Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Creative Confidence Podcast
BusinessEducation

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Play
Open in
  • 25 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 49 min
  • English

Episodes 25

NewestOldestLongest
All5Unplayed5In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • 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.

  • Dec 4, 2025 · 58 min

    3 Leadership Philosophies to Inspire Creative Excellence: Mike Peng

    Host Mina Seetharaman chats with IDEO CEO Mike Peng about what creative excellence means today and how leaders can cultivate it on their teams. Mike shares three favorite leadership philosophies, stories from his global career, and practical ways to spark creativity, build healthy friction, and stay inspired. Sign up for invitations to live podcast recordings at ideou.com/podcast. __________ 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.

Showing 21–25 of 25 episodes