"As
founder of IDEO, David Kelley built the company that created many icons
of the digital generation—the first mouse for Apple, the first Treo, the
thumbs up/thumbs down button on your Tivo’s remote control, to name a few.
But what matters even more to him is unlocking the creative potential of
people and organizations so they can innovate routinely.David’s most
enduring contributions to the field of design are a human-centered
methodology and culture of innovation. More recently, he led the creation
of the groundbreaking d.school at Stanford, the Hasso Plattner Institute of
Design." Sub Conference: Human Centered Design
“Deep empathy for people makes our observations powerful sources of
inspiration.” –David Kelley
"Deep empathy for people makes our observations powerful
sources of inspiration. We aim to understand why people do what they
currently do, with the goal of understanding what they might do in the
future."
–David Kelley
"Our first-person experiences help us form personal connections with the
people for whom we’re innovating. We’ve washed other people’s clothes by
hand in their sinks, stayed as guests in housing projects, stood beside
surgeons in operating rooms, and calmed agitated passengers in airport
security lines—all to build empathy." –David Kelley
"An empathic approach fuels our process by ensuring we never forget we’re
designing for real people. And as a result, we uncover insights and
opportunities for truly creative solutions. We’ve collaborated with
thousands of clients to leverage the power of empathy, creating
everything from easy-to-use lifesaving heart defibrillators to debit
cards that help customers save for retirement." –David
Kelley
"to be successful in the world you need to have a wide perspective."
–David Kelley
"The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you're
trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing--building
empathy for the people that you're entrusted to help. Once you
understand what they really value, it's easy because you can mostly give
it to them. You can give them the freedom or direction that they want.
By getting down into the messy part of really getting to know them and
having transparent discussions, you can get out of the way and let them
go. The way I would measure leadership is this: of the people that are
working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that the
company is theirs?" –David Kelley
"thought you might not know it I think empathy is an engineers greatest
strength. And history provides a lot of examples of that." –David
Kelley
"Empathy allows us to walk in each others shoes... Many schools have
been slow to start teaching this point of view. That makes a lot of
peoples education incomplete." –David Kelley
We find that with more empathy, with more of a human-centered approach,
people are able to do that more easily. They are more motivated and
become more effective in their lives. –David Kelley
We believe that more than any technical skill that you can get as an
engineer, empathy for others will allow you to gain that creative
confidence and be able to innovate more routinely and accomplish what
you set out to do." –David Kelley
"Don't just have the ambition to be a great engineer, have the ambition
to be a great human. Wear your empathy as a badge of honor. It will
allow you to do your best work." –David Kelley
"The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the
people you're trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same
thing--building empathy for the people that you're entrusted to help.
Once you understand what they really value, it's easy because you can
mostly give it to them. You can give them the freedom or direction that
they want. By getting down into the messy part of really getting to know
them and having transparent discussions, you can get out of the way and
let them go. The way I would measure leadership is this: of the people
that are working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that
the company is theirs?" –David Kelley
The notion of empathy and human-centeredness is still not widely
practiced in many corporations. Business people rarely navigate their
own websites or watch how people use their products in a real-world
setting. And if you do a word association with “business person,” the
word “empathy” doesn’t come up much." –David
Kelley
What do we mean by empathy in terms of creativity and innovation? For
us, it’s the ability to see an experience through another person’s eyes,
to recognize why people do what they do. It’s when you go into the field
and watch people interact with products and services in real time—what
we sometimes refer to as “design research.” Gaining empathy can take
some time and resourcefulness. But there is nothing like observing
the person you’re creating something for to spark new insights. And when
you specifically set out to empathize with your end user, you get your
own ego out of the way. We’ve found that figuring out what other people
actually need is what leads to the most significant innovations. In
other words, empathy is a gateway to the better and sometimes surprising
insights that can help distinguish your idea or approach." –David
Kelley
Being
human centered is at the core of our innovation process. Deep empathy
for people makes our observations powerful sources of inspiration. We
aim to understand why people do what they currently do, with the goal of
understanding what they might do in the future.
Our first-person experiences help us form personal connections with the
people for whom we’re innovating. We’ve washed other people’s clothes by
hand in their sinks, stayed as guests in housing projects, stood beside
surgeons in operating rooms, and calmed agitated passengers in airport
security lines—all to build empathy.
An empathic approach fuels our process by ensuring we never forget we’re
designing for real people. And as a result, we uncover insights and
opportunities for truly creative solutions. We’ve collaborated with
thousands of clients to leverage the power of empathy, creating
everything from easy-to-use lifesaving heart defibrillators to debit
cards that help customers save for retirement."
"to be successful in the world you need to have a wide
perspective."
"This allowed me to focus on one thing, one thing I'm really passionate about and
that's an important skill for engineers, and that skill is called empathy. To
build great stuff today we really have to collaborate with people, especially
people that we want to use the things that we come up with. But it's a
team sport. I believe that engineering is a team sport now. So having
empathy for your colleagues, as well is important, especially for non techies.
And we do have to learn to create with everyone around us."
"thought you might not know it I think empathy is an engineers
greatest strength. And history provides a lot of examples of that."
"Empathy allows
us to walk in each others shoes... Many schools have been slow to start
teaching this point of view. That makes a lot of peoples education
incomplete."
We find that with more empathy, with more of a human-centered approach,
people are able to do that more easily. They are more motivated and
become more effective in their lives.
We believe that
more than any technical skill that you can get as an engineer, empathy
for others will allow you to gain that creative confidence and be able
to innovate more routinely and accomplish what you set out to do."
"Don't just have
the ambition to be a great engineer, have the ambition to be a great
human. Wear your empathy as a badge of honor. It will allow you to do
your best work."
"The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the
people you're trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same
thing--building empathy for the people that you're entrusted to help.
Once you understand what they really value, it's easy because you can
mostly give it to them. You can give them the freedom or direction that
they want. By getting down into the messy part of really getting to know
them and having transparent discussions, you can get out of the way and
let them go. The way I would measure leadership is this: of the people
that are working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that
the company is theirs?"
"The powerhouse brother team, David Kelley and Tom Kelley, is
coming out with a new book this month.Creative
Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within us All,
is a romp through the wisdom the two have gleaned as founder of the
world-renowned design consultancy IDEO and the Stanford D.School (David)
and author of the best-selling book,The
Art of Innovation(Tom).
Their dedication to the book says a great deal about the brothers’
solid, heartland upbringing and family values: “To Mom and Dad who gave
us the freedom to express creative ideas, and the confidence to act upon
them.” Here we excerpt a chapter from the book that advocates making
empathy the cornerstone of consumer research. --S
The notion of
empathy and human-centeredness is still not widely practiced in many
corporations. Business people rarely navigate their own websites or
watch how people use their products in a real-world setting. And if you
do a word association with “business person,” the word “empathy” doesn’t
come up much.
What do we mean by empathy in terms of creativity and innovation? For
us, it’s the ability to see an experience through another person’s eyes,
to recognize why people do what they do. It’s when you go into the field
and watch people interact with products and services in real time—what
we sometimes refer to as “design research.” Gaining empathy can take
some time and resourcefulness. But there is nothing like observing the
person you’re creating something for to spark new insights. And when you
specifically set out to empathize with your end user, you get your own
ego out of the way. We’ve found that figuring out what other people
actually need is what leads to the most significant innovations. In
other words, empathy is a gateway to the better and sometimes surprising
insights that can help distinguish your idea or approach."
David Kelley: The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the
people you're trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same
thing--building empathy for the people that you're entrusted to help.
Once you understand what they really value, it's easy because you can
mostly give it to them. You can give them the freedom or direction that
they want. By getting down into the messy part of really getting to know
them and having transparent discussions, you can get out of the way and
let them go. The way I would measure leadership is this: of the people
that are working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that
the company is theirs?""
January 6, 2013 - David Kelley of IDEO talks “design
thinking” on 60 Minutes "What makes a great designer? According to IDEO founder David Kelley,
who gave the TED Talks “Human-centered
design” and “How
to build your creative confidence,” being an incredible designer
isn’t necessarily about having a great aesthetic sensibility or coming
up with out-of-the-box ideas. No, Kelley says that the key
characteristic is empathy. “Be empathetic,” Kelley tells Charlie Rose in
an episode of60
Minutesto air this
Sunday. “Try to understand what people really value.”"
New
Designs for Learning: A Conversation with IDEO Founder David Kelley "Design thinking is kind of like my religion, so I am not to be trusted
with describing its importance. But the basic premise of design thinking
revolves around empathy, being understanding of what other people want,
and how the world is put together from a social and emotional point of
view. I personally think that design thinking is as important as math
and science. I couldn't defend that with statistically significant
research right now, but we find that when we go to a school pretty soon
kids are saying stuff like “I got to use my imagination today” and that
feels really good....And our experience so far, though we've only been
doing this for a few years, is that once you get in, people really
resonate with the social, emotional, empathy-based, project-based,
storytelling-based skills that we think are important."
Benjamin McNutt: Empathy leads to creativity
(David Kelley)
I wish I could design stuff like David Kelley. It’s not hard to see why.
He’s the founder of IDEO and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at
Stanford. Smart doesn’t begin to describe this guy. As a designer and
innovator, he’s on par with the likes of a Steve Jobs, with one crucial
difference -- he’s not a raving jerk to his employees. Empathetic is
actually the term he uses in an interview with Fast Company:
“The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you're
trying to design for...
Empathy, Kelley insists, is also the key to cultivating what he calls
“curious employees”:
The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re
trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing, building
empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help. Once you
understand what they really value, it’s easy because you can mostly give
it to them. You can give them the freedom or direction that they want.
By getting down into the messy part of really getting to know them and
having transparent discussions, you can get out of the way and let them
go. The way I would measure leadership is this – of the people that are
working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that the
company is theirs?
Empathy is not always talked about as a leadership quality. Why is it so
important?"
David Kelley Of IDEO Speaks About Brand Leadership
"David Kelley is the founder of IDEO, a design focused company that aims
to aid organisations with innovation and growth. He is also the founder
of Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. David believes that
the key to a successful relationship between employees and employers is
empathy. In an interview with Fast Company, David discusses the
importance of understanding and being a good coach when leading.
How has the design thinking model influenced your approach to leading
people? The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people
you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing,
building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help... Empathy
is not always talked about as a leadership quality. Why is it so
important?'
by Wendy Tayler"
01/09/2013 - THE POWER OF EMPATHY IN DESIGN THINKING AND CREATIVITY
"Empathy also builds an emotional connection, which acts as a stimulant
for passion, and passion provides a big boost of energy to those who are
creative. So how does one teach empathy? I believe schools need to have
an educational “toolkit” at their disposal, which they can dip into when
appropriate, and design thinking should be one of the tools because it
provides an infrastructure for creativity to flourish, in a logical
step-by-step manner. Kelley refers to having “buckets” of strategies
lined up that students can access to help them come up with new ideas.
These strategies usually guarantee success – in other words, something
innovative is created – and people gain creative confidence, as a
result. "
David Kelley on Designing Curious Employees | Fast Company
"Design thinking is a process of empathizing with the end user. Its
principal guru is David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the Stanford design
school, who takes a similar approach to managing people. He believes
leadership is a matter of empathizing with employees. In this interview,
he explains why leaders should seek understanding rather than blind
obedience, why it's better to be a coach and a taskmaster and why you
can't teach leadership with a PowerPoint presentation"
60 Minutes: How
to design breakthrough inventions
"Global firm IDEO incorporates human behavior into product design -- an
innovative approach being taught at Stanford. Charlie Rose profiles the
company's founder, David Kelley."
d.school founder taps into humankind's innate creativity
"And we don’t mean like in a machine shop, we mean by
doing something in the real place, with the real people and it really
works for us because then you start to have real empathy, you start to
have real understanding of the situation–what’s really going on on that
platform when people are waiting for the train and what’s really going
on when they find their way out of the station or how they book their
seat in the first place."
