Years ago, an IDEO team was asked to design a case to transport a donor kidney. They started with the practical questions: temperature, safety, mechanics. Then, through field research, they realized how much emotion was involved in the process. 

That story was shared by Jane Fulton Suri, one of the founding figures of human-centered design at IDEO. She joined IDEO’s predecessor firm in 1987, trained originally in psychology and architecture, and spent nearly four decades building out what's now called design research

In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, IDEO CEO Mike Peng talks with Jane about what separates a good insight from a great one, and why, even as AI reshapes so much of the work, she still believes nothing replaces being what she calls "a sensory human being in the world."

Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Article Summary

• Insight is an epiphany, not a summary
• How design research became a sellable phase and what got lost
• Nothing replaces the sensory abilities of a human
• Why Jane doesn't love the word "research"
• The curse of imposter syndrome

• Put it into practice 

Insight is an epiphany, not a summary

Synthesizing what you saw into a tidy framework isn't Jane’s definition of an insight. A real insight shifts something in your head, and it shifts again when you tell the story to someone else.

"Insight for me is when it's a change of state — in your head, and in the telling of that story in other people's heads. There's an epiphany."
— Jane Fulton Suri, IDEO

Jane explores more about the “art of the insight” in this reflection on her career at IDEO.

How design research became a sellable phase and what got lost

When Jane started at IDEO, there was no budget for exploratory work, so she just did it. The stories she brought back turned into something clients wanted to pay for. That's how design research became a scoped, sellable phase. Jane is candid that the shift came with real upside—better work, better stories to tell—but it also came with a cost. Teams built research plans before they'd discovered anything, then felt boxed in when the real work pointed somewhere the plan hadn't accounted for. She shares a story of work IDEO did for Supercuts to redesign the haircutting experience as an example of the defining era of design research. 

Nothing replaces the sensory abilities of a human

"There's just nothing to beat being a sensory human being in the world and encountering other people,” Jane says of being a great researcher. “Even a conversation with one person, which is not expensive." Your sensory capabilities extend to intuition. She encourages designers to have conviction in their gut instincts and pair that with evidence, not wait for the evidence to give them permission.

Jane answers questions from our community on design research, human empathy, and observation in this interview.

Why Jane doesn't love the word "research"

Jane has reservations about the word "research" itself. It calls to mind clipboards, notes, and someone extracting information from someone else's life. She prefers to think of it as co-discovery: two people getting curious about the same thing at the same time, together.

She points to the artist Grayson Perry as an example of what that looks like in practice. He can be genuinely, non-judgmentally curious about people, without ever making the moment about himself.

The curse of imposter syndrome

Asked what she'd tell a younger version of herself, Jane doesn't point to a skill or a technique. She points to time lost to self-doubt.

Her advice: people are responding to something real in your work. Take confidence in that and trust yourself. 

Put it into practice

Protect space for exploration, even under pressure to plan. If your process requires a scoped plan before you've discovered anything, build in room to follow what you find along the way, too.

Let conviction lead sometimes, even without full evidence. If you believe in an idea, you don't always need a data point to justify sharing it. Evidence and conviction do different jobs.

Reframe research as co-discovery. Approach the people you're talking with as collaborators in figuring something out together, not as sources you're extracting information from.

Explore more

Take a course

Jane teaches IDEO U's Insights for Innovation, the foundational course on research, observation, and finding insights. It's part of both the Foundations in Design Thinking Certificate and the AI x Design Thinking Certificate.

Related episodes

Why Bringing Curiosity Into Your Work Takes Courage: Jane Fulton Suri

How to Build Empathy Skills: Q&A with Jane Fulton Suri

About the Speaker

Jane Fulton Suri

IDEO Partner Emerita and Former Executive Design Director

LinkedIn

With a background in psychology and architecture, she pioneered human-centered approaches and evolved techniques for empathic observation and experience prototyping that are now employed widely in design. Jane previously co-led IDEO’s global Consumer Experience practice and was IDEO’s Chief Creative Officer. She coauthored and published IDEO’s Method Cards, wrote Thoughtless Acts? Observations on Intuitive Design, and published IDEO’s Little Book of Design Research Ethics. She has been looking beyond human behavior to explore how patterns in nature and living systems may inform and inspire design. Jane is an instructor for the IDEO U Insights for Innovation course and holds several design research awards and patents for her innovations.