ideo case study harvard

1.1 The Changing Nature of Client Requests

"The questions that we get asked by our clients are questions that can never be answered once. They are questions that need to be answered again and again and again." – Ilya Prokopoff, Partner, IDEO

IDEO shifted from product design and engineering to an ever-growing array of complex process challenges in response to changes in the types of requests made by clients.

The Changing Nature of Client Requests (1:16)

1.2 starting with a clean slate.

Embracing ambiguity was an intrinsic aspect of IDEO's process. Designers needed to abandon preconceived assumptions and resist the urge to respond to challenges with quickly formed solutions.

Starting with a Clean Slate (1:06)

1.3 cultivating creativity.

IDEO carefully crafted its culture to foster creativity and collaboration.

Cultivating Creativity (:36)

Helping others succeed (1:31), staying inspired (1:43), creating space for creativity (3:45), 2.1 rising consumer expectations.

"In mature markets, like Lima, the customers are asking for something else in the experience." – Mildreth Maldonado, CFO and CMO, Cineplanet

With disposable income on the rise, Peruvian consumers were demanding more and better service offerings.

Rising Consumer Expectations (2:21)

2.2 cineplanet's redesign goals.

Cineplanet embarked on a concerted effort to head off current and emerging threats to its business model – threats that included the advent of online streaming, piracy, and increasing competition in what had already become a highly commoditized offering to customers. Managers hoped that the redesign would improve the customer experience and give Cineplanet an advantage in the marketplace.

More Than Movies, Popcorn, and Beverages (3:14)

2.3 opportunities.

Cineplanet's management team sought to improve the quality of its websites, lobbies, theaters, and every service interaction customers had with the company, as a way to tailor experiences that would suit unmet needs and desires.

A Lot of Work to Do (1:48)

3.1 on the ground in peru.

"Everything is accelerated on this project. You design enough, to learn enough, to move to the next level." – Scott Paterson, Project Lead, IDEO

The project team, which comprised IDEO staff and Cineplanet employees, worked closely for several weeks in South America, traveling and living together as they conducted field research. At times, their close proximity and the intensity of the schedule made for challenging group dynamics.

Working as a Team (3:16)

Meet the team.

The project team wanted to put themselves in the end-users' shoes. Immersion in the culture was key.

In the Users' Shoes (1:49)

3.2 the exploratory phase.

One of the ways that the team identified latent, unmet needs was by conducting in-depth interviews with current and potential end users. In one such interview in March 2014, the team traveled to the house of a movie goer and spent more than two hours in a wide-ranging conversation.

Customer Interview (10:21)

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IDEO: Human-Centered Service Design

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Product Description

Publication Date: October 03, 2014

Source: Harvard Business School

Teach this case online with new suggestions added to the Teaching Note. This case study includes mandatory video elements, which are integrated into the pre-class assignment for students and the classroom teaching plan for instructors. Information on how to access and use these multimedia components is included in the Teaching Note. The case describes IDEO, one of the world's leading design firms, and its human-centered innovation culture and processes. It is an example of what managers can do to make their own organizations more innovative. In reaction to a rapidly changing competitive landscape, a team of IDEO designers have been hired by Cineplanet, the leading movie cinema chain in Peru, to reinvent the movie-going experience for Peruvians. Cineplanet wishes to better align their operating model with the needs and behaviors of its customers.

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Design and business: an analyse of the IDEO case study

This is an individual Harvard Business Case analysis based on a dilemma of IDEO. The purpose of this analyse is to discuss whether IDEO should design the required product for Handspring regardless the bypass of the most identified and the most important early stages in IDEO design phase, or negotiate with Handspring to add more time to the research process of the product which will at the end influent the company’s profit. This paper will analyse the situation from the view of both organizations and focus on the different impacts on both companies through the discussion about corporate culture, product development process, business profit and design transformation. The paper has been marked with "distinction" by the university of Southampton, WSA.

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This research aims to enhance, once more, the interventive value of Design in our contemporaneity. The selection of a set of analysis areas in the domain of Design was one of our concerns, as well as the relative requirements of the products and respective methods of conception. This paper starts with the investigation history and also the methodologies in the Design area in the objective to make a point of the situation and to give a strategic contribution, in the way of its solid and interventional aspect in the economic social and academic areas. In spite of the factual collects on what was done, who done or is doing, about scientific investigation in the Design area, is fundamental to notice the impact of these works in the professional activities or in the entities that, by chance, have benefited of their results, as well as reflect on the vision and expectations that those agents have relatively to the academic investigation in this area. In the global society information, on our days, the enterprises must be concentrated in the task of maintaining competitively and accepting new challenges. Some subjective properties of Design are also subject of analysis, for the importance that they have assumed in the persecution of the design project, like interactions, sensorial aspects, design for pleasure, among others, looking users satisfaction, for thus being to project and construct fruition objects which can be competitive in the global market. All these various aspects must always be linked either to the conception process or to the user satisfaction.

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IDEO PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Home >> Harvard Case Study Analysis Solutions >> IDEO PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

IDEO PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Case Solution

1.     Define the history and background of IDEO product Development Company?

The IDEO is a 22-year-old design and innovation consultancy which is formed by the joined force of David Kelly, Bill Moggridge and Mike Nutall in 1991. Ideo is one of the leading companies who provide organizations an environment where they freely follow the muse and muses of their own choice. Moreover, the company also helps the organizations in building and renovating its brand's image in the market. The design of IDEO is iconoclastic and creates on the un restrictive imagination of individuals. On the other hand, due to its innovative services the company also builds its dependable reputation in the market as well as established by the various victorious goods that they have designed.

The management team of IDEO, who worked on PALM V, PDA design, and 3COM's is always applied IDEO unorthodox approach for completing these projects. Moreover, Handspring asked IDEO to work on Handsprings Palm compatible Visor PDA projects, along with some overlap in time between the PALM V and Handspring Efforts. However, the process which is offered by Handspring would not support the full version of the IDEO design process.

This case discusses the circumstances of the prospective Handspring and Palm V project. This testimony search for answer the problem: Should IDEO ask for a longer agenda so that they be able to pertain all their design know-how in order to make the most excellent product possible, or should IDEO recognize the Handspring venture as a design to cost and plan job with negligible want for the imaginative design?

2.     Define the profile of IDEO product Development Company?

The IDEO was founded in 1991 by the merger of a joint force of Matrix headed by Mike Nuttall, David Kelley Design, and ID two headed by Bill Moggridge. After this merger, all the client companies wanted to develop, design and manufacturing new product: prototyping machining, industrial design, information technology, ergonomic and even cognitive psychology . The company combined the engineering and art departments in order to build the visually tempting goods that were theoretically useful. On the other hand, the company also employs prototyping from the starting of the design procedure .

3.     Define the problems?

This testimony searches for answer the problem: Should IDEO ask for a longer agenda so that they be able to pertain all their design know-how in order to make the most excellent product possible, or should IDEO recognize the Handspring venture as a design to cost and plan a job with negligible want for the imaginative design? However, the company faced many challenges in the product development industry. The main problem that the company faced includes low-cost goals and time pressure. Moreover, the former executive of the company decides that the market research is not necessary for the development of the first project. Due to the intense competition, Dennis Boyle offers to IDEO to develop a competing product that competes with the products of other market competitors.

The issue confronting Boyle was regardless of whether to set aside his organization's convention of investing generous measures of time and vitality on the outline period of an item with a specific end goal to surge the Visor PDA to market, which would be less expensive and have more potential for growing usefulness. However, would do not have the trademark high caliber and all around explored plan that had made IDEO outlines the leaders of advancement in the business . The company also sacrifices innovation and design in order to meet the goals of clients.

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AI-Powered Ocean Protection and Sustainable Trade: The Galapagos Islands as a Case Study

May 5, 2024 | Innovating Trade , Online Scholarship

*Editor’s Note: This article is part of HILJ’s collaboration with the  Georgetown Journal of International Law  (“GJIL”) and the  Georgetown Center on Inclusive Trade and Development   on  Innovating Trade: The Intersection of Emerging Technologies, Climate Initiatives, and International Law . HILJ and GJIL each edited and published different articles in the collaboration. Articles published by GJIL are available on the  GJIL website . 

*María Isabel Ortiz Nuques

I. Introduction

The sea and nearby areas have served as a vital supply of resources and a trading hub for hundreds of years . Food security and the impact of ocean activities on the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment are complex issues that interact with trade. In times where change is urgently needed, trade must adapt to environmental protection in a world shaken by the climate crisis.  In this context, fishing activities would benefit from artificial intelligence (“AI”)-powered tools to manage resources and understand fish populations amidst the transformations expected due to climate change.

This piece will focus on the Galapagos Islands as a case study. First, it will briefly illustrate how protecting marine environments has implications for human right protections. Second, it will provide an overview of the challenges the Galapagos Islands’ marine ecosystem faces regarding overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices. Third, this piece will exemplify how AI can create complex models that better reflect the state of fisheries under the pressures of climate change, which can be a helpful tool to prevent overfishing and protect fish stocks. Fourth, it will explore how AI-powered models may become a key tool for the application of international trade instruments in the future.

II. Climate change, the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and the Galápagos Fisheries

The rapid deterioration of ecosystems due to climate change and biodiversity loss creates serious consequences for areas such as human rights and trade. These crises affect the rights to life, health, food, water, and adequate standard of living of human beings around the world, including those belonging to vulnerable groups, which may be disproportionally affected. The consequences of environmental degradation are alarming and deeply connected to the universal need for a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, which has been recognized as a human right by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

One of the world’s most sensitive ecosystems is the Galapagos Islands, around 900 kilometers (560 miles) west of the Ecuadorian coast. Its population mainly relies on tourism, fishing, and agriculture as economic activities, all of which would be deeply affected by the climate emergency. Climate change thus directly threatens Galapagos Islanders’ livelihoods. The waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands are rich and ecologically diverse . This diversity made them a target for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing , which has put iconic species such as the scalloped hammerhead shark at great risk.

The Galapagos area’s biological richness has also been affected by overfishing , as exemplified by the brown sea cucumber populations in the area. The sea cucumber serve an important ecological function by consuming debris and sediment. However, sea cucumber have been intensely fished for consumption to the point where fishing bans have had to be implemented for several years in the islands. In 2021, the sea cucumber fishery in the Galapagos Islands was reopened, only for it to be closed again two weeks later . While sea cucumber, by law, can only be fished inside the Galapagos exclusive economic zone (“EEZ”) using artisanal methods, the fact that 90 percent of the total catch goes to Asian countries shows how important trade is to sea cucumber preservation.

At the same time, marine resources outside of EEZs are available for fishing by international ships under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea . This has resulted in several instances where fishing fleets – mostly comprised of Chinese vessels – line up just outside the Ecuadorian EEZ around the Galapagos Islands. Some of these ships have resorted to turning off tracking devices to avoid recognition. In FAO Fishing Area 87, where the Galapagos Islands are located, Chinese distant water fleet (“DWF”) vessels reported losses even after ample subsidies from the Chinese government. These losses suggest that some vessels could be participating in IUU fishing to remain profitable. Fisheries’ subsidies allow unprecedented and usually unsustainable fishing operations and remain one of the main causes of overfishing. Specifically, around the Galapagos Islands, fishing for large-scale Chinese DWF fleets is unprofitable without such aid .

III. Climate change and AI as a tool to anticipate the unknown

The practices conducted by fishing fleets around the Galapagos Islands are not an isolated phenomenon. Around the world, similar dynamics arise between countries with rich fish stocks and countries with ample fishing demand and considerable subsidies to the fishing industry. The rapid pace at which fish stocks are depleting globally is concerning . These pressures are only worsened by climate change, which is expected to shift the dynamics of marine ecosystems and affect the abundance, migratory patterns, and locations of fish stocks. Plenty of uncertainty remains about the impact of climate change on fisheries. However, AI can be a helpful tool in reducing this uncertainty, as powerful models of physical processes can be created to reflect the complex dynamics related to climate change.

AI can process enormous volumes of data. This allows humanity to better understand what the future behavior of fisheries may look like, and provides forecasts of fish stock abundance and distribution that can change and improve in accuracy as more data is introduced. Moreover, AI models can identify patterns and relationships that may be missed by human analysts . This competence is useful because some processes related to climate change are not yet completely understood. More accurate projections of fish stocks could be attained despite changing circumstances. If the results obtained from these AI models were to be taken into consideration for marine resource governance, they could contribute to the preservation of a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and the protection of food security for future generations.

IV. An environmental shift for international trade law and its impact on human rights

Placing an emphasis on what the future may look like for fish populations in the context of climate change is an important tool to create policy that prioritizes responsible fishing and the sustainable trade of existing fish stocks. AI-generated models can comply with international law as it shifts towards environmental considerations. In 2022, the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) members adopted the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies to end certain fisheries subsidies. The deal is the first WTO agreement to focus on the environment. Its provisions prohibit subsidies to fishing on overfished stocks like the brown sea cucumber population around the Galapagos Islands.

The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies considers a stock to be overfished if it is recognized as such by the coastal member under whose jurisdiction the fishing is taking place or by a relevant regional fishery management organization or arrangement in areas and species under its competence. These entities must base their decisions on the best scientific evidence available according to Article 4 of the Agreement. As AI models become increasingly sophisticated and accurate, their forecasts and calculations may become some of the best scientific evidence available to detect and predict overfishing in light of climate change conditions, to the point where they could become necessary for making overfishing designations under the Agreement.

Taking emerging technologies into consideration when developing international policy is necessary to secure the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, which is intertwined with many other rights. The right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment holds a profound connection with food security, for example, which is increasingly threatened because of climate change. These interconnections mean that protecting our seas using the best scientific methods available is a key commitment to be adopted by states around the world. Since marine resource governance is inextricably linked with trade, international trade law must adapt to further advance environmental and sustainability goals for the future of humanity. It can do so with the help of rapidly advancing technologies.

IV. Conclusions

The links that connect humans, the sea, and trade have existed for hundreds of years. Recently, marine resource governance has become more complex as the world population grows and develops more powerful fishing systems to satisfy global needs for food. An important challenge marine ecosystems face alongside the pressures of unsustainable fishing are the transformations expected to take place because of climate change, which puts the environment and global food security at risk.

The impact of fishing activities is deeply intertwined with international trade and decisions that make fishing profitable, such as subsidies for DWF vessels. Fishing activities inside the Galapagos EEZ and around it show how some fish populations that serve an important ecological function but are highly regarded as commodities in international trade, such as the brown sea cucumber, can struggle with current fishing demands and policies.

While climate change is imminent, uncertainty remains regarding marine ecosystems. This uncertainty continues to be a major obstacle for decision-making towards better fisheries management worldwide. In this sense, AI can help better predict fish stock abundance, behavior, and location as the effects of climate change regrettably continue. AI continues to play a central role in technological developments regarding marine ecosystem management. At the same time, international trade law is moving toward an increasingly environmental approach, as shown by the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which in part seeks to control subsidies for overfished stocks. Determinations of overfished stocks must rely on the best scientific evidence available. Soon, ever-progressing AI models may play a crucial part in trade and environment negotiations.

*María Isabel Ortiz Nuques received her law degree with honors from the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, has a special interest in arbitration and international law, and currently works as a tribunal secretary in arbitration cases. She would like to thank the HILJ editorial team for their comments and feedback.

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