Enhancing Innovation: Organizational Attributes of IDEO's Project

This case study examines the organizational attributes of IDEO, focusing on the IDEO shopping cart project, to understand how they foster innovation. It highlights IDEO's unique culture, emphasizing teamwork, diversification, and employee involvement. The analysis covers conceptualization processes, a strong focus on goal achievement, and the importance of speedy prototyping using mock-ups. The study concludes that IDEO's success stems from employee participation, a focused approach, team diversification, and continuous conceptualization, all contributing to the company's innovative environment. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar case studies and solved assignments.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO
Organizational Attributes of IDEO
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1ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO
Introduction
The paper will be discussing on the different organizational attributes of IDEO
shopping cart project. The main and purpose of the paper is to analyse the different attributes
of the organization wherein the main task was redesigning the shopping cart within five days.
The paper will be discussing the attributes which will be relating to the success story of
IDEO. There are different kinds of tools which are required to be used by the IDEO in order
to develop innovative kinds of products in such a manner which will be helpful in developing
prototype through the help of mock tests which will be assisting in developing the most
effective aspect of developing most innovative aspects appropriately.
Organizational Traits of IDEO
IDEO is one of the global design organization which was being established in the year
1991 is one of the major communities of designers, engineers, researchers and teachers who
tries to share values with one another as to deliver positive brand image with the designs
(ABC News, 1999). IDEO has been one of the businesses which have gained popularity in
the business for the different organizations due to the innovation, teamwork and
technological advancements aspects.
IDEO has started their business from designing the first Apple mouse to toothbrush
and they had a remarkable experience. David M. Kelly, who is the founder of IDEO along
with other employees has defined work as the play, brainstorming as the science and the rules
are being treated as the techniques of rule breaking (Driskill, 2018). The video prepared by
ABC nightline relating to the entire process of work done by IDEO wherein the main motto
was to redesign the different shopping cart innovatively within the five days and the name
provided to it is ‘The Deep Dive’.

2ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO
In the video which was presented by ABC nightline, it has helped in showcasing the
performance of the task by IDEO in such a limited span of time. While designing the
shopping cart, the main focus was on providing safety to the kids along with handling should
be made easy and the innovation was shown in checkout system. It was not an easy job for
the company in designing the shopping cart in limited time, however the culture of the
organization, diversification and involvement of team members were the most essential
aspects which were the target factors which encouraged them in receiving the innovative
products (Kransdorff, 2017).
IDEO Culture
The major attribute of the IDEO is the culture of the working environment in which
the culture is defined as the behavior pattern that is required to be consistent. The culture of
the IDEO helps in representing that the employees are highly responsible for designing the
working areas and they possess the overall capability to cope with various situations
(Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). In IDEO, the team leader is chosen in accordance to the
ability of playing capability in managing team. There is no such following of the hierarchical
organizational structure, as the team follows the matrix structure which mainly focuses on
flexibility and coordination. The performance of IDEO resulted in the higher efficiency as the
main focus is on the products to make them innovative.
Diversification and Involvement of Team Members
From the respective video, it can be analyzed that the team members played a major
role in managing the different activities related to the redesigning of the products within the
limited time frame. The members were divided with the tasks equally and all the members
were interested in showing their participation. There were skilled employees who were being
employed in the team such as experts of marketing, linguist along with engineers who played

3ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO
a major role in managing the tasks (Chisholm, 2017). It helps in showing that there is huge
diversification among the team members and it led to more accurate along with improved
decision-making aspects.
Conceptualization
The proper conceptualization is regarded as the most effective tool which helped in
the overall decision-making approach. From the video of IDEO, it can be analyzed that the
different team members were providing with the different solutions and provided their ideas
in innovating the products which is the result of the conceptualization (Forbes.com, 2019). As
discussed by the different authors, it can be identified that decision-making is the major
approach which is at last of the conceptualization and it helps in making the decisions which
are effective and it will provide huge support to provide their opinions regarding making the
product more competitive.
Focus
Major focus on the achievement of the goals as to meet the different targets
effectively is the main aspect while working on a specific part. The main objective of being
focused and attention are the two mandatory aspects as to know what are the different
objectives and goals of the organization (Vohs et al., 2018). In achieving the positive results
in the tasks performed by the employees at IDEO, it is mandatory to achieve the innovation
along with planned success as well.
Speedy Prototyping
Proper creation of the full-fledged model which can be adopted by the organization as
to deliver the most effective product and services can be helpful in managing the tasks within
a short span of time. In case of IDEO, it was being noticed that the company was provided

4ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO
with five-day deadline as to redesign the entire shopping cart which will be innovative and
gain competitive advantage (Scholl et al., 2018). Furthermore, in such scenario the different
end users of the products and services will be gaining and receiving feedback that can be
incorporated successfully. IDEO have tried to develop the prototype with the usage of mock
ups which mainly focused on combining all the different mock ups and develop and design
the most innovative product as being distributed to the users of the product in the market.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above, it can be inferred that success of IDEO is based on various
kinds of factors which included the participation among the different employees, focus of the
employees, diversification among the team members along with continuous conceptualization
among the team members which will be helpful in modelling the vision and objectives of the
company. Furthermore, the culture of the organization helps in demonstrating the different
behavior and it will help in analyzing the rate of success for the company.
The other benefit of the team which is being diversified wherein the different
viewpoints of the employees are being gathered and it helped in representing in the final
project which became successful in the short span of time as well. With the help of the
innovativeness in the different products and services, the organization can create a huge
difference as it will provide global recognition to the company along with the employees.

5ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO
References
ABC News. (1999). The Deep Dive. Retrieved from ABC News Home Video of Nightline\
Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S. (2015). Changing organizational culture: Cultural change
work in progress. Routledge.
Chisholm, R. (2017). Interorganizational decision making. Routledge.
Driskill, G. W. (2018). Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis workbook.
Routledge.
Forbes.com (2019) Why Organizations Need To Focus On Culture First (online) Retrieved
from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2017/10/31/why-
organizations-need-to-focus-on-culture-first/#4b86d52b582a [Accessed on 4 February
2019]
Kransdorff, A. (2017). Corporate DNA: Using organizational memory to improve poor
decision-making. Routledge.
Scholl, I., LaRussa, A., Hahlweg, P., Kobrin, S., & Elwyn, G. (2018). Organizational-and
system-level characteristics that influence implementation of shared decision-making
and strategies to address them—a scoping review. Implementation Science, 13(1), 40.
Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., Schmeichel, B. J., Twenge, J. M., Nelson, N. M., & Tice, D.
M. (2018). Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: A limited-resource
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and Self-Control (pp. 45-77). Routledge.