Creative Confidence Podcast

IDEO U

IDEO’s Creative Confidence Podcast shares candid conversations with creative leaders, changemakers, and innovators navigating today’s most pressing challenges. Through real-world stories and insights, we explore how to lead with creativity, build resilient teams, and drive innovation. Grounded in IDEO’s 40 years of expertise in design thinking and innovation, each episode offers inspiration and practical tools for audacious leaders at every stage of their careers. Hosted by Mina Seetharaman, Head of New Ventures at IDEO, the podcast brings a human-centered lens to the complexities of making more courageous futures. Discover more at IDEOU.com.

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August 18 · 46 min
How to Use AI as an Editor, Not a Writer: Ed White
Ed White has a rule he's tested on his own writing: hold yourself as the writer, and let AI be your editor. Ed is a Senior Design Director at IDEO's London studio, where he co-leads the firm's AI portfolio across Europe. Before IDEO, he spent 12 years as a writer and editor at the Financial Times, Wired, and Contagious. So when he talks about when to use AI for storytelling and when not to, it comes from two decades of crafting his storytelling skills. In this episode, Mina Seetharaman talks with Ed about two specific tools he uses to keep AI in an editor's seat: a "roasting agent" prompted to critique his drafts without any sugarcoating, and a simulated audience he rehearses pitches on before the real thing. They also get into what Ed is hearing from design leaders at Anthropic, Lovable, Shopify, and Google Creative Lab about how creative work is changing, and why he thinks the friction of writing something yourself is worth protecting rather than automating away. Related Resources: Ed is one of three instructors behind IDEO U's new course, Creative Storytelling with AI. Learn more here: https://www.ideou.com/products/creative-storytelling-with-ai Ed’s interviews with design leaders on the changing nature of creativity include this one with Lovable’s Nad Chishtie: https://www.ideo.com/journal/building-the-last-piece-of-software Follow Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-white-59b9a63/ In This Episode: Timestamps are approximate due to edits and ad breaks (00:00) What a good editor does for your story (01:00) Mina introduces Ed White, Senior Design Director at IDEO's London studio (03:13) Why storytelling with AI isn't about outsourcing your thinking (03:44) Ed's founding rule: "Don't think of it as a writer. Hold yourself as a writer." (04:40) Mina's teenage son on friction: "It doesn't make me faster. It makes me better." (05:26) William Zinsser, writing as thinking on paper, and why frictionless isn't the goal (07:31) What design leaders at Anthropic, Lovable, Shopify, and Google Creative Lab are seeing collapse (11:48) The IDEO IQ report: which parts Mina wrote herself, and which she didn't (13:29) "What makes you competitive is your people.” The case for protecting thinking time (16:01) Introducing the roasting agent (16:18) Why a savage AI critique beats a sycophantic one (19:22) The discipline of being edited: what separates a professional writer from an amateur (20:32) Ed’s friend who texted: "This is hard" (22:43) The simulator: rehearsing a pitch on a board member (25:15) Maintaining taste, and why it isn’t always the right word (26:10) Getting to a "seven out of ten" and the return of the generalist (28:17) Angela Kochoska's healthcare experiment: five ideas, then twenty (30:22) "I don't think you can skip it" — Ed on the one thing AI can't shortcut (32:00) Rick Rubin, Diplo, and the case for lived experience (33:00) Adam Moss's three phases of making and the one that's very human (35:06) "The shortest distance between two people is a story" (35:33) Zoe Scaman on somatic intelligence, and the writer Ed says to follow (36:22) Audience Q&A: raising kids in an AI-dominated world (39:31) Audience Q&A: what AI is actually good at (41:32) Audience Q&A: what should clients expect from agencies using AI? (43:11) Lightning round: Arco, Donna Tartt, and letting go of what you can't control __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 12 · 33 min
Storytelling for Entrepreneurs: Tom Kelley (Replay)
Storytelling isn't a nice-to-have for entrepreneurs. It's often the only asset you have before you have a brand, a product, or proof. In this episode, we talk with Tom Kelley, IDEO partner and co-author with his brother David Kelley of the bestseller Creative Confidence, about the four stories every entrepreneur needs ready to go: the elevator pitch, the origin story, the pitch deck, and the internal story that keeps a team believing when things get hard. Tom also shares tactical storytelling tips pulled from two decades of working with his own speaking coach. This is a replay episode. With 10 years of podcast episodes, we’ve got an extensive back catalogue of conversations to inspire you, no matter what challenge you’re facing. If you’d like to improve your storytelling skills, check out IDEO U’s newest course Creative Storytelling with AI. The course starts August 13, and for a limited time, you can bundle it with Storytelling for Influence, our foundational storytelling course, and save $200. Related Resources: Tom Kelley on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-kelley-867b685/ D4V (Design for Ventures) — https://d4v.com/ Blog recap: Storytelling Techniques for Entrepreneurs — https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/storytelling-techniques-for-entrepreneurs Creative Storytelling with AI course — https://www.ideou.com/products/creative-storytelling-with-ai Storytelling for Influence course — https://www.ideou.com/products/storytelling-for-influence In This Episode: Timestamps are approximate due to edits and ad breaks (00:00) “The data does not speak for itself" (02:01) Mina introduces this replay and why we're revisiting it (02:55) Coe Leta Stafford introduces Tom Kelley, co-author of Creative Confidence and IDEO partner (03:29) Tom's decades-long connection to Japan (05:10) How storytelling built IDEO's brand in Tokyo before it had one (06:17) D4V and Yubi: the "karaoke interface" fix for a healthcare app older users couldn't use (09:54) Barbara Beskin, IDEO's 90-year-old designer, on lived experience as expertise (11:06) The 15-second elevator pitch challenge (12:13) Why the same pitch should change depending on who's listening (13:14) Why IDEO used to think the work should speak for itself — and why that was wrong (16:56) The four stories every entrepreneur needs (17:42) Elevator pitch tips: Made to Stick and the power of a shortcut (20:25) The origin story: why authenticity beats a good hook (22:04) The pitch deck: team, market size, and the one soundbite people will repeat (25:40) The internal story: motivating a team around purpose, not just a paycheck (27:13) Lessons from 20 years with a speaking coach (28:49) Why nobody remembers the data, but everyone remembers Rebecca (30:26) Tom's advice to his younger self, and the two words that changed how he saw himself (31:11) Brené Brown's The Gift of Imperfection __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 29 · 55 min
Building a Personal AI for the Messiness of Life: Sida Li
Most AI products today are built for work—a space with clear problems and established systems. One founder noticed a gap: personal life is messier, harder to systematize, and mostly left behind by the AI boom. So she built Cue, a personal AI that lives inside iMessage and group chats, to go where the other tools haven't. In this episode, Becca Carroll, IDEO's Chief Strategy Officer, talks with Sida Li, co-founder and CEO of Shared Context Lab, about staying anchored to a human need while the technology around her keeps changing shape, why she treats her business model with the same rigor she'd bring to a product, and what it feels like to build a company at this particular, disorienting moment in AI. The conversation also gets into how Sida makes design decisions: the language Cue uses to describe itself, the tradeoffs behind building inside iMessage instead of a new app, and a real story about a business idea that didn’t pan out. This is the second in a two-part series profiling founders from IDEO's Startups-in-Residence program. The first conversation is with Johannes Seemann, founder of Sooner, on designing GenAI for the emotional side of money. Related Resources: Join the Cue waitlist — https://sharedcontextlab.com Sida Li on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/sida-li-35729698/ IDEO U's AI x Design Thinking Certificate — https://www.ideou.com/products/ai-design-thinking-certificate IDEO U's Designing a Business course — https://www.ideou.com/products/designing-a-business Listen to our episode with Johannes Seemann: Designing GenAI for the Emotional Side of Money — https://shows.acast.com/creative-confidence-podcast/episodes/designing-genai-for-the-emotional-side-of-money-johannes-see In This Episode: Timestamps are approximate due to edits and ad breaks (00:00) Mina introduces the Startups in Residence series (02:32) Becca Carroll returns as guest host (03:11) From consulting's rulebook to IDEO's blank page (03:43) Sida's zero-to-one path: IDEO, a venture studio, and a Series A with Arcade.ai (07:14) AI has democratized building — and that's not entirely good news (08:52) The long tail of personal life: "death by a thousand cuts" (12:43) What Cue actually is: part assistant, part advocate (14:37) Why she built for personal life instead of work (16:01) The deliberate choice to live inside iMessage, not a new app (17:57) Proactive, not reactive: the line between helpful and creepy (20:38) The word Sida refuses to use, and the conversation with Tim Brown that confirmed it (22:21) AI is less trusted than ICE right now — designing for that (23:28) Total transparency: why users can see, edit, and delete everything Cue remembers (25:40) Bringing Cue into a group chat changes everything (27:44) The founder's journey isn't linear — it's a squiggle (29:01) "Wandering in the dark": IDEO's desirability, viability, feasibility framework in practice (32:17) Finding investors who can see through the pitch (34:08) The business model is a prototype too (35:01) A B2B idea everyone loved — until the budget didn't exist (37:19) Why she's keeping pricing simple for now (38:26) Building a company while the tools underneath her keep changing (39:10) From not knowing how to code to building the front end (42:02) The sci-fi problem: building something that knows everything about you (42:47) The open question nobody's answered yet: what is this relationship, exactly? (46:22) The bank-app test: designing trust into a world with no fixed screen (47:06) What she got from building inside IDEO that she couldn't get alone (48:57) Inside Sida's toolbox: the stack behind Cue (50:10) The five-to-ten-year vision: software defined by the people who use it (52:45) Lightning round: Mitch Albom, pull-ups, and doing the thing before you're ready __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 15 · 1 hr 3 min
Designing GenAI for the Emotional Side of Money: Johannes Seemann
Most personal financial tools are built to run the numbers and optimize towards a budget. While that works for some, most people experience money as a lived relationship that doesn’t neatly fit into a spreadsheet. Johannes Seemann spent years interviewing people about their personal finances and came away with a different premise: Money is inherently emotional before it is mathematical. Accounting for people’s psychology and context first creates, he argues, creates the foundations to make smarter, more confident financial decisions. In this episode, Becca Carroll, IDEO's Chief Strategy Officer, talks with Johannes Seemann, founder of Sooner, about the problem space he knows so well, why he sees generative AI as a unique opportunity to design a solution for it, and what a genuinely human-centered approach to building an AI product looks like in practice. The conversation also gets technical. Becca and Johannes dig into the engineering and design challenges of building an AI moderator, from models that try to resolve human ambiguity rather than embrace it, to the normative assumptions they carry that can lead to biased interpretations. This is the first in a two-part series profiling founders from IDEO's Startups-in-Residence program. The second conversation is with Sida Li, co-founder and CEO of Shared Context Lab, on building Cue, a personal AI that lives inside your text messages and group chats. Related Resources: Take the Sooner Money Mindset quiz — https://mysooner.com Sign up as a beta tester — https://hellosooner.com Follow Sooner on Instagram — https://instagram.com/hellosooner IDEO U's AI x Design Thinking Certificate — https://www.ideou.com/products/ai-design-thinking-certificate IDEO U's Designing a Business course — https://www.ideou.com/products/designing-a-business In This Episode: (Timestamps are approximate due to edits and ad breaks) (00:00) Mina introduces the IDEO startups-in-residence series (01:34) Becca Carroll kicks things off as guest host (04:03) From IDEO's first data hire to two years inside Wells Fargo (05:51) The blind spot: why people assume financial advisors aren't for them (07:36) The loneliness of money, and what happened when Johannes's own team opened up about it (09:33) Where the name "Sooner" comes from (12:08) Trust over expertise: why finding a financial advisor is like finding a therapist (13:41) Rose's story: she paid off her house, then lost $25,000 trusting the wrong person at the gym (15:55) The light bulb moment: why people confide in chatbots when they won't confide in a person (17:12) Money as an identity issue: Homo economicus, Kahneman, and the trouble with "rational vs. irrational" (19:13) Turning the equation on its head: budget as output, not input (20:54) Getting laid off, a no-code AI course, and a rough first prototype in Python (22:57) Testing the psychographic profile on real people (24:43) What people won't tell an advisor, they'll tell AI (25:48) The data engine behind the future Sooner AI partner (28:52) Identity-driven spending: a real example of the pattern (31:56) From goals to intentions: what the product actually does today (34:28) The vet bill: why an intention can flex where a goal would break (35:33) Finding the right amount of control vs. ease (37:06) Designing for how it should feel, not what AI can do: why push-to-talk beat free-flowing conversation (39:57) Human-centered design as Sooner's competitive advantage (43:37) How to keep applying human-centered design after the research phase is over (46:13) What it takes to build with AI as a two-person team (47:32) The three architectures: AI brain, interface, and retrieval layer (51:32) The technical challenges: normative contamination, false coherence, and context rot (56:56) Testing an example: helping someone buy a car without spiraling (59:17) What success looks like for Sooner (1:02:03) Lightning round: Mossy Earth, dog training, and symmetry as a philosophy __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 2 · 1 hr 9 min
The Curious Leader's Edge in Uncertainty: Scott Shigeoka
We talk a lot about curiosity as a mindset. Scott Shigeoka lives it as a practice. Right now he’s driving a 25-foot purple van across the country, finding and documenting the stories of ordinary people making their communities better. He's not just curious about what's possible. He's out there finding out. In this episode, Mina Seetharaman talks with Scott Shigeoka, author of Seek and Head of Curiosity Cultivation at the Eames Institute, about what distinguishes a genuinely curious leader from a performative one, how power dynamics play into curiosity, how the Curious 100 project reveals the many forms curious leadership takes, and why curiosity, when practiced well, can restore your energy rather than drain it. Scott was previously on the Creative Confidence Podcast to explore why curiosity is a business imperative. That episode is linked below. This episode is part of an ongoing series on navigating uncertainty. We're exploring this topic from multiple angles with several guests this year. Also in this series: How to Not Know with Simone Stolzoff and The Decisiveness Crisis in Senior Leadership Teams with Sam Conniff. Related Resources: Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World, by Scott Shigeoka — https://scottshigeoka.com The Curious 100 — https://thecurious100.org Curiosity Club (free newsletter) — https://scottshigeoka.com Scott Shigeoka on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottshigeoka Scott's Curiosity Toolkit (free guide for building curiosity at work) — https://curiosity-toolkit.netlify.app/ Scott's first Creative Confidence interview: Why Curiosity Is a Business Imperative — https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/why-curiosity-is-a-business-imperative IDEO U's Foundations in Creative Leadership Certificate — https://www.ideou.com/products/creative-leadership-certificate More episodes on navigating uncertainty: How to Not Know: Simone Stolzoff — https://shows.acast.com/creative-confidence-podcast/episodes/how-to-not-know-simone-stolzoff The Decisiveness Crisis in Senior Leadership Teams: Sam Conniff — https://shows.acast.com/creative-confidence-podcast/episodes/the-decisiveness-crisis-senior-leadership-teams-sam-conniff In This Episode: Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks. (00:00) Cold open — the grace curious leaders earn when they make mistakes (02:47) The Curiosity Mobile — six months on the road, the belief gap, and why stories close it (07:36) Stories from the road — a florist, a group of librarians, and rafting across political lines (12:11) How getting curious refilled Scott's own hope and energy before the trip (14:57) Busting the echo chamber — curiosity as "what else are we missing" (15:58) The Curious 100 — what the project is and what separates real curiosity from the performative kind (20:50) Curiosity looks like many things — storytellers, editors, and activists on the list (23:10) Being an "admitter" — why owning your mistakes makes leaders more trusted, not less (28:11) Power and directionality — why the most powerful person in the room needs to be the most curious (33:28) Inclusion vs. belonging, and why curiosity is the difference (34:44) The question of the day — a research-backed practice for any meeting (39:34) Why the curious leadership framework matters — a menu of options, not a personality test (43:42) The four curious leader archetypes: Explorer, Provocateur, Reflector, Imaginator (48:11) Your dominant archetype — and why leaders can shift between all four depending on the moment (48:42) Curiosity vs. conviction — why staying open doesn't mean abandoning your values (51:28) Predatory curiosity — what it looks like, why it backfires, and deep canvassing as its antidote (59:16) Lightning round: Queer Eye, Lady Gaga, learning to surf, and curiosity as an act of love __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 18 · 56 min
How Constraints Make Us More Creative: David Epstein
We're told more is always better—more options, more resources, more freedom. But David Epstein spent years looking at the science, and what he found challenges that assumption. Constraints don't just force creativity. According to the research, they often generate it. In this episode, Mina Seetharaman talks with David Epstein, author of Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better and the New York Times bestseller Range, about why total freedom tends to produce mediocre work, how the best leaders design limits on purpose, and what the history of companies like General Magic and Pixar reveals about the relationship between boundaries and breakthrough. David was previously on the Creative Confidence Podcast to discuss Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. This conversation picks up where that one left off. Related Resources: Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, by David Epstein — https://www.davidepstein.com Constraint exercises for teams — https://www.davidepstein.com David Epstein on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidepstein David’s newsletter, Range Widely — https://www.davidepstein.com David’s first Creative Confidence interview: Generalist vs. Specialist: Choosing a Path for Career Success — https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/generalist-vs-specialist-choosing-a-path-for-career-success IDEO U’s course Leading for Creativity: How to create the conditions where great work—and the people doing it—can thrive. — https://www.ideou.com/products/leading-for-creativity In This Episode: Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks. (00:00) David on what good leaders actually do with constraints (00:25) Introducing David Epstein and the through line from Range to Inside the Box (03:28) The explore-exploit trade-off: why breadth and focus aren't opposites (05:00) What a constraint actually is and why your brain is designed to avoid thinking whenever possible (06:45) Two things constraints reliably do: clarify priorities and force new exploration (07:22) The blank canvas problem: why total creative freedom tends to produce average ideas (08:09) The green eggs and ham effect: what the research says about constraints (11:19) Dr. Seuss starts hemming himself in on purpose and changes children's literature in the process (12:18) General Magic: the most important company nobody's ever heard of, and what happens when engineers are limited only by their imagination (16:29) "I just couldn't figure out what not to do"—the common thread across dozens of former General Magic employees (19:30) What leaders who design constraints on purpose actually look like—Pixar, Tony Fadell, and the literal box at Nest (22:33) The legacy constraint exercise: a thought experiment that gets people to reprioritize without feeling punished (25:11) When does a constraint go too far? The creativity-killing conditions and what the research on deadlines actually shows (27:32) "Give me the freedom of a tight brief"—why definitional constraints work and prescriptive ones don't (28:28) Brooks' Law, additive bias, and why we're wired to add instead of subtract (29:46) The subtraction audit: how a genetics lab doubled its output by making commitments visible (32:12) AI, prototyping, and the danger of skipping the thinking-slow phase (36:23) Designing for edge cases: how the U.S. Army's body armor redesign for women improved gear for everyone (41:10) The Hemingway Principle: the last-act-of-the-day habit that protects your most important work (42:51) Audience Q: Can artificial constraints be as useful as real ones? (Yes, and here's why) (45:04) Audience Q: How do you get buy-in on constraints when people push back? (48:50) Lightning round: In Praise of Shadows, Daniel Kahneman, shuffle dancing, satisficing, and the decks that are never clear __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 4 · 1 hr 1 min
The Decisiveness Crisis in Senior Leadership Teams: Sam Conniff
Two thirds of leaders say they would rather be seen as decisive and get it wrong than appear uncertain and get it right. It may sound illogical, but it's actually the result of decades of organizational culture training leaders that decisiveness equals strength and that not knowing is a liability. In this episode, Mina Seetharaman talks with Sam Conniff, founder of Uncertainty Experts and author of The Uncertainty Toolkit, about the data behind what he calls the decisiveness crisis, why senior leadership teams are the most likely layer in most organizations to get uncertainty wrong, and three learnable questions that help leaders make better decisions without pretending to have answers they don't have. This is part of an ongoing series of conversations about uncertainty on the Creative Confidence Podcast. Subscribe to catch them all. Related Resources: The Uncertainty Toolkit: How to Feel Calmer, Happier, and More Confident in an Uncertain World, by Sam Conniff — https://www.uncertaintyexperts.com/the-uncertainty-toolkit Sam Conniff on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/samconniff Uncertainty Experts — https://www.uncertaintyexperts.com How to Stop Fighting Uncertainty & Start Working With It (Simone Stolzoff episode) — https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/how-to-not-know-simone-stolzoff Read the blog recap — https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/the-decisiveness-crisis-uncertainty-toolkit-sam-conniff In This Episode: (Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks) (00:00) Sam on changing your relationship to uncertainty (01:09) Introducing Sam Conniff and the decisiveness crisis (02:08) What drew Sam to studying uncertainty and the personal story behind the research (05:14) The Q-test warm-up: a simple exercise that reveals how your brain handles uncertainty (10:36) The false brief: why trying to eliminate uncertainty is the wrong goal (11:24) The top five uncertainty safety behaviors at work and why they feel so familiar (13:27) Why the best leaders don't try to eliminate uncertainty—they navigate it (17:00) Fear, fog, and stasis: the three ways uncertainty shows up before it reaches the boardroom (20:58) What makes Sam and Catherine's research different from the books on your shelf (21:37) The data: 20,000+ participants, six years, three sources (24:41) Career is the number one uncertainty every year since 2021 (26:15) The decisiveness question: a binary choice that reveals everything (29:04) Why two thirds of leaders choose the negative outcome (30:04) The hierarchy finding and where the numbers go off the scale (36:41) The decisiveness crisis as an identity problem and why transformation programs keep failing (39:00) The uncertainty-ready leader: knowing which mode to be in (40:00) Altitude, horizon, and agency: three questions that transform the pressure (43:36) Why setting a deadline is actually a decisive act (44:04) Turning a decision into a hypothesis (44:12) Obama and Ardern: what saying "I don't know" with authority actually looks like (46:59) The unlikely experts: what gang leaders, refugees, and recovering addicts know that most leaders don't (54:13) Lightning round: The Walking Dead, Catherine Templar Lewis, nail polish, and more (58:20) Mina's takeaways __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 21 · 1 hr
How to Not Know: Simone Stolzoff
We have more information than any generation in history. And we're more anxious about the future than ever. So what's going wrong? In this episode, Mina Seetharaman talks with Simone Stolzoff, journalist, author, TED speaker, and former IDEO Design Lead, about why certainty is so seductive, how our hunger for it quietly gets us into trouble, and what it actually looks like to build uncertainty tolerance as a skill. Simone's new book, How to Not Know, draws on years of reporting to examine the three certainty traps that hold leaders back—comfort, hubris, and control—and offers practical tools for anyone navigating hard decisions, unclear direction, or rapid change. Together, Mina and Simone explore why the most resilient leaders are the ones willing to say "I don't know," how to make decisions when the path isn't clear, and a concept called ghost ships that reframes what it means to choose. This is one of several conversations on uncertainty coming to the Creative Confidence Podcast this year. Subscribe to catch them all. Related Resources: How to Not Know, by Simone Stolzoff — https://simonestolzoff.com/how-to-not-know Simone Stolzoff on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-stolzoff-5a16b648/ Simone’s Harvard Business Review article: Leaders, It’s Time to Build Your Tolerance for Uncertainty — https://hbr.org/2026/01/leaders-its-time-to-build-your-tolerance-for-uncertainty Read the blog recap — key ideas from this episode, plus five things to put into practice. ideou.com/blogs/inspiration IDEO U All-Access Pass — unlimited access to IDEO U’s on-demand courses. https://www.ideou.com/products/human-ai-leadership-self-paced-course Subscribe to the Creative Confidence Podcast — new episodes on creativity, leadership, and innovation every other week. ideou.com/pages/creative-confidence-podcast In This Episode: (Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks) (00:00) Welcome and introducing Simone Stolzoff (03:21) From The Good Enough Job to How to Not Know — the thread between his two books (05:48) Why uncertainty feels like a threat — the biology behind it (09:37) Rowing through the fog — what Simone learned at IDEO (12:17) Why certainty has a narrowing effect on creativity (15:12) Commitment in spite of doubt — the Rollo May quote (16:19) The Slack origin story — how Stuart Butterfield trusted his uncertainty (18:20) Standing on a mountain peak — why you have to descend before you can go higher (18:42) The three certainty traps: comfort, hubris, and control (22:38) The AI prediction that aged poorly — Geoffrey Hinton and the radiologists (25:05) More information, more anxiety — why our phones aren't helping (30:17) The loss of friction — what we give up when we reach for our phones (34:09) How to actually build uncertainty tolerance (37:27) Microdosing the unknown — why small experiments rewire the brain (42:13) Busting the algorithm — the explore-exploit tradeoff explained (44:51) How to say "I don't know" without losing the room (45:40) What Brian Chesky did when Airbnb's entire business shut down overnight (49:11) Ghost ships and how to let go of the lives you didn't choose (54:03) The difference between one-way and two-way door decisions (56:32) What to do when you're in the middle of something genuinely hard (57:17) Lightning round (57:38) High Maintenance on HBO (58:30) Brian Eno on originality (59:02) Learning salsa dancing (59:32) The skill of asking questions (59:52) Leaving the Atlantic for IDEO — the mistake that wasn't (01:00:38) Always eat the cookie (01:01:40) Advice for a younger self __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 14 · 1 hr 10 min
AI Tools for Researchers, Patterns vs. Insights, and When to Trust AI Output: Q&A with Angela Kochoska
Angela Kochoska, Design Researcher and Data Scientist at IDEO and co-instructor in IDEO U's new course, Human-Centered Research with AI, joins Mina to answer your questions on how to responsibly and effectively use AI in the research process. After her co-instructor Hannah Rosenfeld’s episode on using AI in human-centered research, our audience had so many great questions. We dedicated an entire episode to answering them. How do you stop AI from flattening nuance? How do you know when you've outsourced your thinking instead of augmenting it? When does AI-assisted synthesis become a real insight, and when doesn't it? What does good prompting actually look like in a research context? Angela brings a perspective that's rare: she came to design research from a PhD in astrophysics and years building machine learning models for NASA and the European Space Agency. She knows how LLMs actually work, and she also knows why the conversation you have with your team in a coffee shop after a field interview still produces insights no model can replicate. If you haven't heard Hannah's episode yet, it's a great place to start. If you have, this is the conversation that goes deeper into the questions it raised. Angela teaches Human-Centered Research with AI alongside Hannah Rosenfeld at IDEO U. Find details and enroll at ideou.com. Related Resources: Angela Kochoska on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-kochoska/ Hannah Rosenfeld's episode: https://shows.acast.com/creative-confidence-podcast/episodes/how-to-use-ai-for-more-human-centered-research-hannah-rosenf Human-Centered Research with AI — IDEO U Course: https://www.ideou.com/products/human-centered-research-ai Read the episode recap on the IDEO U blog: https://www.ideou.com/blog In This Episode: (Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks) (02:07) From NASA sky surveys to design research — Angela's unlikely path to IDEO (06:57) What building the course with Hannah unlocked, including a new way to think about AI bias (13:18) Q&A: How do you tell a real insight apart from an AI-generated pattern? (16:11) Q&A: How do you stop AI from flattening nuance and overstating confidence? (22:37) Q&A: Is it self-serving to say AI makes humans more important? How to address the skepticism (26:09) Q&A: How do you know when you've crossed into outsourcing your thinking to AI? (32:12) Q&A: What does good prompting actually look like in a research context? (34:35) Q&A: How do you move from AI-generated insights to meaningful human-centered decisions? (44:51) Q&A: What AI tools do you actually use? (Claude, Perplexity, NotebookLM, SciSpace) (51:41) Q&A: How do you protect the depth and specificity that makes your research valuable? (57:07) Q&A: My organization is skeptical of AI — how do I show its value? (1:03:30) Lightning round: Angela recommends Always Coming Home, James Bridle, crochet, "Don't forget to look up,” and more. __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
April 29 · 51 min
How to Use AI For More Human-Centered Research: Hannah Rosenfeld
AI is changing what it means to be a researcher. But most teams are only using it one way—to go faster. In this episode, Hannah Rosenfeld, Executive Design Researcher at IDEO, shares a framework for using AI intentionally across your research process: not just to move faster, but to see more, ask bigger questions, and do things you couldn't do before. Hannah teaches these ideas and more in IDEO U's new course, Human-Centered Research with AI. If this conversation resonates, the course is where you can go deeper and apply the framework to your own work. The first cohort starts May 21 at ideou.com. Related Resources: Hannah Rosenfeld on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-rosenfeld-86805940/ Human-Centered Research with AI — IDEO U Course: https://www.ideou.com/products/human-centered-research-ai Read the episode recap on the IDEO U blog: https://www.ideou.com/blog In This Episode: (Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks) (02:16) AI Doesn't Change the Principles of Good Research — It Expands the Definition (05:04) A Framework for Using AI in Research: The Intersection of Speed and Scale (09:28) Mode 1: Widen Your Aperture — Use AI to Take In More (13:01) Mode 2: Notice Nuance — Use AI to See Deeper, Not Just Wider (19:49) Why Bias Isn't the Problem — Unexamined Bias Is (21:23) Mode 3: Challenge Your Assumptions — Use AI to Interrogate Your Thinking (27:50) The Case for Productive Friction — Why Speed Can Work Against You (29:54) Mode 4: Immerse Yourself in Data — Use AI to Bring Your Thinking to Life (32:41) Building a Living Research Brain Your Team Can Query for Months (38:00) How to Sum Up the Framework: Strategic Use Cases, Not Just Efficient Ones (40:53) The Skills AI Can't Replace: Why Human Judgment Matters More, Not Less (43:10) Q&A: Moving from AI-Generated Patterns to Human-Centered Decisions (43:50) Q&A: Can AI Turn a Non-Researcher into a Serious Researcher? (45:14) Lightning Round: Hannah on Asking Better Questions, Fewer Things, and Perpetual Stew __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
April 15 · 1 hr 2 min
6 Patterns for Building Organizational Agility: Clay Parker Jones
Most organizations don’t fail because their ideas are wrong. They fail because the systems underneath those ideas aren’t designed to support them. In this episode, Mina Seetharaman speaks with Clay Parker Jones, Director of Organizational Design at Airbnb and author of Hidden Patterns, about six things you can do to build a more agile, adaptable, and human-centered organization. Related Resources: Hidden Patterns, by Clay Parker Jones: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Hidden-Patterns/Clay-Parker-Jones/9781637748589 Clay’s website and pattern library: https://www.cpj.fyi/ Designing for Change online course with IDEO U: https://www.ideou.com/products/designing-for-change Read the episode recap on the IDEO U blog: https://www.ideou.com/blog __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
April 1 · 42 min
How Great Teams Leverage Tension as a Source of Innovation: Daniel Coyle (Replay)
Tension on your team isn’t always a problem to solve. In fact, it’s often a signal you’re doing meaningful work. In this replay episode, bestselling author Daniel Coyle (The Culture Code) shares how the most successful teams channel friction into forward motion, instead of avoiding it. Drawing on research and real-world examples from places like Pixar, the Navy SEALs, and professional sports, Daniel breaks down how tension can become a powerful source of energy, learning, and innovation. In this conversation, you’ll learn: Why conflict and disagreement are essential for high-performing teams The key moments that shape team culture early on How vulnerability builds trust (and why leaders need to go first) A simple framework for turning tension into productive experimentation How storytelling helps reinforce and scale strong team behaviors This episode offers practical ways to rethink how your team approaches friction. If this topic resonates, explore more episodes on healthy friction and creative tension with guests like Ben Swire, Mike Peng, Heather Currier Hunt, Takashi Wickes, and Bob Sutton. Related resources: The Culture Code, by Daniel Coyle: https://danielcoyle.com/the-culture-code/ Cultivating Creative Collaboration online course with IDEO U, taught by IDEO CEO Mike Peng: https://www.ideou.com/products/cultivating-creative-collaboration Read the episode recap on the IDEO U blog: https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/how-great-teams-leverage-tension-as-a-source-for-innovation __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
March 20 · 44 min
What Gets In the Way of Trust on Teams: Q&A with Ben Swire
There are many hidden barriers to building trust on teams, and sometimes we don’t see them until something breaks down. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, Mina Seetharaman sits down again with Ben Swire—co-founder of Make Believe Works and author of Safe Danger—for a practical Q&A on what actually gets in the way of trust on teams. Drawing on his experience designing team experiences for organizations around the world, Ben answers questions from the Creative Confidence community. Why does trust break down even on high-performing teams? What makes feedback feel risky? How do you create space for honest conversation without forcing vulnerability? And what can leaders do in the moment when trust starts to erode? Related resources: Safe Danger, by Ben Swire Make Believe Works – Unique team building that actually makes an impact. Cultivating Creative Collaboration online course with IDEO U, taught by IDEO CEO Mike Peng Read the episode recap on the IDEO U blog: ideou.com/blog __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
March 5 · 57 min
Building Risk-Taking Teams: Ben Swire
Team building often feels like a necessary evil. Leaders know it matters, but too often it feels awkward, forced, or disconnected from real work. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, Mina Seetharaman speaks with Ben Swire, co-founder of Make Believe Works and author of Safe Danger, about what actually builds trust, psychological safety, and creative collaboration on teams. Ben introduces the concept of “safe danger”—the emotional sweet spot between comfort and fear—where teams feel secure enough to take risks, practice vulnerability, and grow together. He explains why most team building fails, why psychological safety is not the same as comfort, and why risk-taking is a muscle that teams need to practice before the stakes are high. If you’re a leader who wants to encourage better ideas, stronger trust, and an innovation culture, this episode offers practical tools and mindset shifts you can use immediately. To go deeper, explore IDEO U’s course and subscribe to the Creative Confidence Podcast for more conversations with today’s most thoughtful creative leaders. Related resources: Safe Danger, by Ben Swire Make Believe Works – Unique team building that actually makes an impact. Cultivating Creative Collaboration online course with IDEO U, taught by IDEO CEO Mike Peng Read the episode recap on the IDEO U blog: ideou.com/blog __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
February 18 · 39 min
Playful Thinking Under Pressure: Q&A with Cas Holman & Michelle Lee
How do leaders apply playful thinking at work when time is short and the stakes are high? In this Q&A episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, host Mina Seetharaman is joined by play designer and author Cas Holman and IDEO Partner Michelle Lee to explore how a playful mindset holds up under real-world constraints. Building on their earlier conversation about why play matters at work, this episode focuses on what it looks like in practice: navigating tight timelines, creating psychological safety quickly, collaborating without losing your competitive edge, and leading in high-stakes environments like policy and healthcare. Through real stories and answers to listener questions, Cas and Michelle share practical ways leaders can make values-aligned decisions under pressure, design safety through structure, use constraints to fuel creativity, and model vulnerability to unlock better thinking. Related resources: Playful by Cas Holman Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving online course with IDEO U, taught by Michelle Lee Full episode recap on the IDEO U blog __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
February 4 · 50 min
How a Playful Mindset Leads to Better Work: Cas Holman & Michelle Lee
For teams and leaders striving to unlock better collaboration and outcomes, play isn’t just a break from work—it’s a powerful leadership mindset. Embracing play fosters curiosity, creativity, and resilience, helping teams innovate and thrive even under pressure. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, host Mina Seetharaman sits down with special guests Cas Holman, renowned play designer and author of Playful, and Michelle Lee, Partner and Executive Co-Managing Director at IDEO. Together, they dive into how playful thinking sparks better questions, builds psychological safety, and drives meaningful innovation within teams. Drawing from Cas’s expertise in designing open-ended play systems and Michelle’s leadership at IDEO, they share real-world examples of how play transforms collaboration and delivers stronger results across diverse organizations. Explore related resources to deepen your team’s creative potential: Playful by Cas Holman – a compelling look at play as a tool for innovation Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving – an online course by Michelle Lee on harnessing creativity for breakthrough collaboration Playful Thinking Under Pressure – a blog post on how teams can stay inventive and effective when it matters most __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
January 21 · 44 min
Leadership Philosophies in Practice & Building Creative Teams: Q&A with Mike Peng
IDEO CEO Mike Peng returns to the Creative Confidence Podcast with an insightful, listener-driven conversation tailored for leaders, managers, and team leads who are navigating change and striving to build high-trust, creative teams. In this episode, Mike delves deeper into the core principles of creative leadership, sharing practical strategies for leading creative teams within organizations that may resist change. Discover how to cultivate psychological safety, foster a thriving innovation culture, and manage complexity with confidence. Mike draws on personal stories and lessons learned from failure to illuminate how to reduce fear, build trust, and stay inspired in today’s fast-moving world. If your goal is to elevate your team’s creativity or redefine what creative excellence means in your organization, this episode offers grounded advice and a clear perspective you can apply now. For more tools and insights, explore From Ideas to Action and read Mike’s thoughts on Creative Excellence. __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
January 7 · 50 min
Part 2: Honest, Realistic, and Optimistic Leadership Advice from Friends of IDEO
The creative leadership advice continues. In Part 2, creative leaders including IDEO partners, alumni, and IDEO U instructors share hard-won lessons on relationships, reflection, and staying human as we move into 2026. Host Mina Seetharaman and IDEO Partner Ilya Prokopoff share reactions and builds on each leader's advice. Many of the leaders featured on this episode have been guests on the podcast. Find links to their episodes at ideou.com/blogs/inspiration. Guests on this episode: Grace Hwang — Design Leader; Former IDEO Associate Partner; Co-Founder, Upturn Health Michelle Lee — Partner and Executive Managing Director, IDEO; IDEO U Instructor: Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving Sara Kalick — Founder, The Possible: IDEO U Instructor: From Superpowers to Great Teams Jenn Maer — Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Knitted; IDEO U Instructor: Storytelling for Influence Jennifer Riel — Adjunct Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto; Former Head of Global Strategy, IDEO; IDEO U Instructor: Designing Strategy & Activating Strategy Susie Wise — Designer, Design for Emergence; Author, Design for Belonging Takashi Wickes — Founding Designer, Open Studio; IDEO U Instructor: Prototyping for AI YC Sun — Senior Design Director, Healthcare and Wellbeing, IDEO Dabney Hailey — Founder and Principal, Hailey Group; Lecturer, MIT Sloan Amy Bonsall — Founder, Light Actions at Collective; IDEO U Instructor: Designing a Business Frederik Pferdt — Former Chief Innovation Evangelist, Google; author of What’s Next is Now __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 30, 2025 · 44 min
Key Abilities of Creative Problem-Solvers: David Kelley (Replay)
This episode is a Creative Confidence Podcast replay. In celebration of 20 years of the Stanford d.school, we’re revisiting our conversation with David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.school, on the core abilities of the most successful creative problem-solvers. David also shares personal stories and learnings from his friendships with several of today’s most innovative CEOs and leaders. At a moment when creativity is increasingly essential to leadership, this episode offers a chance to revisit the fundamentals of creative problem-solving and hear them directly from one of the people who helped define the field. Many of the ideas David shares in this episode align with his Creative Essentials, a roundup of the best advice he's collected across his long career. Read about David Kelley’s Creative Essentials here: https://stanfordmag.org/contents/how-to-be-creative __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 18, 2025 · 43 min
Part 1: Honest, Realistic, and Optimistic Leadership Advice from Friends of IDEO
As the year winds down, we asked 20 friends of IDEO including IDEO U instructors, Creative Confidence Podcast guests, and partners of IDEO to share honest leadership advice for leaders heading into 2026. In part one, hear reflections on uncertainty, creativity, and momentum. Host Mina Seetharaman and IDEO Partner Ilya Prokopoff share reactions and builds on each leader's advice. Find more episodes of the Creative Confidence Podcast at ideou.com/podcast. Take online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Many of the leaders featured on this episode have been guests on the podcast. Find links to their episodes at ideou.com/blogs/inspiration. Guests on this episode: Michael Hendrix - Managing Director, Invisible Notes; former IDEO Partner Kate Schnippering - Polar Expedition Crew Member, IDEO U Instructor: Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving Catherine Connors - Co-founder, StoryQuo Jennifer Lo - Futurist in Residence and Senior Director of Organizational Design, IDEO Suzanne Gibbs Howard - Founder, IDEO U; Leadership and Learning Advisor; IDEO U Instructor: Unlocking Creativity Wardah Malik - CEO, BEworks Kim Scott - Author & Founder, Radical Candor Mollie West Duffy - Co-author, No Hard Feelings; Big Feelings Bonnie Wan - Author & Founder, The Life Brief __________ Get episode recaps and register for free live podcast events at ideou.com/podcast. Build your creative problem-solving skills with IDEO U's online courses in human-centered design, AI, leadership, and more at ideou.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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