Abstract

IDEO is a design consultancy firm based in California, US with offices across the globe. Design consultancy firms are usually associated with product design and most of their clients included auto, electronics, and other manufacturing industries. IDEO had developed an innovative business model that could be used to design or redesign products as well as services to provide more value to the end user. It developed a design process where they used techniques like brain storming, body storming, prototyping, and testing to arrive at a solution for the clients’ problems. IDEO actively involved their clients in the design process and willingly taught them how to develop an innovative culture in their organizations unlike other consultancy firms which did not usually reveal their approach towards designing a solution. IDEO had an employee friendly work culture with no hierarchy and used the concept of hot-teams. It encouraged teams to help each other in designing innovative solutions and strongly recommended using techniques like cross pollination.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand how to foster innovation in an organization
• Examine the organization structures that work for creative organizations
• Study the framework for designing innovative solutions
• and Analyze the scope of work for design consultancy firms.

Keywords

IDEO Inc, Design Thinking, Problem Solving, Human-centered Innovation, SparkAwards, Design Consultancy, Open Source Innovation, Organizational Structure, Culture of Innovation, Product Development, Product Design, Method Cards, Brainstorming, Prototyping, Innovation Bias