The Art of Innovation

Publisher's Summary

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 listeners 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 listener 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.

©2001 Thomas Kelley and Jonathan Littman (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

This is an old book!

Don't let the release date of 2016 fool you into thinking this is a new book. It was written in 2001. Listening to this book makes you feel like you jumped in a time capsule before the age of smart phones. Overall good concepts to apply but technology is way out of date.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Thoughts on Innovation

Great insight into the art of the science of innovation. Building an innovation team and strategies are presented

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Pen and paper/ Bookmark like crazy

JAM PACKED WITH JEMS!!! Personally, the 2nd half of this book was where the power was! Most of my notes came from these insights and teachings!!! I plan to listen again, as you probably will too :)

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good but dated

Needs a refresh but still felt i got something out of it; interesting look into ideo

Motivational

Inspirational. Have a pen and paper because this one is note-jotting worthy. Lots of good insight from the professionals for designers or business, big and small.

Endless bragging...

I just couldn’t listen to the arrogant author any longer!
I’ve read many books on innovation and I love books about specific companies. I was excited to learn more about Ideo... however this guy was so full of himself that listening became unbearable.

I loved this book.

Such great information. Great ideas about how to be a better knowledge worker and idea matter.

Great story but not a ‘process map’ for innovation

Like a lot of other innovation books this one glosses over the critical steps in market analysis, strategy, and product development. Such as, how do you know if you should take a disruptive approach to an over-served market or just do a redesign with marginal feature updates? It does provide some great tips for how to run an incredibly fun, innovative, and high performing design firm and the tips on brainstorming were worth the price of this book alone.

The whole thing reads like an IDEO infomercial.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Any additional comments?

I've attempted to get through this book several times to tick it off the dschool list. its old. its obvious. its overly-energetic without depth.

Great introduction to the subject

Excellent book, great introduction to the subject. I like how human creativity are viewed as the core of a business!