Courtesy IDEO
The smell of ramen noodles wafts over the Stanford d.school classroom as David Kelley settles into an oversize red leather armchair for a fireside chat with new students. It's 80 degrees and sunny outside in Palo Alto, and as the flames flicker merrily on the big computer screen behind him, Kelley, founder of both the d.school and the global design consultancy Ideo, introduces his grad students to what "design thinking" -- the methodology he made famous and the motivating idea behind the school -- is all about.
Today's task: Design a better ramen experience.
Some students seem a little mystified, as they twirl noodles around their chop sticks. What does a "ramen experience" have to do with design? Better packaging? Curlier noodles? Adding a cute little forky thing to the cheap staple of dorm rooms everywhere?
Kelley, a lanky guy with a bald head, a Groucho Marx mustache, and a heartland-bred affability, tackles the mystery head on: "I was sitting at a big dinner in Pacific Heights recently, and I told my hostess I was a designer. 'Oh,' she said. 'So what do you think of my curtains?' " That, Kelley says, is not where we're going.
"You're sitting here today because we moved from thinking of ourselves as designers to thinking of ourselves as design thinkers," he continues. "What we, as design thinkers, have, is this creative confidence that, when given a difficult problem, we have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before."
"We moved from thinking of ourselves as designers to thinking of ourselves as design thinkers. We have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before." -- David Kelley
It is a radical notion, in its way: the idea that creativity can be summoned at will, with a process not unlike the scientific method. That contradicts what most people -- including the 50 students sitting mesmerized before him -- have always thought. "That to be creative, an angel of the Lord appears and tells you what to do," Kelley says, laughing.
Ideo -- which now counts more than 500 employees in eight offices on three continents -- has drawn on Kelley's methodology to do everything from stimulate customer savings at Bank of America to revamp nursing shifts at Kaiser Permanente. Over the past 30 years, the firm has tackled the challenge of delivering a needle-free vaccine for Intercell, building a better Pringle for Procter & Gamble, revitalizing the bicycling experience for Shimano, and rethinking airport-security checkpoints for the TSA. It has racked up more than 1,000 patents since 1978 and won 346 design awards since 1991, more than any other firm. The design-thinking process underpins the company's near $100 million in annual revenue, drawn from a client roster that has included Anheuser-Busch, Gap, HBO, Kodak, Marriott, Pepsi, and PNC, among hundreds of others. Ideo has, in short, become the go-to firm for both American and foreign companies looking to cure their innovation anemia.
Until about a year ago, Kelley, the man at the epicenter of this expanding universe, was on a roll. He had received a National Design Award, been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, held an endowed chair at the Stanford School of Engineering, and even won the Sir Misha Black Medal for his "distinguished contribution to design education." Cara McCarty, curatorial director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, summed up his influence: "Kelley has pushed our definition of design more than anybody in this country."
He also had a loving wife, a daughter to whom he was devoted, and a vast circle of friends that included Apple's Steve Jobs and actor Robin Williams.
Then, one morning, he noticed a lump on his neck.
Kelley was helping a fourth-grade class at his daughter's school use design thinking to create better backpacks when his cell phone rang and his doctor's number came up. He stepped out to take the call. "You have cancer," the doctor said. "Just like that," Kelley recalls. He went back into the class to finish the lesson but, he says, "I was a mess."
It was stage-four squamous cell carcinoma, which had gone misdiagnosed -- as "inflamed fish gills" -- for a year and a half. During that time, it had migrated to his lymph nodes. "I could tell by looking in people's eyes that this was a big deal," he says.
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Recent Comments | 29 Total
January 29, 2009 at 11:52am by Ray Wilson
Great story on many levels. If you like'd it, check out Martin's book, "Opposable Minds". A good read on the theme of attending to the whole picture before jumping in to solve the single frame problem.
February 12, 2009 at 6:17pm by Mike Wagner
a very helpful picture of Mr. Kelly and how his public work and private life came together.
I found especially profound his the movement from his self-centered motivation for battling the cancer to his other-centered motivation re: his daughter.
the empathy of design thinking generates a lot of power.
keep creating...articles well worth the read,
Mike
June 23, 2009 at 7:08am by florian smith
Yes thats true they much have a great challenge. My friend who is designer and have to compete in different industries like engineering logos, education logo and consulting logo design. Now designers have a great opportunity here, but will need to rethink how they communicate - not just to end users, but to programmers.
June 23, 2009 at 7:14am by florian smith
very nice and useful article, I hope you will keep writing the articles like this.
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July 26, 2009 at 7:33pm by Think Gleason
Such an inspiring snapshot of success. I appreciate how methodology is the goal for David Kelley as Design Thinkers and with that comes the ability to intersect the best of multiple disciplines, the need to go deep as well as broad. It requires human understanding and structural and cultural change to get the right results. It is humble and aggressive. And, the best is he is willing to share because he has no fear that anyone elses success will limit his.
--
ThinkGleason.com
August 14, 2009 at 2:58am by Jibran Ayub
I found especially profound his the movement from his self-centered motivation for battling the cancer to his other-centered motivation re: his daughter.
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September 7, 2009 at 2:38pm by Ben Gibson
That's truly inspiring... in everyday life it's just so easy to forget about your dreams & goals and get entangled in day to day stuff...
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September 23, 2009 at 7:24pm by John Smith
Very inspiring. Too bad more people can't take the time to look a bit more deeply into things. Discount Diamond Engagement Wedding Rings
September 26, 2009 at 6:42am by Rent N'Go
David Kelley's EE degree from CMU landed him in the engineering departments of NCR and Boeing, where he eventually discovered that the rigid world of corporate design was not for him. Through a friend, he learned about Stanford's Joint Program in Design, and happily returned to school. inchirieri auto masini de inchiriat bijuterii inchirieri auto rent a car
September 28, 2009 at 12:16am by Gary Brodley
David Kelly has a good view into the needs of the user.
His firm, IDEO, has been able to push the role of product design deeper into companies. Getting companies to use the design process in more & more places. It helps every design person everywhere when IDEO promotes the value of the design process. For example a great design for bunion braces or a competition designed to foster innovation in diabetes design and encourage creative new tools that will improve life of diabetics.
September 29, 2009 at 2:26pm by joe johnson
this is so good how he got this far. He will definitely make you think alot which is a good thing. IDEO is such a great firm with great product design. He is a great inspiration.
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October 18, 2009 at 12:51am by monica fallia
I like the tone of this article. I'm also optimistic!
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