An oldie but goodie from ABC Nightline, this story features the renowned design team at IDEO, the world’s most influential product development firm, as it takes on the challenge of redesigning a standard shopping cart in only five days. If you’re not already familiar with IDEO, they’ve been responsible for designing everything from the first computer mouse for Apple to the 25-foot mechanical whale featured in Free Willie to Nike sunglasses…hundreds of products that we probably take for granted.
The video is a bit lengthy at 8 minutes, but I would never ask you to watch something I didn’t think was valuable. At the core, you’ll see why the IDEO design thinking process works.
David Kelley, IDEO founder and Stanford Professor explains, “The point is that we’re not experts at any given area. We’re experts on the process of how you design stuff. So we don’t care if you give us a toothpaste tube, a tractor, a space shuttle or a chair it’s all the same to us…we want to innovate by using our process applying it.”
In the group, you’ll see an eclectic mix of folks—a Stanford Engineer, a Harvard MBA, a linguist, a marketing expert, a psychologist, and a biology major that’s put off medical school 3 times because, well, he’s having too much fun at IDEO!
Kelley says, “In a very innovative culture you can’t have a hierarchy of “here’s the boss”…and the next person down and the next person down…because it’s impossible that the boss is the one that’s had the insightful experience with shopping carts [or whatever]…it’s just not possible.”
Check out the full video to see how IDEO applies their design process and you’ll see how, even in the face of chaos and failure, creativity and success emerges. The concept really does work!