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Creative Confidence Podcast

Creative Confidence Podcast

By: IDEO U
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Summary
 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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Episodes
  • A Strong Strategy Considers Multiple Futures: Jennifer Lo

    A Strong Strategy Considers Multiple Futures: Jennifer Lo
    Oct 28 2026
    Most strategic plans are built for one version of the future: the one your team thinks is most likely. That works until conditions change, and then the plan needs rewriting. Futures thinking adds a step before strategic planning: looking at several plausible futures, so the strategy you choose has room to adapt.In this episode, host Mina Seetharaman talks with Jennifer Lo, Senior Director of Design Futures at IDEO, about what futures thinking is, how it strengthens strategy, and how any leader can build a signals practice. Jennifer has 20 years of experience in design strategy and innovation leadership. She was a managing director for innovation and strategy at Kaiser Permanente, and she teaches strategic foresight and human-centered design at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Public Health and at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business. She is also the instructor of IDEO U’s Applied Futures Thinking course. This conversation was recorded live in front of a virtual audience, and you’ll hear their questions along the way.If you lead a team or an organization, or you’re working toward it, this conversation will give you tangible ways to introduce futuring into your practice. Related ResourcesJennifer Lo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-lo-28654b3/Applied Futures Thinking online course from IDEO U: https://www.ideou.com/products/applied-futures-thinking-courseEarlier episode, How to Think Like a Futurist with Jennifer Lo: https://shows.acast.com/creative-confidence-podcast/episodes/6913728a7728b8766cfdfc2a How to Think Like a Futurist: A Leader’s Guide to Strategic Foresight and Better Decision Making: https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/how-to-think-like-a-futurist Building an enduring futuring system, by Jennifer Lo: https://www.ideo.com/journal/building-an-enduring-futuring-systemThe “used future” trap, by Jennifer Lo: https://www.ideo.com/journal/the-used-future-trapWhy futurists start with a backward glance, by Jennifer Lo: https://www.ideo.com/journal/why-futurists-start-with-a-backward-glance In This EpisodeTimestamps are approximate due to edits and ad breaks.(00:00) Jennifer Lo’s background in futures thinking, design strategy and innovation leadership(03:25) What does futures thinking mean? Live listeners weigh in(05:05) What makes IDEO’s human-centered approach to futuring different(09:20) How IDEO’s version of futuring compares with the quantitative futures work of RAND and Shell(12:35) Why a strategy built on one expected future needs more flexibility(14:25) Strategy mistakes that make a plan expire fast, and the used future trap(20:15) Scanning, storytelling, and sense-making before strategy begins(23:00) The pull between a strategy horizon and a futures horizon(25:45) Why every leader benefits from futures thinking, and why a team of futurists would stall(28:30) Backcasting turns a far-off future into choices for now(30:30) How to start a signals practice in about an hour a week(33:35) Signals, trends, and drivers, explained(34:20) Why you should never scan for signals alone(36:40) What futures thinking reveals in healthcare(40:15) Signals arrays and systems thinking(41:40) How the pace of change, AI included, changes the way Jennifer judges signals(43:40) What makes a future scenario credible to a skeptical leader(45:15) How Jennifer got hooked on futures thinking(47:50) The mindset shift from control to agency(48:25) Lightning round: what to watch, who to read, and advice to her 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.
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    51 mins
  • How to Use Systems Thinking to Reframe Problems: Deirdre Cerminaro (Replay)

    How to Use Systems Thinking to Reframe Problems: Deirdre Cerminaro (Replay)
    Oct 22 2026
    Complex challenges, from traffic congestion to organizational culture change, don’t exist in a vacuum. Each one is part of a larger system. You can’t solve one piece of the puzzle without understanding how it affects the whole. Systems thinking is a holistic approach to making sense of that interconnection. Paired with a human lens on what motivates people and which needs go unmet, it leads to solutions that are more effective and more responsible.In this replay from 2024, former IDEO U Managing Director and co-founder Coe Leta Stafford talks with Deirdre Cerminaro, a former IDEO Executive Design Director and instructor of IDEO U’s Human-Centered Systems Thinking course. They cover how your starting question shapes the solutions you find, three mindsets for reframing it, and how to use a systems map as a tool for learning. Recorded live, the conversation closes with audience questions on bringing hesitant stakeholders along, choosing where to start, and not getting stuck in complexity.We’re bringing this conversation back because systems thinking is a skill of rising importance as AI enters more of our workflows. Want to learn more? IDEO U’s Human-Centered Systems Thinking course now includes guidance on where AI can help and how to keep that work pointed at human-centered outcomes.Related ResourcesHuman-Centered Systems Thinking course from IDEO U: https://www.ideou.com/products/human-centered-systems-thinkingCreative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving course from IDEO U: https://www.ideou.com/products/creative-problem-solving What Is Systems Thinking? A Beginner’s Guide to Mindsets, Tools, and Examples: https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/beginners-guide-systems-thinking-core-mindsets 12 Systems Thinking Resources We Love: Books, Articles, and More to Get Started: https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/systems-thinking-resources-books-articles-videos-to-get-started How to Think in Systems for Greater Impact: https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/how-to-think-in-systems-for-greater-impact Deirdre Cerminaro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deirdrecerminaro/Earlier episode with Deirdre, “How to Think in Systems”: https://shows.acast.com/creative-confidence-podcast/episodes/69137292543edcb560b28a0dWorld Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2025: https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025In This EpisodeTimestamps are approximate due to edits and ad breaks.(00:00) What is systems thinking, and why it’s relevant now(03:44) Deirdre Cerminaro: a decade at IDEO co-leading Systems and Strategy, now at Airbnb(04:40) An intro to systems thinking, and why it needs a human lens(07:04) What traffic congestion looks like when you see it as a system(09:18) Why the starting question matters, and why it’s almost never right the first time(11:04) A camera analogy for three systems thinking mindsets(12:58) Mindset one: zooming in and out, and the trap of staying in one mode too long(14:35) A food waste systems map that changes the question twice(17:54) What a systems map is really for(18:49) Mindset two: shifting your perspective, and what old clothing reveals about food waste(22:53) Mindset three: checking your own lens, and why mental models are so hard to see(24:35) Reflection questions for spotting your own biases, with a sustainability expert as the test case(27:26) How the three mindsets help anticipate unintended consequences(31:08) Lightning question: what’s inspiring Deirdre lately, from Dubai’s Museum of the Future__________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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    33 mins
  • [From IDEO Thinking] The Hidden Costs of Caregiving: Sierra Hillman

    [From IDEO Thinking] The Hidden Costs of Caregiving: Sierra Hillman
    Sep 30 2026

    Medical bills written in codes patients can't read. Homes that don't fit a wheelchair. A specialized bed that can run up to $15,000 and isn't covered by insurance. For the 24 million caregivers in the US, these are everyday obstacles. And each one points to a design opportunity.

    This week, we’re sharing an episode from IDEO Thinking, a new IDEO podcast where authors read their own stories from IDEO's Thinking blog. So much of what IDEO does is shaped by the people here, and these stories, told in the writers’ own voices, show what human-centered design looks like across different disciplines and practice areas. If you come to Creative Confidence for ideas to bring into your own work, consider this a fresh source of inspiration.

    This episode comes from Sierra Hillman, an interaction designer at IDEO focused on health. She became her father's sole full-time caregiver at 22 after he became paraplegic. Sierra shares the hardest parts of that role and the opportunities she sees for designers, healthcare providers, and businesses to lighten the load.


    Subscribe to the IDEO Thinking podcast here: https://shows.acast.com/ideo-thinking

    Read the story: https://www.ideo.com/journal/opportunities-in-the-hidden-costs-of-caregiving


    Related Resources

    IDEO U's Foundations in Design Thinking Certificate: https://www.ideou.com/products/design-thinking-certificate

    5 principles for easing the burden on caregivers, by Sierra Hillman and John Won: https://www.ideo.com/journal/5-design-principles-for-easing-the-burden-on-caregivers

    Sierra Hillman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sierra-hillman/


    In This Episode

    (Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks.)

    (00:00) Mina introduces IDEO Thinking and Sierra's story

    (02:15) Sierra comes face-to-face with the hidden costs of care at 22

    (04:38) Fighting insurance denials and imagining an AI patient advocate

    (05:52) Turning cryptic medical bills into something patients can read

    (08:07) Preventing bed sores with a smart, affordable bed for home

    (10:33) Finding a wheelchair-accessible home, and the tools that could help

    (12:04) Why designers have only scratched the surface

    __________


    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.
    Show More Show Less
    14 mins
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