IDEO Futures

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.