Ideo Case

STEP 1

On process, organization, culture and management.

Central to the process of IDEO is the concept of prototyping. Frequent prototyping and the use of it a method of communication is important in IDEO. There are skilled machinists in every IDEO office that quickly produced prototypes of all types. However, at the initial stage these were kept at the rudimentary levels so that they were produced quickly.

Supporting this was the idea generation process, where several ideas however paradoxical were generated and shared. This bouquet of ideas was pared down till it was reduced to just one idea. The discarded ideas were not deleted but were stored for future use. Other these two ideas were used in synergy, however, the time and cost of generating a winning idea were very high and sometimes took unpredictable time. The process begins with understanding and observing, and progresses to visualizing and realizing the results. The next is the refining stage where the progress is critically evaluated. The detailed engineering and implementation stage follow and lead to the completion of the project.

The organization of IDEO is flat; there was a lack of hierarchy. Organization refers to the grouping of people in IDEO for a specific goal. There were several project teams and the role of a single designer or engineer could vary from one project team to another. That is one person could be a principal in one team and a contributor in another team. Project leaders emerged from the employee’s own spurts of innovation and enthusiasm rather than from formal appointments.

The culture of IDEO encouraged the generation of ideas and rewarded the employees for their ideas. Besides, the environment in the company was such that it encouraged creativity and rewarded innovation. Culture refers to the beliefs, values and norms, together with symbols and personalities that represent the uniqueness of IDEO. For example, the company held “Tech Box” an opportunity to display...