>> 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.
