Alexey Ivanov shares his experiences from a month interning at IDEO Boston. He discusses key aspects of the IDEO culture and design thinking process, including an emphasis on teamwork through group projects, cultivating "T-shaped" individuals with broad and deep skills, and regularly setting aside time for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Ivanov also reflects on lessons learned from his time at IDEO and Hyper Island, such as the importance of passion-driven work, embracing change through constant learning, making time for play and experimentation, seriously investing in people and innovation, prioritizing a positive company culture, and cultivating excitement and relationships.

1. IDEO EXPERIENCE
Alexey Ivanov
Interactive Art Director, Class of 2013 @ Hyper Island

2. IDEO BOSTON
VIDEO POSTCARD
https://vimeo.com/68347100

3. DESIGN THINKING
A way of explore, reflect, synthesize and gather
feedback to pursuit innovation through design

5. TEAM WORK

6. Projects in a groups of 3-4 people very much like
Hyper Island: client brief, goals and expectations
set up, flat structure, follow ups and working on
creative part all together.

7. T-SHAPED PEOPLE

8. In 90s IDEO coined the term ‘T-shaped people’,
which refers to individuals that are curious about
and knowledgable in many different areas
(horizontal line of ‘T’), but also are specialists in
one area (vertical line of ‘T’).

9. HANGING TOGETHER

10. Every day there is at least half an hour when
people around office come together and interact: it
can be a lunch, a tea time, a knowledge exchange
or a MASTAKLAFT.

11. storify.com/alexeyivanov/one-month-at-ideo-boston
DAY-BY-DAY STORY:
ONE MONTH
AT IDEO BOSTON

12. ONE MORE THING

13. A FEW THOUGHTS
OF AN AGING MAN
My key learnings from 10 months of Hyper journey
and 2 months of IDEO experience

14. SAYING “SCREW IT,
LET’S DO IT” IS HOW
THE FUN PART STARTS
And even if you have no idea how you are going to
do it yet, with this attitude you’ll learn along the
way. The only fail would be not doing something
you feel you’re passionate about.

15. THE ONLY CONSTANT
THING IS CHANGE
And constantly learning is how you embrace it.
Never fear change and it will be the best thing that
ever happened to you.

16. ALWAYS HAVE TIME
FOR PLAY
Think of this: if you’re always working the way you
work, how do you find the better way to do things?
And if your goal is to create and innovate, how
would you do it without time for stupid mistakes
and a beautiful mess?

17. IF YOU DECIDE TO GO FOR
IT, THEN GO SERIOUSLY

18. The only way to get world-class result is to invest
in it world-class seriously.
Invest in people, invest in learning, invest in
buying things just to break them and see what’s
inside. Think of this: if you are already investing
something as precious as your time, so why go
short about everything else?
Serious play → serious gain.

19. HUNT FOR CULTURE,
NOT FOR MONEY OR
PRAISE
No one ever told me that the culture is a single
most important thing about the place where you
work. Right people will follow the right culture.
Right clients, right projects and right money will
follow the right people. As simple as that.

20. WE ARE IN THE BUSINESS
OF EXCITING PEOPLE
Whatever you do: design, communications or
building a startup, you may find that eventually
your goal is to excite people. Can you ever do it if
you are not excited about what you do?

21. AND EXCITEMENT STARTS
WITH YOUR TEAM
If I would bring only one thing from my all Hyper
experience it would be the importance of exciting
people around you. The rest would come.

22. RELATIONSHIPS WITH
PEOPLE IS WHAT
MATTERS THE MOST

23. Having a head and a pair of hands is enough to go
a very long way. If something doesn’t fit, you may
start over by just having those two. What you
really don’t want to lose is the connection with
your loved ones. This, from what I learned, is the
most valuable part of the journey.

24. THANKS!