

Creative Confidence Podcast
IDEO U
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.
Discover more at IDEOU.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 21, 2021 • 3min
Well Said: Create Space for Joy
Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of The Aesthetics of Joy, helps us connect with physical feelings of joy in this 2-minute exercise.
This clip revisits one of our favorite moments of 2021 on the Creative Confidence Podcast.
Listen to the full episode with Ingrid and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-ingrid

Dec 20, 2021 • 2min
Well Said: It's OK to Be On a Winding Path
Michelle Lee, a managing director in IDEO's Play Lab, embraces how mixed influences led her down a winding, joyful career path.
This clip revisits one of our favorite moments of 2021 on the Creative Confidence Podcast.
Listen to the full episode with Michelle and read a recap of the conversation on the IDEO U blog: https://ideo.in/well-said-michelle

Dec 17, 2021 • 31min
Lead by Empowering Others: Lauren Collins & Frances Frei
In this episode, IDEO’s Lauren Collins and Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei discuss how to level up your leadership practice by honing the skills and mindsets needed to empower your team and organization.
View the full recap at https://ideo.in/lauren-and-frances

Nov 23, 2021 • 31min
Scaling Affordable Child Care: Chris Bennett
How did Wonderschool CEO and Co-founder Chris Bennett go from a spark of an idea to a venture-backed business?
In this episode, Chris takes us inside his human-centered process for building a business. Chris shares about building empathy with his customers, prototyping the business model, finding the right sales channels, guiding a team, and staying inspired and connected to the mission.
View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

4 snips
Nov 16, 2021 • 22min
Mentor Moment: How do I onboard new team members to encourage collaboration?
Mentor Moment is a series where we help a listener with a work challenge. In this episode, Heather Currier Hunt, IDEO’s executive talent director and global head of learning and development, gives Kathleen some ideas for ways she can onboard several new team members and set the stage for a collaborative and successful team dynamic.
Learn more about Heather at https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-currier-hunt-b114833a/.
Are you struggling with a work challenge and wish you could get some words of wisdom from someone who’s been there? We’d love to help! Go to ideou.com/podcast and find details on how to share your story in the show notes for this episode.

12 snips
Nov 15, 2021 • 28min
Frameworks for Organizational Change: Joe Brown
Joe Brown, Executive Director at IDEO, explains how to use three different frameworks to approach change in your organization.

4 snips
Oct 26, 2021 • 32min
Maintaining Momentum with Mode Shifts: Katie Soven
In order to maintain momentum and reach their goals, teams need to shift gears several times throughout a project. Project leaders are responsible for sensing the team’s need to shift and guiding them through these moments.
Katie Soven, senior portfolio director at IDEO, shares how to maintain team momentum through complexity by shifting modes, the cycle of inhale and exhale in project work, and a framework for project leaders to know when and how to make a shift.
View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

29 snips
Oct 5, 2021 • 28min
Getting Started with Strategic Planning: Roger Martin
If you’re wondering where to start with strategic planning, pause for a minute before getting into tactical ideas or writing a hundred-page strategic plan of action. Focus on identifying your strategic problem first.
Strategy advisor Roger Martin shares common mistakes people make in the early stages of strategic planning and how to avoid them, ways to think creatively about your strategic problem, and how to frame a question to guide your thinking.
View the full recap at ideou.com/blog.

6 snips
Sep 30, 2021 • 33min
Human-Centered Entrepreneurship: Brit Morin
With 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur and CEO, Brit Morin has learned a lot about what it takes to get an idea off the ground and how to inspire and lead a team. In this episode, she shares stories from the early days of her startup Selfmade, lessons on human-centered leadership, ways women are uniquely suited to excel as entrepreneurs, and skills she says are often under-valued but closely tied to entrepreneurial success.
View the full recap at ideou.com/blog

Sep 15, 2021 • 15min
Mentor Moment: Building Support for Innovation Work, with Stuart Getty
Mentor Moment is a new mini series where we help a listener with a work challenge. In this episode, IDEO Senior Design Lead Stuart Getty gives caller Heidi a few ideas for ways she can get her team and company on board and excited about innovation work.
Learn more about Stuart at linkedin.com/in/stuart-getty.
Are you struggling with a work challenge and wish you could get some words of wisdom from someone who’s been there? We’d love to help! Go to ideou.com/podcast for details on how to share your story.