“IDEO” (Marketing Excellence)

1. Why has IDEO been so successful? What is the most difficult challenge it faces in conducting its research and designing its products?

IDEO has been successful due to a “design thinking” approach centered on “human-centered methodology” and also because helps other companies to be successful. I think they put a lot of efforts in research and market analyzes to get a deep and detailed idea about what consumers really want and need, because they solve a consumer’s problem and as a result offer a superior experience.

They use a broad and various set of research methods like customer observation, customer interviews, prototyping and also let people participate in the design process. They do deep dives into consumer behavior to determine how they purchase, interact with, use, and even dispose of products. To put the customer first is one of the key success factors nowadays to meet their needs and to be successful. They employ methods such as shadowing consumers, taking pictures or videos of them during product purchase or use occasions, conducting in-depth interviews with them to further evaluate their experiences. They also use “behavioral mapping,” which creates a photo log of people within a certain area like an airline departure lounge, a hospital waiting room, or a mall food court over a span of several days to gauge how the experience can be improved. IDEO also utilizes “camera journals” that participants keep, in which they record their visual impressions of a given product or category. They also invite consumers to use “storytelling” techniques to share personal narratives, videos, skits, or even animations about their experiences with a product or service.

The most difficult challenge for IDEO is to design products from the outside in, in order to put customers first, as opposed