Rapid prototyping followed the three "R's": "Rough, Rapid, and Right!" Early in the design process almost daily brainstorming sessions were held in order to generate as many ideas as possible. The act of clipping off ideas brought the entire team closer to the solution. Getting an invitation to "brainstormers" was seen as a sign of worth and personnel rarely turned them down.
IDEO had a "Tech Box", a giant "shoebox" for curiosities and interesting gadgets meant to inspire innovators. Company kept a playroom atmosphere in its offices and employees were encouraged to design their own workspace to reflect their own personalities. Management rarely fired employees. As Kelley said, they did a better job of managing good employees than of weeding out lower performing ones. IDEO lacked hierarchy and there were no permanent job assignments or job titles, as all work was organized into project teams, which formed for the life of a project and then disbanded.IDEO's Innovation Process.
Brainstorming, which was central to IDEO's methodology, led to rapid prototyping or vice versa. There were several principles of brainstorming: stay focused on the topic; encourage wild ideas; defer judgment to avoid interrupting the flow of ideas; build on the ideas of others; hold only one conversation at a time; go for quantity; and be visual.
IDEO's product development process followed several phases:.
Phase 0: Understand/Observe – understanding the client's business and determining feasibility of designing a product.
Phase I: Visualize/Realize – choosing product direction based on ideas, technologies and market perceptions. By the end of this phase the team would have rough three-dimensional models of a product and a general idea of the manufacturing strategy to be utilized.
Phase II: Evaluating/Refining – developing functional prototypes, resolving technical problems as well as problems users face.
