their culture, their needs, their rituals, their behaviors, their practices, how do you really study that? And how can that information lead us to insight about how people live their lives, how to recognize patterns, and how to find the intersection between human behavior, ideas, and things with which we live with and how to use that, all that information in the design process. So she does a significant amount of research with people who we design for, and that's her job as a design researcher. So she studies with people. And she practices what's often referred to as ethnography, which means understanding people's behaviors and life styles, and learning that information for the design process. So Isabella does lots of work in observing people, and observing people's lives but she is also, often takes a brake from that and spends time with other species, especially horses and dogs, those are her two loves, as well. So, we'll meet Isabella and we'll learn from her about what she thinks about innovation individually, personally but also how innovation happens where she works, which is the San Francisco Office of the design consultancy IDEO, thank you. >> My name is Isabela Sa` and I work at IDEO in San Francisco, and our office is located here directly under the Bay Bridge, pretty much on the pier. >> So, this is San Francisco Pier 28 and this is where we are with Isabella Sa at the IDEO office. So, can you tell us something about your background and about IDEO as a company. >> My background is in marketing and advertising and I went to ASU, studied design research and have been working at IDEO for about eight or nine years now. And transitioned slowly from applying design in the design process to come up with brand strategy and now I'm focusing on education sector. >> So are you working on innovation in education? >> Innovation in education. >> Correct. So I'll just go through a series of questions and we can just talk broadly about innovation. So, the next question is, there are so many definitions for what innovation is. How do you think of innovation, what does innovation mean to you, how do you define it? Just kind of broad understanding of you and maybe IDEO as well, how do you think of innovation? >> I think innovation is one of those words that means so much that doesn't mean anything. But I think of it as the smartest, simplest answer to a question. Is one of those things right or answer to a problem, or a hairy problem? Those that don't have a right answer but they have the best answer. >> So in terms of process, how do we go about getting to that right answer. Is there a kind of a methodology or process that you follow, that IDEO follows, how to we get to that simplest smartest answer? Which is a great definition for what innovation is? >> Yeah, it's funny because it's one of those things, I follows design process and then later on it was given a name. The design thinking process which is basically understanding people and being very human centered. And also, being very action oriented and building to think and prototyping and learning and putting out there in the world again. And refining your ideas. I also think that in addition to that, I think it's because of my background in advertising there is something about the story and the narrative that is not so much featured in a typical design thinking process as we talk about it. But I think it's just as relevant in helping create, helping you get to an answer and find that great answer, that great idea. >> So, you have talked about design thinking, design and innovations, so do you see a relationship between design and innovation? Does one drive the other, are they connected, are they similar? How do you see these two words? >> I see innovation as the best alternative, the best answer, the smartest answer and design is the process that you go about getting there. >> Okay, so one is more like a methodology or a strategy, the way to do things and the other one is the actual outcome at the end of it. >> Yeah, I think design is kind of like the mindset,right? It's their attitude of tinkering, and thinking outside the box, and questioning things, like not taking things for granted. Like why a bridge has to be this way, why it cannot be other shape or form. So that's kind of like the designer attitude and mindset that I think the word design encapsulates. >> So I know there are many projects that you work on on a daily basis and many projects you really can't talk about because you have clients, and innovation has to be controlled and managed and kept secret until it goes out. Are there any projects that you could talk about in general, maybe not things that you worked on, but IDEO might have worked on that just gives the students some examples of the kind of innovation that IDEO does? >> So I work in our education practice. We call it our Studio Design for Learning and we have a variety of product projects, types of projects that we worked on. So one is the more systems thinking. So we have a client in Peru who basically bought a couple private schools and wanted to expand. And his company owns other brands that are all about serving the middle class. So he wanted and Peru is one of the countries with the lowest ratings on PISA. So we helped them think about how can we create a great school that is scalable and affordable. The challenge was essentially looking into three things. Like what is a great school model? What great learning looks like? What great learning that is scalable looks like, that you can bring to different locations, and bring it to, train different teachers on? And then another dimension of the challenge was, what is the space, what does the school looks like that houses, that creates this great learning environment. So there was an environment design component of it. And we also created a business model. So how can we go, what is the monthly thing that we can charge parents and how can their supports make it a sustainable business basically. >> So we can continue, very often when people think of innovation they think of a brand new product or some device or some technology, but you're talking about innovation in a much broader sense, right? >> Yes. >> Can you talk about it when you talk about systems? You started with that word, system? >> Uh-huh. >> Can you talk about that a bit more so the students get a broader sense for what innovation is and can do. So it's not just about the thing. >> Yeah. >> It's a lot more. >> Yeah. So yes, that also helps explain the range of work that we do. So we do work that is about, how can we build a tool that we can put it in the classroom that helps teachers quickly assess where the students are at. So that will be a more focused kind of challenge that we use the design process to answer. And another one is bigger problems, like what great education looks like? We have a country that teachers are not well trained, and you don't necessarily have access to technology. So how do we look at these, peel all these different layers, right? Education, culture, the system of how funding works in the space and then really like digging through that, and like looking at these very complex systems and trying to find a good solution. >> So then innovation could happen at multiple levels from the product, new products to new services, to new business models? >> Yes, so I think maybe it helps explain IDEO San Fransisco at least. So we have our education practice. This is one studio, so we do the range of work in education, from creating different education technology all the way to school models. How do we teach? What is the best way to teach, for example for this group. We also have food design. Thats another studio at IDEO. And it's not just about the packaging or the brand, but also there was one challenge that was about, the client came to us and said, we have this facility. What can we create with this ,oh, and by the way I want to launch it before the Super Bowl? So we had to be very thoughtful on how we could create a snack, that is leverage the tools that they have because we couldn't, if we want to twist the snack this way, it's not possible because you have to add a machine to the manufacturing plan. And there's is no room for that machine in the manufacturing plan because we've seen it. So how do we work out these constraints? And then also, what is the next thing in soy, like how can we use soy in completely different ways to create food itself, so that would be the food studio. And then we have what we call design for change and those are usually the more organizational types of design. And that's when we basically help clients innovate. So it's all about how do we create different roles inside the company. What are these roles? How do they work together? What are new responsibilities that we need to create? What is the culture that we need to create that people inside will embrace so they act a certain way? So, I think that gives you a variety of flavors of things that we work on. >> That's a very broad range of the projects that you guys work on. >> Yeah. >> So, in order for companies or people to be innovative, what kind of process would one follow, either individually or as an organization and what do you follow at IDEO? >> So at IDEO, we follow design thinking, which is essentially a human centered process for understanding users and thinking about how can we solve their problems and solve their needs. And it involves human centered research but also prototyping and testing different, like building different ideas and putting them in the world and testing them and refining over and over. So that that's the design thinking process essentially. A lot more about it can be found online. My process, I think it is very much design thinking but I think over time I developed, I feel like for me it involves a few things. One is definitely the research, the being in touch with who you are designing for, but also making sense of that information and which I call the design strategy, is figuring out, based on what I know, based on my constraints, what can I build to address the problem that I'm trying to solve. It also involves what I call brain strategy which is essentially often times I find that the narrative, how do we talk about this? What is this meant for when you're trying to get to a more, when your ideas are getting more complete, having a narrative for it also helps. And then I think also what helps is having an approach, a creative leadership approach and thinking about your team. What is each individual great at? What is, how do you create harmony in that space? How do you get the best out of them and create a safe space where everyone feels, have the right motivation to keep pushing but also feel that they have the permission to fall essentially and that we're all, it's all about solving the problem and there's nothing personal, so you can just fall and dust it off and try again. >> What can an individual do to be as innovative as she or he can, and what do you think companies and organizations should do to be as innovative as they can? >> I think for individuals, I think the first step is the mindset. Being curious, being inquisitive, like why do things have to be this way? But then also you can get, you can go deeper into it. There's a lot if you just research, there's a lot of there in terms of processing, structuring tools that you can use to apply to your day to day job. And for organizations, it's a tricky one because when you talk about organizations, like who is the agent here, who is it? So, I like to think more as the leaders, what the leaders can do and I think that is all about culture and it's creating a creative culture. It's having a purpose. What do we want to do as a company? And is my people on board? And also the space. I think there's a lot you can do in the space that gives you that energy and the openness that you need to be innovative. >> Okay, great. Well, that wraps up all the questions that I had Isabella, thank you so much for your time, and I appreciate your thoughts, your ideas, your efforts and this'll be really helpful for the students. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Yeah.
