Whats the organizational structure at IDEO?
We are very flat. When I say that, there are definitely people who aspire to lead teams. But our goal is to create an environment where hot teams form on their own. Some people who come to IDEO never want to lead a team. Their goal is to be the best engineer, the best designer, or the best at what they do. That’s fine. We have 14 studios that vary in size from 15 to 35 people. Each has a studio head who is responsible for the profit and loss of that group. It’s like running a small business. There are definitely opportunities to grow into that type of role. We would never hire someone as a studio head. There are also opportunities to be discipline leads — people who oversee best practices for their discipline across the whole firm. Usually, they are reasonably known in their industry, and the people in that discipline feel like they’re good, strong mentors. Q: You mentioned hot teams. What are they? A: A hot team works together for a period of time. There’s a lot of movement at IDEO b
