The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm

But The Art of Innovation really teaches indirectly (not to mention enlightens and entertains) by telling great stories--mainly, of how the best ideas for creating or improving products or processes come not from laboriously organized focus groups, but from keen observations of how regular people work and play on a daily basis. On nearly every page, we learn the backstories of some now-well-established consumer goods, from recent inventions like the Palm Pilot and the in-car beverage holder to things we nearly take for granted--like Ivory soap (created when a P&G worker went to lunch without turning off his soap mixer, and returned to discover his batch overwhipped into 99.44 percent buoyancy) and Kleenex, which transcended its original purpose as a cosmetics remover when people started using the soft paper to wipe and blow their noses. Best of all, Kelley opens wide the doors to IDEO's vibrant, sometimes wacky office environment, and takes us on a vivid tour of how staffers tackle a design challenge: they start not with their ideas of what a new product should offer, but with the existing gaps of need, convenience, and pleasure with which people live on a daily basis, and that IDEO should fill. (Hence, a one-piece children's fishing rod that spares fathers the embarrassment of not knowing how to teach their kids to fish, or Crest toothpaste tubes that don't "gunk up" at the mouth.)

Granted, some of their ideas--like the crucial process of "prototyping," or incorporating dummy drafts of the actual product into the planning, to work out bugs as you go--lend themselves more easily to the making of actual things than to the more common organizational challenge of streamlining services or operations. But, if this big book of bright ideas doesn't get you thinking of how to build a better mousetrap for everything from your whole business process to your personal filing system, you probably deserve to be stuck with the mousetrap you already have. --Timothy Murphy

Product Description
IDEO, the widely admired, award-winning design and development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm V, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services, reveals its secrets for fostering a culture and process of continuous innovation.

There isn't a business in America that doesn't want to be more creative in its thinking, products, and processes. At many companies, being first with a concept and first to market are critical just to survive. In The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley, general manager of the Silicon Valley based design firm IDEO, takes readers behind the scenes of this wildly imaginative and energized company to reveal the strategies and secrets it uses to turn out hit after hit.

IDEO doesn't buy into the myth of the lone genius working away in isolation, waiting for great ideas to strike. Kelley believes everyone can be creative, and the goal at his firm is to tap into that wellspring of creativity in order to make innovation a way of life. How does it do that? IDEO fosters an atmosphere conducive to freely expressing ideas, breaking the rules, and freeing people to design their own work environments. IDEO's focus on teamwork generates countless breakthroughs, fueled by the constant give-and-take among people ready to share ideas and reap the benefits of the group process. IDEO has created an intense, quick-turnaround, brainstorm-and-build process dubbed "the Deep Dive."

In entertaining anecdotes, Kelley illustrates some of his firm's own successes (and joyful failures), as well as pioneering efforts at other leading companies. The book reveals how teams research and immerse themselves in every possible aspect of a new product or service, examining it from the perspective of clients, consumers, and other critical audiences.

Kelley takes the reader through the IDEO problem-solving method:

>Carefully observing the behavior or "anthropology" of the people who will be using a product or service

>Brainstorming with high-energy sessions focused on tangible results

>Quickly prototyping ideas and designs at every step of the way

>Cross-pollinating to find solutions from other fields

>Taking risks, and failing your way to success

>Building a "Greenhouse" for innovation

IDEO has won more awards in the last ten years than any other firm of its kind, and a full half-hour Nightline presentation of its creative process received one of the show's highest ratings. The Art of Innovation will provide business leaders with the insights and tools they need to make their companies the leading-edge, top-rated stars of their industries.

It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole characterizes, in Leading Change, as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." He and Kelley seem to be kindred spirits: Both fully understand how and why truly innovative thinking encounters so much resistance within organizations. Whereas O'Toole suggests all manner of strategies to overcome that resistance, Kelley concentrates on the combination ("blend") of ingredients which, when integrated and then applied with both rigor and passion, may (just may) produce what Jobs once referred to as "insanely great." What both O'Toole and Kelley have in mind is creating and sustaining an innovative culture, one from within which "insanely great" ideas can result in breakthrough products and (yes) services.

"Loosely described", Kelley shares IDEO's five-step methodology: Understand the market, the client, the technology, and the perceived constraints on the given problem; observe real people in real-life situations; literally visualize new-to-the-world concepts AND the customers who will use them; evaluate and refine the prototypes in a series of quick iterations; and finally, implement the new concept for commercialization. With regard to the last "step", as Bennis explains in Organizing Genius, Apple executives immediately recognized the commercial opportunities for PARC's technology. Larry Tesler (who later left PARC for Apple) noted that Jobs and companions "wanted to get it out to the world." But first, obviously, create that "it."

Kelley and his associates at IDEO have won numerous awards for designing all manner of innovative products such as the Apple mouse, the Palm Pilot, a one-piece fishing mechanism for children, the in-vehicle beverage holder, toothpaste tubes that don't "gunk up" in the cap area, "mud-free" water bottles for mountain bikers, a small digital camera for the handspring Visor, and the Sun Tracker Beach Chair.

With all due respect to products such as these, what interested me most was the material in the book which focuses on (a) the physical environment in which those at IDEO interact and (b) the nature and extent of that interaction, principally the brainstorm sessions. In the Foreword, Tom Peters has this in mind when explaining why Kelley's is a marvelous book: "It carefully walks us through each stage of the IDEO innovation process -- from creating hot teams (IDEO is perpetually on `boil') to learning to see through the customer's eyes (forget focus groups!) and brainstorming (trust me, nobody but nobody does it better) to rapid prototyping (and nobody, but nobody does it better...)." Whatever your current situation, whatever the size and nature of your organization, surely you and it need to avoid or escape from "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Granted, you may never be involved in the creation of an "insanely great" product but Kelley can at least help you to gain "the true spirit of innovation" in your life. I join him in wishing you "some serious fun."


On the management of design   January 5, 2002
Mark Wieczorek (Brooklyn, NY United States)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I come to this book as a designer, manager, technologist, and cog in the wheel.

I was very skeptical when I picked up this book. It's hard to summarize innovation or clearly articulate the techniques used to get there (many have tried and failed). By it's very nature, innovation goes against the status quo, and institutionalizing it and codifying it seems an impossible task. To find the balance between beauracracy and chaos is a fine talent.

I was surprised to find that this book delivers. Yes, it's written from a management point of view, and talks about staffing and running meetings, issues involving acquring and laying out office space, etc. However, the insights into these activities are great.

The chapter on "How to run a brainstorming meeting" is a real gem. Perhaps Peter Drucker laid out important rules for focused meetings in The Effective Executive, but here Kelly delivers rules for keeping everyone open, receptive, and creative.

Some of the negative reviews of this book seem to be from a design/creativity point of view. People looking for the formula for creativity (we took widget "a" and put on our creativity caps and out came not only the solution to our problem, but an innovation that revolutionized the world). This book doesn't give you that. It does give you a method for constructing a company, or department, or even a meeting in a way that encourages experimentation, creativity, and excitement.

I would recommend this book (along with the aforementioned Peter Drucker book) to anyone who manages people, or works with people and wants them to be more creative, more open, and more excited about their jobs. I'm slowly creeping these ideas into my corporate environment and fully expect spectacular results.


Innovate your way to greatness!   February 13, 2001
David Siegel (New York, ny United States)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

This book is a milestone -- not in technique or in philosophy -- but in the author's clear, readable style of communication with the reader. Tom Kelley brings the process of contextual design to life, with stories, annecdotes, and great illustrative examples of how sharp minds solve problems. He points out the simple things that make our lives easier, and the bonehead decisions companies make without asking customers how they'll really use their products. It's more than insight -- it's a guide you can use. No matter what business you're in, if you rely on creativity to improve your business, this book is a must-have tool. Few authors are as passionate, knowledgeable, and articulate on their subject matter as Tom Kelley. I look forward to his next book!


Foster an environment that brings a creative, innovation force...   August 9, 2005
Cheap Shopper (Earth)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book is NOT a step by step process on how to give your company an "IDEO Makeover". Not even close.

Instead, this is THE book to learn how to foster an environment that promotes creativity.

Whether you're in the "messy startup mode" or "established 3-piece suit mode", you'll be able to apply what you learn and bring a massive creative force in your business. Innovation will flow fluidly once you demolish barriers that contain creativity.

Tom Kelley's logic is basically this:

1. Bring together insightful, motivated people, regardless of disciplinary background.

2. Put them under deadline pressure, but pamper them in ways that reinforce a sense of community.

3. Challenge them to do innovative, creative work.

4. Then simply stand back as they blow you away with sideways solutions the likes of which the world has never seen.

What I learnt in this book helped our company come out with innovative products that blew the competition away.

I got my copy almost free using a coupon from UnderTag.com


Fascinating   November 3, 2006
Michael Michalko (Churchville, New York USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I'm the author of "Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques" and other books on creative thinking. I pretty much read everything that's published in the field, and I find this book fascinating, entertaining, and eminently useful. Buy it. You'll profit from it.