IDEO U is an online school that equips you with skills, mindsets, and tools to help you stay relevant and adaptive in our modern world.

We're part of IDEO, an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to help organizations innovate and grow. IDEO U was created to teach the methods we have practiced for decades and to help individuals, teams, and organizations across the globe become more resilient, creative, and innovative.

IDEO U builds on a long history of teaching at IDEO. IDEO Founder, David Kelley, is also the founder of the d.school at Stanford, where many IDEO practitioners bring their experience from the field into the classroom. At IDEO U, you’ll learn from these experienced practitioners and educators who apply these methods every day in their own work, and who have a passion for teaching at IDEO U as well as at universities including Stanford, Oxford, Northwestern, University of California at Berkeley, and TsingHua University.

IDEO U instructors are subject matter experts who’ve led thousands of projects across industries and around the globe in areas including business, technology, education, and design. They tap into their diverse experiences and their insights from applying these methods and mindsets in real-world projects to teach these concepts.

The IDEO U teaching team leverages applied industry knowledge and deep topic expertise to help learners practice and apply what they learn during our cohort courses. The teaching team includes a diverse group of practitioners from all over the world.

IDEO U Leadership

Coe Leta teaches global audiences the skills of design thinking, human-centered research, rapid prototyping, and storytelling. Since joining IDEO in 2006, she's led numerous creative teams across diverse organizations including Microsoft, Target, Intel, Wells Fargo, Ford, eBay, Hasbro, Sesame Street, and Government and Healthcare groups. Known for expertise in digital design, play, and data, her work has won international awards, patents for clients, and been featured in the New York Times and Wired. Coe Leta has a Ph.D. in Education from UC Berkeley and guest lectures at Stanford University's d.School.

 

Suzanne founded IDEO U and has led work in organizational design, corporate innovation, and design for education. At IDEO, she pioneered many of the techniques now at the forefront of design and user experience research. Suzanne has a bachelor’s degree in Archaeology and African Studies from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.

 

About IDEO

IDEO has practiced design thinking for over 40 years. Every day, hundreds of designers, builders, entrepreneurs, engineers, data and behavioral scientists, teachers, researchers, and other specialists come together at IDEO to use the methods and tools of design to solve challenges alongside some of the world’s most forward-thinking global companies.

In the beginning, we used design thinking to design products—the first mouse for Apple, the first laptop that folds, kitchen products, medical devices, and more. Over the years we’ve asked ourselves, what more can design do? And that question has fueled us and led us to places we never anticipated.

Today at IDEO we design products, services, brands, experiences, and systems. We help organizations build creative cultures, sustain innovation, and launch new ventures to fuel growth. Recently, we’ve tackled bigger challenges like launching a new school system in a developing country, making a more inclusive voting system, designing the first all-in-one, wearable breast pump, and launching a nationwide venture that redefines and simplifies how customers engage with their pharmacy.