IDEO Futures

Steve Vassallo is a General Partner at Foundation Capital and works at the intersection of business, technology, and design—all things close to our hearts. Steve joins Diego on episode 49 to talk about his new book, The Way to Design. The book is available to download for free at www.thewaytodesign.com and will be available in print this fall on Amazon. Find Steve on the Twitter: www.twitter.com/vassallo And as always, we love hearing from you: www.twitter.com/ideofutures or futures@ideo.com

Joe Gerber is BACK for a full episode of VDTBOM. Diego and Joe get nerdy pretty fast, but hang in there — mind blowing venture design awaits. They catch up on what's happening in the IDEO CoLab (www.ideocolab.com), learn about ICOs and tokens, and chat about a few fascinating startups. As always, we love hearing from you: www.twitter.com/ideofutures or futures@ideo.com. And remember: don't get started, get weird.

If you don't already follow Michael Dearing on Twitter (twitter.com/mcgd), you'll want to after hearing this conversation with Diego (twitter.com/metacool). Michael is the founder of Harrison Metal and joins Diego to talk about venture mechanics, gross margin, the clocks in Greenwich, modern capitalism, organizational life, why Harrison Metal is called Harrison Metal, and why dolphins will inherit the earth. Find out more about Michael + Harrison Metal at www.harrisonmetal.com (make sure you watch the videos!) As always, we love hearing from you: twitter.com/@ideofutures or futures@ideo.com.

As we approach the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 this weekend, three of our favorite (and renowned) automotive design geeks join Diego to discuss the lost art of hand painted racing numbers. Graphic designers, car enthusiasts, and appreciators of of craft will likely agree: these #PrimalNumbers are worth saving. Jump in on the conversation and find out more about #PrimalNumbers on Medium (https://medium.com/primalnumbers) + Twitter (https://twitter.com/hashtag/PrimalNumbers). Find our guests on the Twitter: @JRHildebrand @reillybrennan @deancrew7 And as always, we love hearing from you: @ideofutures or futures@ideo.com Cover image: Marmon Wasp via #PrimalNumbers

Our guest on episode 45 is a truly remarkable individual. Bonny Simi, president of JetBlue Technology Ventures, joins Diego to discuss everything from corporate venture capital and making changes within a large organization, to how she ended up as a 3-time Olympian and why learning shouldn't stop when you graduate from college. Bonny has wings, both literally and figuratively, and we continue to be inspired by her drive and by her ability to connect with people. You can find Bonny on Twitter: @bonnysimi. And you can learn more about JetBlue Technology Ventures on their website: www.jetblueventures.com/ As always, we love hearing from you. Drop us a note on Twitter: @ideofutures. Or via email: futures@ideo.com.

Bob Sutton is a Professor of Management Science and Engineering, and a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University. He's also quite a prolific author, and his books have a prominent place on our bookshelves. Bob and Diego cover everything from scaling to Bob's first time at IDEO, team dynamics to Bob's list of "12 things I believe". For more about Bob (including his "12 things I believe list") visit his website : www.bobsutton.net This episode is brought to you by Creative Difference (ideo.to/cd). As always, we love hearing from you: futures@ideo.com or @ideofutures.

Episode 43 is all about asking questions to learn your way to a better place. Ace IDEO business designers David Aycan and Katherine Londergan join Diego to talk about the importance of questions, whether you're just getting started or figuring out what's next for your business. And, with three business designers in the room, we had to do a little VDTBOM (Venture Design That Blows Our Minds). This episode is brought to you by Creative Difference (ideo.to/cd). As always, we love hearing from you: futures@ideo.com or @ideofutures.

"What will you do Monday that's different?" Zach First, executive director of the Drucker Institute, joins Diego + guest host Susan O'Malley for a packed extended episode. Whether you're new to Peter Drucker or a versed student, this is a conversation that will make you think differently about management, leadership and life. Zach, Susan and Diego answer questions from our extended community about everything from how AI will influence management, to distinguishing between an opportunity and a distraction. There are a few gems toward the end of the conversation—including an original recording from the Drucker archives. We highly recommend listening all the way through! For more information about Zach and the Drucker Institute, visit www.drucker.institute. You can find both on Twitter, as well: @drzfirst + @druckerinst. Subscribe to their digital magazine, Monday, here: http://www.drucker.institute/monday-index/ As always, we love hearing from you: futures@ideo.com or @ideofutures.

Nick Edwards is the founder and CEO of GradientOne, Inc. He also spent five years as a Submarine Officer on Los Angeles Class fast attack submarines. His insights around leadership are sharp and invaluable. He graduated with a BS in Control Systems Engineering from the US Naval Academy and holds an MBA from Harvard Business school, where he and Diego first met. Thank you all for listening and making 2016 such a phenomenal year. As always, we love hearing from you. Drop us a line on Twitter @ideofutures or email us futures@ideo.com. And remember: don't get ready, get started.

Rob Pardo is on a mission to create game experiences that build and deepen friendships. Formerly the Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment—where he led the design of World of Warcraft—Rob and a small team of game designers recently founded Bonfire Studios. Rob stopped by IDEO San Francisco to talk with Diego about everything from serendipity in game design to turning bugs into crucial game elements. Find more on Rob + Bonfire Studios here: http://www.bonfirestudios.com/ Drop us a line. We love hearing from you: @ideofutures on Twitter or futures@ideo.com via email.

Jane Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Embrace Innovations, a social enterprise startup creating technologically innovative products for a global community of mothers and babies. Embrace Innovations recently launched Little Lotus Baby, a new line of baby products using NASA-inspired technology to keep babies at the perfect temperature so they can sleep better. Through a 1:1 model, each product sold helps a baby in a developing country with the Embrace infant warmer. Jane joins Diego and Piper to talk about how the infant warmer came to be, the challenges she's faced, how she has adjusted the business model over time, what surfing has taught her about entrepreneurship and risk, how she stays optimistic, and so much more. To find out more, dive into the links below: Embrace Innovations: http://www.embraceinnovations.com/ Little Lotus Baby: http://littlelotusbaby.com/ Hanging Zen: https://hangingzen.wordpress.com/ Jane's column on Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/janechen/ As always, thanks for listening. You can drop us a line on Twitter (@ideofutures) or via email (futures@ideo.com). And don't forget to subscribe on iTunes: http://ideo.to/aMycSQ

Brittany Ammerman founded the Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League in Kenya while she was a student and star hockey player at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Whether you are a soccer fan or not, her journey and her passion are an inspiration. She truly emulates the "don't get ready, get started" motto. The Nikumbuke fundraising page is now LIVE and up through the end of September. To donate, visit: http://ideo.to/tpuFzY For more on Brittany and the Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League, watch the ESPN profile video with Julie Foudy: http://ideo.to/vSXurK (it's AWESOME). As always, thank you for listening. Follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, or send over an email, futures@ideo.com.

Kevin Kelly talks with Diego and Joe about his juicy new book, "The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future". From AI and VR, to the idea that Kevin's next book probably won't be a book, the conversation is wide-ranging and rich. Find more about Kevin and what he's up to, visit www.kk.org. And, as always, we love hearing from you. Shoot us a note on Twitter, @ideofutures, or via email, futures@ideo.com.

You're in for a treat this week: a full episode of Venture Design that Blows our Minds. VDTBOM XL. We talk Indy car racing, the DAO, simulations, electric cars in Spain, ridesharing in Austin, and much more. Plus, a few surprise guests to spice things up. As always, we love hearing from you: futures@ideo.com or @ideofutures.

Earlier this year, Diego hosted a fascinating conversation with drivers Patrick Dempsey and Patrick Long as part of the Open Garage Talk series at the Revs Program at Stanford. Titled "Mindset of a Champion", the conversation focused on what it takes to perform at your very best, even under the most challenging of circumstances. Many thanks to Reilly Brennan and the Revs Program at Stanford for allowing us to share the audio from their Open Garage Talk on the IDEO Futures podcast. And, of course, thank you to Patrick and Patrick for inspiring us all! Good luck at Le Mans! Cover image: Patrick Beaudouin

Suzanne Gibbs Howard and Coe Leta Stafford join us to talk about the process of bringing IDEO U (ideou.com) to life. Both Suzanne and Coe are design researchers and have incredibly sharp insights about the entrepreneurial journey. To build on the idea of creative confidence and creative leadership, we also have a segment about creativity and inspiration from a recent gathering of the kyu collective (kyu.com). As always, we love hearing from you: futures@ideo.com or @ideofutures.

John Lilly is back on the pod, this time to talk about Blitzscaling (a course he co-taught last fall at Stanford with Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue and Chris Yeh), what's catching his eye these days, productivity tools, our transition from web to mobile, and much, much more. Interested in learning more about CS183: Technology-enabled Blitzscaling? Find class notes on Medium: http://ideo.to/WGdC6U And if you missed John's first appearance on the podcast, you can find it here (episode 16): http://ideo.to/atp5pp As always, we love hearing from you: futures@ideo.com or @ideofutures.

Kanyi Maqubela, partner at Collaborative Fund, joins us in episode 32 to talk about everything from the power of gratitude to intentionally experimenting in venture capital to Pharrell and everything in between. And in honor of Twitter's 10-year anniversary, we'll hear Diego and Joe's very first tweets. Plus a little VDTBOM to round out the episode.

Our guest on episode 31 is Dan Sinker, an internet legend whose creative exploits have inspired us over and over and over. Dan heads up the Knight-Mozilla OpenNews project, was the author of the legendary @MayorEmanuel twitter account, and was the founding editor of the influential underground culture magazine Punk Planet. Dan talks to Joe and Diego about "Someone with tiny hands", how open systems enable experimentation, what it means to be entrepreneurial, and how to (like we always say) get started. In addition to Dan, we have a bonus guest this week! IDEO business designer, Carl Fudge, joins for a little Venture Design That Blows Our Minds (VDTBOM).

Can a smartphone improve your health? Bruce Hellman, founder and CEO of uMotif and Matt Cooper-Wright from IDEO London join Diego and Joe to talk about their experience with the IDEO Startup in Residence program. uMotif is a health-tracking app — a set of digital tools that help people understand their symptoms to better manage their health. More about uMotif on their website: www.umotif.com. And if you'd like to participate in the 100 for Parkinson's study mentioned, you can do so here: http://www.100forparkinsons.com/ This week's VDTBOM features mustaches, money, Kanye and live prototyping. Get in touch! Send us a Tweet: @ideofutures Or an email: futures@ideo.com.

Our conversation with GV's Jake Knapp + John Zeratsky was packed with so much goodness that we bring you an extra special, slightly longer episode this week. Their book, "Sprint" (www.gv.com/sprint), gives teams a process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas. Also on tap: SB50 (we prefer Superbowl L), opinionated products, Land Rovers and Grove Labs. Get in touch! futures@ideo.com or @ideofutures on Twitter.

Kris + Nat Woyzbun from MYTABLO on the value of print magazines, on being Rocky vs. the LA Lakers, on creative process, on staying focused in the chaos of running a startup, and much, much more. And VDTBOM? We talk Hollywood and rumination. Plus, listener mail and thoughts on the recent bitcoin developments.

We have all kinds of guests to kick off the first episode of the new year! Gordon Jones talks with Diego about his new role as the Founding Dean of the College of Innovation and Design at Boise State University. Then, Colin Raney joins us for an epic round of VDTBOM.

What happens when you take your own path and stay true to yourself? Good things happen. Managing director + co-founder of OATV and the creative mind behind Indie.vc, Bryce Roberts joins us for the last episode of 2015. Joe, Diego and Piper also take a quick look back at 2015.

Musician, artist, feminist and Harvard Business School graduate Kiran Gandhi (a.k.a. Madame Gandhi) joins Joe to discuss everything from the future of music to how business design helps us frame difficult cultural conversations to her own creative process. Find out more about Kiran and her latest projects on her website, www.kirangandhi.com. Music on this episode thanks to Kiran, as well: https://soundcloud.com/madamegandhi

IDEO Designers Meija Jacobs and Shoshana Berger join us to talk about women and entrepreneurship. They hosted a lunch at TED Women this year and asked, "How might we create the conditions for confidence along the entrepreneurial journey?" As for VDTBOM? We discuss Stanford CS183c, product market fit, Bryce Roberts' XOXO talk and more. Also, we have listener mail this week! Have a question for us? Send us an email futures@ideo.com or a tweet @ideofutures.

Patrick Adams, managing director at Secret Weapon Marketing, joins Diego to talk about the unique process behind their brilliant campaigns (notably Jack in the Box and the Happy Honda Dealer), the journey from accounting to advertising, Instagram, and more. AND, of course, a good dose of Venture Design That Blew Our Minds.

In episode 22, Joe and Diego tell us about a mind blowing morning at the Interval at Long Now, and then jump into an update from Girls Driving for a Difference. Diego chatted with Rachel and Natalya while they were (literally) on the road in North Carolina. They are in the running for a SXSWedu panel and if you think they are as inspiring and awesome as we do, you can vote for them here: http://ideo.to/y74CUi Want to keep in touch? Visit our website: ideofutur.es, follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, send us a tweet or send us an email at futures@ideo.com.

It was a true honor to have Andreas Antonopoulos speak to our design entrepreneurs as part of our Bits + Blocks Lab, and we took some time with him afterward to go even deeper into the world of Bitcoin and the blockchain. You got a teaser on episode 21 and here on episode 21.5 you'll hear the interview in full. Andreas wrote the book on Bitcoin, and we heartily recommend adding it to your library. It's a keeper. By the way, can we mention how much we love skeuomorphism as a design topic? You can find Andreas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aantonop And find his book, Mastering Bitcoin, here: https://www.bitcoinbook.info/

A lot has happened since we last met during Episode No. 20! The Bits + Blocks Lab at Harvard had its finale at the end of July, IDEO U shipped its second course, and we've been working on a lot of soon-to-be-announced Futures things, too. Plus, during one of our July visits to Boston, the last dregs of 2015 Winter snow officially melted. Closure is a wonderful thing, no? 21! It's such an evocative number. If visions of casinos and gambling are floating through your head right now, keep on going with it. This podcast — as with all 20 of those which came before it — is such a big gamble on so many fronts for both you the listener, and for us, the podders: will we ever find the "Perfect 10" VDTBOM? Will an interview guest finally walk out on us after one too many Bitcoin-related questions? Will Joe ever not wear shorts? Should we publish a book about the Bitcoin Diet? Might our pod sound quality ever approach that of NPR? Actually, on that last front, in celebration of our XXI milestone, with this episode we mark the debut of our super phat new microphone arrangement. Enhanced for your listening pleasure. We think you'll agree that it's a big step forward over our last ten pods, certainly over our first ten. Who knows, maybe Ice Cube will get wind of our sound quality and want to join us for an episode or two? We're game. Speaking of the wearing of short pants, Episode 21 is also a celebration of Bartholomew Jojo Simpson, also know as "Bart". But, you ask, "what's the connection between Bart and Bitcoin?". Listen and ye shall be enlightened. Someone with a much more self-evident tie to Bitcoin is Andreas M. Antonopoulos, who joins us for an interview here in Episode 21. It was a true honor to have Andreas speak to our design entrepreneurs as part of our Bits + Blocks Lab, and we took some time with him afterward to go even deeper into the world of Bitcoin and the blockchain. We'll be posting our full interview with Andreas in a separate podcast, so in this one you'll hear some highlights along with commentary from Bart, we mean, Joe. Andreas wrote the book on Bitcoin, and we heartily recommend adding it to your library. It's a keeper. By the way, can we mention how much we love skeuomorphism as a design topic? But wait, Bitcoin lovers, there's more! At the risk of morphing into the "Today in Bitcoin" podcast (if we haven't already), Pod 21 also features another installation of our "Bits + Blocks Byte" series. Super interesting stuff coming out of Cambridge (Our Fair City), Massachusetts, as always. To round out our score to 21, let's talk Foo Fighters. We're lucky to count among our colleagues Ian Schon. By day he's an ingenious engineer working out of IDEO Boston. By night he's a meticulous designer of inventive horology. His father is Dr. Lew C. Schon, who happens to hang out with the Foo Fighters. Was there ever a better ode to creative confidence than this (https://youtu.be/mmbSka35F7I)? Dr. Schon, you are indeed a total badass.

We have an action packed episode 20 (!!!!) for you this week, chock full of goodness. It’s officially summer, which means the Bits + Blocks Lab is in full swing at the Harvard Innovation Lab. We’ll introduce you to two of our student design entrepreneurs, Eric + Shuya, in a new segment we’re calling the Bits + Blocks Bite. We’ll continue to share stories over the next few months, attempting to bottle up a little of the excitement and energy happening there. If you’d like to read more about the Lab and our exploration into bitcoin + blockchain, visit our Humans + Bits + Blocks publication on Medium (https://medium.com/humanizing-bitcoin-blockchain). Our guest this week is our dear friend, IDEO alum and all-around awesome person, Colin Raney. Colin is currently the global marketing lead at Formlabs, doing groundbreaking work in the 3D printing space. Colin and Diego chat about everything from World of Warcraft to 3D printed instruments to how and why to stay inspired everyday. If you’d like to see the 3D printed film Colin mentions, you can find it here: www.chasemefilm.com. And what about VDTBOM, you ask? We’re living in a digital world and our Venture Design That Blew Our Mind reflects that this week. First up, the massive one article coding issue of Bloomberg Businessweek (http://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/bloomberg-businessweek-releases-code-issue-special-multi-platform-package-demystifying-code/). Joe rolls that into a conversation about this recipe list on IFTTT (https://ifttt.com/recipes/collections/161-recipes-for-your-car?utm_avenue=june). You might also notice that Diego sounds a lot like Piper in this episode. Oh, wait, that IS Piper! But don’t fret. Diego will be back in time for Episode 21. We promise. Want to keep in touch? Follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, send us a tweet or send us an email at futures@ideo.com. You can also sign up for our King Ship newsletter at www.ideofutur.es. As always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Please subscribe here: http://ideo.is/1arKzKT

We have a lot of things on our minds, but as is ever the case, the Dude abides. This week Piper (our Chief-of-Staff + Editorial Director + Marketing Lead) joined us for an edition of Venture Design that Blows Our Mind (VDTBOM) that might change the way you see things. Along the way we talked about robots and that music you can only hear in the woods. All the rest this week is questions and more questions: How about "Uber for Robots"? Why not, indeed? We're sure someone out there is already working on it. Let us know if you are. In the meantime, don't pick a fight with a robot... ask Joe why. What's the significance of the number string 123456789? It's not obvious to you, it will be after a few minutes of listening to us discuss number theory. We're also interested in another number: $123,456,789,101,112. Please call us if you know how to make that one happen. Have you ever bought anything with Bitcoin? We discuss that topic with some lack of depth, as well as where this entire Bitcoin + blockchain thing might be going. I (Diego) am not adept at catching baseballs, so that was a chance to talk about Joe's recent article on sports and block chain. WATCH OUT - DUCK! Want to keep in touch? Follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, send us a tweet or send us an email at futures@ideo.com. We read every one of them. You can also sign up for our King Ship newsletter at www.ideofutur.es. As always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. if you want to forever lower the IQ of your smart phone, please subscribe here. In the parlance of our times, thank you for listening, dudes! #kingship #dontgetreadygetstarted #peace

Hard to believe it's been three weeks since we released Episode 17. Joe and I were on a long patrol North of the Wall, but we're now back safe and sound in the good company of the interwebs, our microphones, and a whole bunch of Venture Design That Blows Our Minds (VDTBOM). In the future we aim to hit a regular stride of podcast releases every two weeks. So, here's Episode 18. We talk through a wide range of topics, from the fermentation process to Charlotte's Web to Star Wars. Maybe a bit too much Star Wars. We're joined this week by Susan O'Malley. Susan is a Business Designer at IDEO, and as you might expect she combines an incisive mind for business systems with an extremely creative and well-read mindset. We hoped having Susan join us on the pod would help us achieve some new heights of VDTBOM awesomeness, so we hope you enjoy our conversation together as much as we did. We hope to have Susan back as a regular on future pods. By the way, if we were measuring the progress of this podcast in a unit of Sopranos Seasons, we would now be about a third of the way through Season Two. One of the things we've learned along the way of creating these 18 podcast episodes is the surprising amount of time editing and production takes—and we're not even shooting for a Roman Mars level of seamless audio quality here at IDEO Futures (though we want it to be great). Roughly speaking, for us every ten minutes of podcast requires about an hour of editing time. We're not bringing this up as a complaint, more to identify a big opportunity for someone to come in and make podcast a whole lot easier. We're not sure what the solution is, but if there's an entrepreneur out there working on a solution, we wish you the best of luck! Want to keep in touch? Follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, send us a tweet or send us an email at futures@ideo.com. We read every one of them. You can also sign up for our King Ship newsletter at www.ideofutur.es. Our next one comes out this week! As always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Please subscribe here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ideo-futures/id938339249?mt=2 Thank you for listening! May the Force be with you! #kingship #dontgetreadygetstarted #peace

We're back from Spring Break, feeling centered, serene, and mellow. Because what you create reflects what you feel, we hope you get a sense of that state of mind while listening to this podcast. As always, we're super grateful for the time you give us as listeners and as part of the greater IDEO Futures community. Our special guest for Episode 17 of the IDEO Futures podcast is Gabe Kleinman of Medium. Also known in the halls of Medium as "The Wolf", Gabe joins Joe for what we think is a really interesting plunge into the future of media and hacking tools for expression and design thinking. Along the way, Gabe and Joe have an in-depth discussion about holacracy. Wikipedia defines holacracy as follows: Holacracy is a social technology or system or organizational governance in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested at the top of a hierarchy. Those of you who are organizational design aficionados will know that both Medium and Zappos have been at the vanguard of the holacracy movement. You can see articles about each of their experiences with holacracy here: http://firstround.com/review/How-Medium-is-building-a-new-kind-of-company-with-no-managers/ and here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3044417/zappos-ceo-tony-hsieh-adopt-holacracy-or-leave. Gabe brings a unique perspective to what it means to live, work, and lead within a holacratic work environment, so we hope that you enjoy listening to his thoughts, insights, and stories about holacracy at Medium. Of course, it isn't the IDEO Futures podcast without a big helping of VDTBOM, Venture Design That Blows Our Minds! Diego returns to his emerging obsession for the overlap of innovative business models and great food with a VDTBOM inspired by MAD and Korean tacos. This one focuses on Roy Choi and Loco'l, and it's awesome. It reminded us of our Taco Truck DDP episode. Joe investigates an entrepreneur who has reinvented the coloring book, but for adults. Many thanks to the folks at MAD for the clip from Roy Choi's MAD presentation. If you're curious about our design themes for 2015, take a listen to Episode 10. And if you'd like to check out the "Humans + Bits + Blocks" series we mentioned, you can find those articles here on Medium: https://medium.com/humanizing-bitcoin-blockchain Want to keep in touch? Follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, send us a tweet or shoot us an email at futures@ideo.com. You can sign up for our newsletter at www.ideofutur.es. As always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Please subscribe here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ideo-futures-king-ship/id938339249?mt=2 Thank you for listening! Kingship! #kingship #dontgetreadygetstarted #peace

In Episode 16 we focus on our IDEO Futures design theme of "Hacking Creativity and Design". Specifically, we took Episode 16 on a mission to explore the future of a broad spectrum of digital media: the media we listen to, the media we write on (blogs and Twitter that is, not so much paper), the media we broadcast with, and even the media we print with. We're very honored to have John Lilly join us as our guest and co-host for the middle portion of Episode 6. The three of us got together to discuss the idea of using social media as a tool for creativity and design. How do we choose to express ourselves in different types of social media? Should we be consistent across everything, or tailor our content to fit? How does Twitter fit into our workflow? Is it an aid to creativity? And how about the recent emergence of broadcasting via Periscope and Meerkat? John is not only a prolific tweeter with a massive Twitter following, but is one of us, a dreamer, a builder, and an operator. He loves to ship stuff. He is a partner at Greylock Partners, where he has invested in a few companies you may have heard of, including Tumblr, Instagram, and Dropbox. Before joining Greylock he was the CEO of Mozilla and a serial entrepreneur. He is also on the faculty of the Stanford d.school, and last year he and Diego taught a class there about hacking refrigerators. We think you'll agree with us when we say that it was educational and fun to have John join us as a co-host. Back in Episode 15 Joe promised us a new "How Might We?" segment on this new-fangled thing called Meerkat, and so went there. Meerkat, Periscope — we find them both fascinating and entrancing, both as users of these apps and as business designers trying to make sense of it all. Check out the last third of the pod for that HMW. Before that we take you on a rip-roaring journey through the land of Venture Design That Blows Our Minds (VDTBOM). Three words: Wu Tang Clan. Say no more! Episode 16 is a bit of a wild and mysterious beast, as wide and free-ranging as the Western slop of the Rocky Mountains. We love the big open spaces of the internet and the beasts that roam across its packet-beflecked tubes... how else to explain the cosmic convergence of John Lilly, Wu Tang Clan, and a revolutionary new 3D printing technology, all in one place? What can we say? It's the IDEO Futures podcast. Please follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, to send us a tweet or shoot us an email at futures@ideo.com. And as always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Thank you for listening! Performance image by Napalm Filled Tires: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wu_Tang_Clan_on_Stage.jpg

This week, we’re excited to talk to Katie Kirsch and Jenna Leonardo, co-founders of Girls Driving for a Difference. Jenna, Katie and their teammates Rachel Chung and Natalya Thakur are embarking on a journey to empower middle-school girls through design thinking workshops across the country this summer. Their passion is clear and we hope you’re as inspired by their mission as we are. We love their perspective on the age-old question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Find out more about Girls Driving for a Difference on their Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1066334211/girls-driving-for-a-difference-a-design-studio-on And follow them on Twitter: @girlsdrivingfor. Diego calls in from the TED conference in Vancouver, BC and gives us an insider view into what actually happens on the ground (hint: it looks just like Richard Scarry’s Busytown). Some of his highlights included: - June Cohen: https://twitter.com/junecohen - Elora Hardy: http://ibuku.com/ - Theaster Gates: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theaster_Gates - But most of all, Moon Hooch! (Watch here: https://youtu.be/wwBhxBBa7tE) You’ll also get a sneak peek of next week’s HMW, as Diego and Joe dip their toes into Meerkat. Not this meerkat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkat). This Meerkat! (http://meerkatapp.co/) And, of course, a fresh dose of VDTBOM (venture design that blew our mind). Like what you've heard? Not so much? Either way, please follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, to send us a tweet or shoot us an email at futures@ideo.com. And as always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Please subscribe here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ideo-futures-king-ship/id938339249?mt=2 Thank you for listening!

On Episode 14 of the IDEO Futures Podcast we are honored to welcome David Kelley as our guest. David is the founder of IDEO and also the visionary behind the creation of the groundbreaking d.school at Stanford, the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. We hope you enjoy our interview with David, in which we talk about his life experiences as a serial entrepreneur. David is quite rightfully renowned for creating IDEO and the d.school, but did you know that he's also created a slew of other successful ventures? Listen to hear his insights on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. And also what it means to pursue a full and happy life. Here's a video of David's TED Talk on Creative Confidence: https://youtu.be/16p9YRF0l-g We also look at the state of our Future Design Themes for 2015, specifically the Future of Trust and Transactions. Joe gives an update on his 10 days of swimming in the world of Bitcoin and blockchain at MIT and Harvard. Our weekly look at Venture Design that Blows our Minds (VDTBOM) focuses on Hoffice, a completely different way to think about "working from home". It's probably the most interesting approach to group synchronicity and work dynamics since Asterix in Switzerland. In terms of Hacking Creativity and Design, Hoffice is a provocation that must be taken seriously. How might we use rituals in the workplace to make us more productive, happy, and healthy? Plus, in all of your 15 minute breaks, you and your co-workers for the day can take advantage of this amazing exercise video, which is a favorite in the Hoffice community: https://youtu.be/LezARmLDu6U Like what you've heard? Not so much? Either way, please follow us on Twitter, @ideofutures, to send us a tweet or shoot us an email at futures@ideo.com. And as always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes. Please subscribe here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ideo-futures-king-ship/id938339249?mt=2 Thank you for listening!

Here's a special edition of the IDEO Futures Podcast, our full-length interview with Chain.com founder Adam Ludwin. A few days after we taped this interview, Adam and Chain.com were mentioned in this article from the New York Times, Data Security is Becoming the Sparkle in Bitcoin (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/business/dealbook/data-security-is-becoming-the-sparkle-in-bitcoin.html?_r=0) It's a great complement to Joe's interview with Adam. Like what you've heard? Hate it? Follow us on Twitter @ideofutures or email us at futures@ideo.com. Enjoy the interview!

Episode 13. Is this our unlucky episode? Are you superstitious? Should we have just skipped to old 1-3 and gone directly to trusty Mr. 14? Certainly not! We're very proud of 13 and what it represents. So proud, in fact, that we're also releasing 13.5, too. The Future of Trust: LED torches strapped to our ever-growing foreheads, we continue to spelunk our way through the cavernous intellectual depths of Bitcoin and the block chain? Where will it all end? Well, partly in Cambridge, MA (our fair city) sometime in late July. The rest, we just don't know. Our esteemed guest interview this week (also known as the Good Part of the Podcast) is Adam Ludwin, founder of a fascinating startup called Chain.com. In this interview Joe and Adam explore the Future of Trust, and talk about ways in which the block chain might revolutionize how we think about not only transactions, but also the internet, markets, and a lot of what we take for granted as the pillars of modern life. In the interest of time, we provided the choicest morsels of their conversation here in episode 13. For the complete meal (prix fixe), please check out episode 13.5, where you can hear Adam and Joe riff about block chain until the cows come home. Truly fascinating stuff. Because this is IDEO Futures, we can't help but dish up two healthy servings of Venture Design That Blew Our Minds (VDTBOM), to wit: - Hyperloop is Real - How Noma took Tokyo Sadly, no Noma food (let alone cricket flour cookies or sour vinegar drinks) were to be had this week, but something along those lines may reappear in episode 14... As always, many thanks to Piper Loyd for producing this week's episode. Like what you've heard? Hate it? Either way, we beseech you: follow us on Twitter @ideofutures or email us at futures@ideo.com. Enjoy!

Pull your ears out and get 'em ready for 35 minutes of mind-blowing discussion of design, innovation, and making it happen. In all seriousness, we think is our best pod yet—definitely in our Top 20. At the center of Episode 12, Joe has a fantastic interview with Rob Poel, who works as the Director of New Business Innovation at Steelcase. He and Joe discuss a variety of topics, ranging from our Futures design theme of "Humanizing Smart Things" to what it's like to leading new business initiatives in an established, highly successful organization. What's it like to be an internal entrepreneur endeavoring to build things out beyond the horizon? Rob lives that, and has a lot of wisdom for anyone trying to make a dent in the universe. Rob, we can't wait to have you back on the King Ship pod! In our weekly installation of Venture Design that Blows Our Minds (VDTBOM), we discuss two excellent venture design articles: - How Twitter Found its Money Mojo - Chipotle: The Definitive Oral History Our Chipotle discussion harkens back to our Taco Truck DDP pod, one of our favorites. Plus, the merits of cricket-flour cookies, a truly excellent listener question about "linked prosperity" and the future of organizations, and a bunch of reasons why you shouldn't drink tasting vinegars while you pod. Many thanks to our producer Piper Loyd and our engineer Aaron Soloway for setting us with our new, professional-grade recording setup. While recording inside of our new Brundlefly chamber gets us all hot and sweaty, we think you'll agree this new setup is miles better acoustically than what we had in our earlier pods. Like moving from an 8 Track to satellite radio! Or from a Schwinn 10-speed to a Porsche GT3. Thanks, Piper and Aaron! King Ship!

Continuing the conversation we began last week, in Episode XI (aka "11") we dive into our Tools for Trust design theme. For this edition of the IDEO Futures podcast, Joe spent some time talking with Dr. Reid Williams about Bitcoin, Blockchain, and the future of trust and transactions. Like many of our IDEO colleagues, Reid is a creative polymath, fluent across the fields of electrical engineering, computer science, interaction design, machine learning, molecular biology, and computational biology. As a Bioscience Designer at IDEO, he brings a unique perspective to what the future of Blockchain may hold, so we hope you enjoy his conversation with Joe — the first of many. Though we're releasing this pod a week after the event, we recorded it in the pleasant afterglow of a Sunday spent watching Super Bowl XLIX. We apologize in advance for our temporary fixation on Roman numerals in Pod No. XI... whoops! There we go again! Our weekly installment of Venture Design that Blows Our Minds! (VDTBOM) is a tasty one. Joe discusses what it means to live in a design-led company, while Diego got a bit animated about Nissan's big Super Bowl commercial and what it represents. Ne paraveris, incipe! King Ship!

In Episode 10, we look ahead to some design themes we'll be exploring at IDEO Futures in 2015. We'd like to invite you to a conversation about four design themes we consider important and inspiring. We believe that these four design themes are, if not the most interesting ones out there, at least great areas to start exploring in order to learn by doing. We hope these will help guide our Startup in Residence program, help us connect to interesting entrepreneurs outside of IDEO, and guide our own human-centered design of new IDEO ventures. They're literally in their infancy, so all debate, feedback, and alternative recommendations are most welcome: Hacking Creativity + Design Thinking: for example, tools like Noam, Mural.ly and Paper by 53. Humanizing Smart Things: how do we make the Internet of Things and ambient intelligence an awesome experience? Like our latest IDEO Startup in Residence Catalia Health. Tools for Trust: Blockchain and new ways for people who don't trust each other to trust each. See our friend Joi Ito's recent essay about Bitcoin and Blockchain. BioDesign: the price of biotechnology is going down significantly. As these technologies become more accessible, how might they enable new, personalized diagnostic offerings, as well as new ways of creating products and experiences? Hampton Creek is a fabulous example of the latter. Please give Episode 10 a listen and let us know what you think! Again, none of these themes are set in stone. Send us a tweet or send us an email at futures@ideo.com. Also, tune in to find out what happened to our friend Madison's desk! Hint: be careful when you go on vacation at IDEO. And as always, the IDEO Futures podcast is available on iTunes, as well. Enjoy! Ne paraveris, incipe!

Where entrepreneurship meets design. Episode 9 is a heaping serving of VDTBOM — Venture Design That Blows our Mind! Enjoy! And Chewbacca.

In this episode of the pod, Joe and Diego return to the theme of Discovery Driven Planning (DDP) and the Taco Truck. For a refresher on DDP, please give a listen to Episode 3. Along the way, there's a veritable six-pack of venture design-related topics: - Travis Pastrana - overshooting your airport - our obsession with Boston - cricket protein - the startup story of Tesla - hair and power, power and power hair - what refried beans can teach you about innovation We hope you enjoy Episode 8!

It's our lucky pod! Number seven is here! This one has a heavy and roll + pop star theme running through it, as well as an Oprah Winfrey reference which will surprise and delight. We guarantee! We crank up this week's venture design fiesta with an update on IDEO U (our new online learning platform) and the launch of its beta. We're learning a lot, and trying to practice what we preach. Spoiler alert! Justin Bieber is following IDEO Futures on Twitter. Joe and I discuss this supernatural occurrence with IDEO's own Piper Loyd. How might you use Twitter to grow and develop your new venture? From a venture design point of view, there's a bunch to learn about how and why it came to be that this great Canadian is now our follower. Joe and I also discuss two things which recently blew our venture design minds, Better All the Time by James Surowiecki, and a new video from OK Go. Along the way we talk about incentives and organizational structures, and how those fit into the innovation equation. From that point of view, it's really interesting to figure out why things like the UNI-CUB pop out of a place like Honda and not out of other similar (at least on paper) corporate entities. ------------------------------------------------------ Music: "Jimmy H. Boogaloo" by Juanitos with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 France License Image: video still from I Won't Let You Down

This week the King Ship pod journeys to Boston for an innovation frenzy! First, Diego was at Harvard Business School for the unveiling of the new IDEO Case. Next stop was the MIT Media Lab, which was holding its annual Fall member meeting. The theme of the meeting was "Deploy", which of course resonates with all of the staff here at King Ship. Our special guest this week was Gordon Jones, Managing Director of the Harvard Innovation Lab. Joe sat down to talk with him about whats happening at the i-Lab and his view of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. If you haven't heard Gordon speak before, this interview is for you. Finally, our inspiration of the week touches on an HBR article that explores how Internet of Things might change business models and peeks into the Future of Transportation, via an awesome newsletter from Reilly Brennan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music: "Jimmy H. Boogaloo" & "Octopussy" by Juanitos with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 France License

This week's pod is one of our best yet, and certainly ranks in our Top 10 ever! Think of this pod as a sandwich: the middle part of it with all the yummy goodies is our interview with Iain Roberts regarding IDEO's global Startup in Residence Program. In this interview, Iain and Diego go over the origins of the program, talk about what we look for in startups wanting to take part in it, and discuss where it's headed. In the course of the interview, Iain talks about Food Genius, the first startup to take part in the program. The first slice of bread? Joe and Diego answer some questions from our loyal band of listeners. And also ponder the rather large US Navy amphibious assault ship parked outside of our IDEO San Francisco studio. The top slice is a look back on a couple of cool venture-design related things which just plain knocked our hats in the creek. King Ship! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music: "Jimmy H. Boogaloo" & "Octopussy" by Juanitos with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 France License

Welcome to Episode 4 of the IDEO Futures podscast! This week Joe and Diego welcome their first guest, Cory Kidd, to talk about the future of Health Tech. First, Diego ponders the return of the Good Wife and reads some viewer mail. Joe and Diego celebrate a compliment by cracking a libation and discuss the notion of entrepreneurs as business designers. Joe interviews his friend, Cory Kidd, a celebrated expert in health tech, robotics and behavior change. The CEO of an exciting new startup, Cory talks about the "embodied cloud" and his new company's approach to supporting behavior change. Finally, Diego and Joe share inspiration of the week including a close examination of the ups and downs of the WTF framework, a great essay by Sina Mossayeb. Then they avoid—barely— the snakes in the cringe quadrant and jump over to Stephen Soderbergh's unique look at Raiders of the Lost Ark and what it teaches us about the art of staging. King Ship!

In Episode 3 we discuss a foundational technique for making innovation happen... DDP! Otherwise known as Discovery Driven Planning, or its more recent incarnation, Discovery Driven Growth, DDP is one of the tools we use to design businesses. We start the pod by describing what DDP is, and why we love it. DDP... it's totally OTT! We continue by diving deeper into the intricacies of the method by walking through a simple example, a taco truck business. You can download the spreadsheet at our King Ship blog and follow along with us: www.ideofutures.com Also, robots. To wrap up, we share this week's Venture Design That Blew Our Minds!. (VDTBOM) Joe shares how an article on the future of iced coffee helped him think about the false choice between quality and scale in a business. Diego talks about what Alex Zanardi taught him about touching the sky and the power of optimism. We hope you enjoy the discussion, as always send us your thoughts on DDP or anything else! King Ship! ----------------------------------------------------------------- music: "Funkula" by Juanitos with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 France License photo: WhisperToMe with a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

In Episode 2, we discuss IDEO's Startup in Residence Program and a startup named Mural.ly, which recently went through the program. Venture Design That Blew Our Mind: we discuss "Six Ways to Design a Business" by Kerry O'Connor, why you might want to consider being wrong 80% of the time, and an explanation of why Joe is so relaxed right now. Last, but certainly not least, an apology for last week's outrageously loud bleep. King Ship! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music: "Ooh La La Boogaloo" & "El Cha Cha Man" by Juanitos with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 France License

Here we go... Episode 1! Let's go jump off the roof together. First, we talk about the recent Intrapreneur Lab, a collaboration between Fidelity Investments, the Harvard i-Lab, and IDEO. Hear about how we put it together, what happened over the summer, and reactions from the students who participated in it. See more about the Intrapreneurship Lab here: http://i-lab.harvard.edu/experiential-learning/intrapreneur-lab In the second part of this podcast, we discuss the philosophy behind the launch of the new (and first) IDEO Futures website. Our motto? Don't get ready, get started. King Ship: because shipping is king! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music: "Ooh La La Boogaloo" & "Exotica" by Juanitos with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 France License