Iedo Case

9-600-143

REV: APR I L 2 6 , 2 0 0 7

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Professors Stefan Thomke and Ashok Nimgade, M.D. prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases

are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.

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STEFAN THOMKE

ASHOK NIMGADE , M . D.

IDEO Product Development

"I should have had café latte," thought Dennis Boyle as he was sipping his strong espresso at

Peet's coffeehouse, just around the corner from his office. Many designers and engineers from his

company, IDEO, one of the world's largest and arguably most successful product development firms,

often gathered here and talked. It was late summer 1998 in Palo Alto, the heart of California's Silicon

Valley, and Boyle gathered his thoughts for a meeting with David Kelley, the head and founder of

IDEO.

Boyle had just led his group at IDEO through the development of 3Com's Palm V hand-held

computer, which designers and managers at both firms already considered a successful product with

very large commercial potential. Now he was being asked to design the competing Visor product by

the very same individuals he had worked with previously. The only twist was that these clients

themselves now worked at Handspring, a new venture whose goal was to come out with a fully

compatible, slightly smaller and less expensive palm-size computer that could easily add

functionality. 3Com had even licensed out operating software to Handspring.

Although working on the Palm V challenged IDEO's engineering skills, working with Handspring

promised to challenge the very manner in which it operated. It operated on the principle of getting

all team members to "fail often to succeed sooner"—a creative process that often looked to outsiders

like "spinning wheels." The process usually generated a fountain of absurd-appearing but

innovative ideas before the final answer and product miraculously came through a process of

discipline and fast decision-making.

The IDEO philosophy melded Californian iconoclasm with a genuine respect for new ideas and

invention. For over two decades, the firm contributed to the design of thousands of new products

ranging from the computer mouse to the stand-up toothpaste dispenser. Along the way, it had also

become the largest award-winning design firm in the world (see Exhibit 2). IDEO came to national

prominence when ABC's Nightline illustrated its innovation process by showing its designers reengineer

a decades-old icon, the supermarket shopping cart, in just five days.

Now Boyle had to decide whether he should suggest to Handspring's management to add more

time to a development schedule that was less than half of what it took to design the stunningly

beautiful and innovative Palm V. Boyle's group feared that an overly aggressive development