IDEO inspires me. It gets me excited about the future, what we can accomplish, and how I can do it. I watched a video about their design process called the Deep Dive when I was in 6th grade. That video formed the way I thought about ideas and how to incubate them. I have reflected on that video on just about every major design project I have worked on. I have shown it to every design team I have lead. I have seen the deep dive process be successful.

What is IDEO? Who are they? What do they do?
IDEO brands itself as a design and innovation consulting firm. It is viewed as very innovative and claims that its success is due to their approach to design thinking. It “founder” is David Kelley, although the current CEO and leader is Tim Brown. The team in the deep dive video lacks established roles but is largely free form. They largely reject the traditional corporate structure and seek to form a more open and effective structure. David and another employ do end up acting as ringleaders to lead the project along.  

The Deep Dive is an in-depth and lengthy brainstorming process to arrive at a solution.

1.       Understand and observe – research, learn, interview, get the expected users

2.       Synthesize

3.       Visualize

4.       Prototype, evaluate, refine

5.       Implement

They have their credo written around their ideation space:

·         never strike down another’s idea

·         one conversation at a time

·         stay focused on the topic

·         encourage wild ideas and different ways of thinking

·         differ judgment

·         build on the ideas of others

This process is great for working in groups. I can do this in any group project I find myself in for generating solutions. Their mantra will work for finding creative solutions and not downing group members for ridiculous ideas. It will work for designing products in industrial design. Even without other group members this process is effective for individual use.