We've partnered with IDEO

Last night a few of us attended an event at IDEO’s London office, to discuss what change really looks like and how organisations can make it happen. Mike gave a short talk, which he’ll tell you more about in another blog post tomorrow.

We’ve been working with IDEO since 2016. We have a partnership to work on large scale private sector digital transformation projects.

IDEO is a global design and innovation company and it’s full of really interesting people. They’re world famous for their “design thinking” approach and for designing Apple’s first mouse. They only work with clients with a strong purpose. We’re helping out with a number of those relationships. For example: Intercorp, the Peruvian business we mentioned in our blog post earlier this week.

We have a lot in common with IDEO. We both put a lot of emphasis on user centered design, on doing lots of research and understanding needs. We share the same values, particularly when it comes to doing things over talking about doing things. We get along well. We’ve already discovered that we can help each other.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried to visit as many IDEO offices as I can; I’d like to collect the whole set:

We’ve already set out our definition of “digital”. Everyone thinks the “Public” in “Public Digital” just means “public sector”. It doesn’t. It means projects that improve the lives of many people, and built using the culture, processes, business models & technologies of the Internet era.

We mean “Public” the way the Victorians meant it: projects at a grand scale that improve the lives of many people. Transformation at scale. Most of it about essential infrastructure – for the Victorians, that meant railway lines and sewers. For us, it means digital transformation in large organisations like governments and trans-nationals.

Sometimes publicly funded, sometimes it’s privately funded, but always conducted in the public realm. Sometimes it’s done by by governments, sometimes it isn’t.

For example the mission of InterCorp is to “make Peru the best place to raise a family in Latin America.” Now, that’s a big ambition. InterCorp accounts for 4.0% of Peru’s GDP so they have the scale to turn that ambition into reality.

IDEO are great partners to help us do this work in the private sector. We meet lots of consultants and they are always selling fear. IDEO are selling optimism – we like that. It’s not all “Robots Will Steal Your Job!” It’s something far more meaningful and proactive.

So, now it’s official: you can hire IDEO and Public Digital together.

If that sounds like something you want to do, talk to us: [email protected]