Creative Confidence Podcast - podcast cover

Creative Confidence Podcast

IDEO Uwww.ideou.com
IDEO’s Creative Confidence Podcast shares candid conversations with creative leaders, changemakers, and innovators navigating today’s most pressing challenges. Through real-world stories and insights, we explore how to lead with creativity, build resilient teams, and drive innovation. Grounded in IDEO’s 40 years of expertise in design thinking and innovation, each episode offers inspiration and practical tools for audacious leaders at every stage of their careers. Hosted by Mina Seetharaman, Head of New Ventures at IDEO, the podcast brings a human-centered lens to the complexities of making more courageous futures. Discover more at IDEOU.com.
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Episodes

Nudge Towards Better Behaviors: Laszlo Bock

Regardless of role, work can suck sometimes. Laszlo Bock, CEO and Co-Founder of Humu, a company that aims to make work better by encouraging people towards better habits and unlocking their potential, is focused on changing that. He’s dedicated the last decade of his career to bridging the gap between what we wish work was and what it actually is. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, he shares insights and tips on how we can make work better by sending small behavioral nudges to c...

Jun 05, 202043 min

Mom-Led Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Kate Torgersen

Starting a business from scratch is already an admirable undertaking. Now, try starting a business while breastfeeding 7-month-old twins, raising a toddler, and traveling for a full-time job. That’s exactly what Kate Torgersen did when she founded Milk Stork, the first breast milk travel solution for working moms. Now six years old, Milk Stork has helped thousands of working moms get their "liquid gold"​ home safely from business trips and is offered as an employee benefit by many large companie...

May 08, 202037 min

Mindsets of Resilient Entrepreneurs: Alexandre Lazarow

What can we learn in this moment from global entrepreneurs who are embracing constraints to build resilient, impactful businesses? Alexandre Lazarow, author of the new book Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs—from Delhi to Detroit—Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley, joined us to discuss the ways entrepreneurs around the world are shifting their mindsets around business innovation and what you can take away from their approach. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

May 05, 202042 min

Design Thinking AMA with Suz & Coe

What is design thinking? Why does it work? How do I get started with it? Our community had so many great questions on the power and potential of design thinking that we hosted an Ask Me Anything session on the topic with IDEO partners and IDEO U leaders Suzanne Gibbs Howard and Coe Leta Stafford. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Apr 14, 202042 min

Our New Remote Reality: Sacha Connor

In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, Sacha shares 10 pitfalls to look out for when working remotely and strategies for success. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Apr 03, 202045 min

Build Confidence in Your Strategy: Jennifer Riel

Testing might sound like a very analytical activity, but it’s actually one of the most creative things you can do when developing a strategy for your business or organization. In this conversation, Jennifer Riel, IDEO’s Global Director of Strategy, breaks down ways to test your assumptions, build confidence, and weed out poor choices before rolling out a new strategy. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Feb 27, 202045 min

Impactful Presentations Online Course: Launches February 27th

In our new 5-week online course, Impactful Presentations, you’ll learn how to: –Deliver presentations that spark a shift in perspectives. –Create a meaningful journey for your audience. –Practice with different presentation methods. Learn more here: https://ideo.in/2SXQRcO

Feb 24, 20203 min

How to Be a Better Presenter: Dav Rauch

IDEO’s Dav Rauch explains why it’s important to connect with your audience as a presenter and how to get them in the right mindset to be open to new ideas. He shares techniques you can use to be a better presenter and help people retain the information you share. View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

Feb 18, 202045 min

Designing Your Work Life: Bill Burnett

In the #1 New York Times bestselling book Designing Your Life, Bill Burnett and his co-author Dave Evans showed us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling. With their second book, Designing Your Work Life, they zero in on finding happiness at work. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, Bill gives advice on how to assess the potential of your current career and shares ways to redesign and re-engage with your job. View the full recap at id...

Jan 30, 202045 min

Generating Better Ideas: Brendan Boyle

Brendan Boyle, IDEO partner and founder of the IDEO Play Lab, joined us on the Creative Confidence Podcast to share how to bring more playfulness into your work. Get into a creative mindset and generate an abundance of new ideas with his favorite creative warm ups and group activities. See more on the IDEO U blog.

Jan 14, 202046 min

Effective Storytelling at Work: Zena Barakat & Brian Janosch

Resident IDEO storytellers Zena Barakat and Brian Janosch talk about the importance of stories in the world of business and innovation. Learn how to get started weaving stories into your work today with real life examples and tips for using stories in common business scenarios. Learn how to create a story brief, explore different mediums, and create multiple versions of your story to gather feedback from others in our 5-week online course Storytelling for Influence: https://ideo.to/Yjfodp

Jan 10, 202043 min

Bringing out Creativity in Others: Rochael Adranly

Rochael Adranly, IDEO partner and general counsel, has spent her career finding the balance between the rules-based world of law and the ambiguous, non-rules-based world of design. In this Creative Confidence Podcast episode, she shares how to bring out the natural creativity in others and encourage colleagues to be your partners in innovation—instead of your roadblocks.

Dec 17, 201941 min

Identifying Business Potential: Kanyi Maqubela

As a venture capital investor at Collaborative Fund and Kindred Ventures, Kanyi Maqubela has invested in dozens of companies—including Lyft, Kickstarter, Beyond Meat, and Blue Bottle Coffee—and evaluated hundreds more. He seeks out founders and businesses that are not only addressing a market need, but have the potential to reinvent our future. In this episode of our Creative Confidence Podcast, he shares the elements he looks for to signal a strong business idea, an impactful leader, and a coll...

Dec 02, 201946 min

People and Culture at Scale: Margo Downs

People and culture leader Margo Downs joined us for an episode of the Creative Confidence Series to share lessons learned from her years as a leader in people operations at Stitch Fix, Starbucks, and lululemon athletica—companies well known for their distinctive cultures. We dove into the building blocks of culture, her framework for operationalizing culture at scale, and how to impact culture regardless of your seniority or title.

Nov 18, 201936 min

Adopting a Musical Mindset: Michael Hendrix

An IDEO partner and global director of design, he’s also a lifelong musician and associate professor at the Berklee College of Music. He’s spent many years studying the shared mindsets of musicians and designers and is in the midst of writing a book on the subject to come out next year. He joined us on the Creative Confidence Series to share more about what the business world can learn from the musical one. To learn tactics for experimentation and generating new ideas, check out IDEO U's 5-week ...

Nov 08, 201943 min

Scaling a Business with Heart: Sheryl O'Loughlin

Suz chats with Sheryl O’Loughlin who says there’s a dark side to entrepreneurship, but it’s possible to run a startup in a healthy, joyful way. In this conversation, we dive into Sheryl’s vast experience as a CEO, founder, mentor, and advisor to pull out key lessons she’s learned at critical moments in her career. Walk away with tips for launching and growing a successful business while maintaining a fulfilled life.

Oct 22, 201944 min

What Leaders Need to Thrive in Uncertainty: Tim Brown

Tim Brown, IDEO Chair and former CEO of IDEO for 19 years, shares his perspective on the qualities necessary for creative leaders in today’s unpredictable business and economic conditions. He discusses what we can do to find the opportunity in ambiguity and design and build better systems to meet the needs of the future.

Oct 10, 201946 min

How to Create Winning Strategies: Roger Martin

Roger Martin is a bit of a legend in the strategy world. His book Playing to Win, written with former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley, is a favorite in business schools. And decades of work consulting with some of the world’s most recognizable companies have cemented his place as one of today’s leading business thinkers. In this conversation, get an inside look at Roger’s approach to business strategy and hear about our newest course, Designing Strategy: https://ideo.to/u3xSQA

Sep 19, 201946 min

Tackle Your Journey Map Roadblocks: Melanie Bell-Mayeda

How do you evolve a customer journey map from a tool that inspires and explains to one that creates action? In this episode of our Creative Confidence Series, hear tips for this and other service design challenges, and learn how IDEO Partner and Managing Director Melanie Bell-Mayeda and her team are evolving the practice of service design with stories from the latest work at IDEO. She expands on the lessons she teaches in our Human-Centered Service Design course with tips for moving from a high-...

Sep 06, 201946 min

Crafting Culture by Turning Insights into Actions: Didier Elzinga

Didier Elizinga, CEO and Founder of culture analytics platform Culture Amp, joined us on the Creative Confidence Series to talk about applying design thinking mindsets to culture and people operations, turning culture insights into actions, and making change happen from wherever you sit. Learn more about inspiring change in an organization, community, or network through movements, not mandates in our online course Designing for Change: https://ideo.to/OiXZ1q

Aug 14, 201948 min

Change Journeys: What Change Are You Working On?

What do you want to change? IDEO Partner Bryan Walker introduces "change journeys" and takes us through an exercise to understand what type of journey you are on. Bryan shares change examples from Ford, Marriott, the Gates Foundation and more to help illustrate how to go about change.

Aug 01, 201943 min

Bridging the Gap Between the Future and Business Reality: Joe Gerber

In this episode of our Creative Confidence Series, Joe Gerber, Managing Director of IDEO’s CoLab, talks about how to connect the dots between a vision of the future and a business that can make that vision a reality. Joe shares how the team at CoLab are using design fiction and cross-organizational stakeholder collaboration to uncover meaningful innovation and launch new ventures in the world of emerging technology, the Circular Economy, and more. Whether you work in the field of innovation, you...

Jul 03, 201946 min

Building a Mission-driven Business: Gina Bianchini

In this episode of our Creative Confidence Series, IDEO U Dean Suzanne Gibbs Howard speaks with Mighty Networks CEO and Founder Gina Bianchini about how to launch and lead a business when the future of that business is yet to be defined. Gina shares the story of how she spotted the market opportunity for Mighty Networks, built the business through experimentation and co-creation with the community, and continues to lead her team to push the boundaries of innovation. Want to learn more about matc...

Jun 20, 201941 min

Jake Knapp Takeover #5: Reflect and move on

In this podcast takeover series, Jake Knapp, designer and author of Make Time and the New York Times bestseller Sprint, shares quick tips to help you optimize your energy, focus, and time. Part 5 has advice for reflecting on and learning from your efforts. Check out our page to listen to the full interview with Jake and hear more about how he started his journey toward productivity and mindfulness and lessons from his experience designing products at Google. Download the free Make Time poster we...

Jun 14, 20196 min

Office Hours: Leadership Lessons with David Kelley

In this Office Hours episode of our Creative Confidence Series, David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.school, chats with IDEO U Dean Suzanne Gibbs Howard and answers questions from our community on design thinking, creativity, and leadership. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to this episode on our podcast, and check out their full conversation to hear more of David’s thoughts on the core abilities of the most successful design thinking practitioners. Learn ...

Jun 06, 201932 min

Jake Knapp Takeover #4: Go distraction-free

In this podcast takeover series, Jake Knapp, designer and author of Make Time and the New York Times bestseller Sprint, shares quick tips to help you optimize your energy, focus, and time. Part 4 gives you ways to remove distractions from your phone. Check out our page to listen to the full interview with Jake and hear more about how he started his journey toward productivity and mindfulness and lessons from his experience designing products at Google. Download the free Make Time poster we creat...

May 21, 20198 min

Jake Knapp Takeover #3: Invent a deadline

In this podcast takeover series, Jake Knapp, designer and author of Make Time and the New York Times bestseller Sprint, shares quick tips to help you optimize your energy, focus, and time. Part 3 gives you tips for creating effective deadlines. Check out our page to listen to the full interview with Jake and hear more about how he started his journey toward productivity and mindfulness and lessons from his experience designing products at Google. Download the free Make Time poster we created wit...

May 13, 20194 min

Guiding Your Team Through Creative Collaboration: Mike Peng

In this episode of our Creative Confidence Series, IDEO Partner and Managing Director Mike Peng chats with IDEO U Dean Suzanne Gibbs Howard about creative collaboration—the method IDEO teams use to come up with innovative new ideas. Mike gives insight into our new course, Cultivating Creative Collaboration, that teaches you how to guide others through the creative collaboration process. He also shares tips for overcoming common challenges, why this way of working is necessary in today’s world, a...

May 08, 201934 min

Jake Knapp Takeover #2: Block your calendar

In this podcast takeover series, Jake Knapp, designer and author of Make Time and the New York Times bestseller Sprint, shares quick tips to help you optimize your energy, focus, and time. Part 2 covers tips for using your calendar to your advantage. Check out our page to listen to the full interview with Jake and hear more about how he started his journey toward productivity and mindfulness and lessons from his experience designing products at Google. Download the free Make Time poster we creat...

May 07, 20195 min

Why Everyone Should Prototype (Not Just Designers): Chris Nyffeler

In this episode of our Creative Confidence Series, IDEO Executive Design Director Chris Nyffeler chats with IDEO U Managing Director Coe Leta Stafford about the value of prototyping, how to create low-fidelity prototypes for digital products and services, and the role of technology in design. Chris is also the instructor in our online class, Prototyping for Digital Experiences: https://ideo.to/WMHQFx

May 04, 201945 min
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