Creative Confidence Podcast

Creative Confidence Podcast

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.

Episodes

How to Invest in AI for Your Business: Justin Massa

October 9, 2025 • 50 mins
AI strategist and former IDEO partner Justin Massa joins host Mina Seetharaman to help leaders cut through the hype and focus on where artificial intelligence can create the most value. He shares practical frameworks for identifying strategic opportunities, balancing automation with augmentation, and bringing AI into your organization in a way that’s both human-centered and high-impact. Learn how to use Justin’s AI Opportunity Mat...
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Asked & Answered: Jennifer Lo on Bringing Futuring into Your Organization

September 11, 2025 • 49 mins
In this Asked & Answered episode, Jennifer Lo, IDEO's Senior Director of Design Futures, responds to community questions about how leaders can bring futuring into their organizations. From making the case for ROI, to balancing visionary leadership with grounded operators, to practical ways to get started, Jennifer shares insights on how to use futuring to build resilience and readiness. Read more on the IDEO U blog at ideou.com.
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How to Think Like a Futurist: Jennifer Lo

August 27, 2025 • 41 mins
What does it mean to think like a futurist—and why should every leader learn how? In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, Jennifer Lo, Senior Director of Design Futures at IDEO, shares how futuring can help leaders navigate uncertainty, build resilient strategies, and shape the future they want to see. Learn how to spot signals, expand your strategic horizon, and use storytelling and artifacts to make long-term thinking...
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Asked & Answered: Catherine Connors on Storytelling for Leaders, Scale, and the Future of Narrative

August 13, 2025 • 38 mins
In this bonus episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, storyteller and strategist Catherine Connors returns to answer top questions from our IDEO U community. We explore what it really means to lead with story—beyond frameworks and formats—and how storytelling can be used to build culture, scale ideas, and drive meaningful change. Catherine shares her take on how to build storytelling capacity inside teams, how AI is reshaping ...
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Creative Collaboration with IDEO CEO Mike Peng (Replay)

July 29, 2025 • 37 mins
In this conversation, IDEO CEO Mike Peng shares what it really takes to foster creative collaboration on teams. From designing for trust and tension to navigating ambiguity and divergent thinking, Mike offers a clear-eyed look at how leaders can create the conditions for breakthrough ideas. Originally aired on August 8, 2019, this episode is full of timeless guidance for today’s fast-moving, complex world.
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Storytelling for Change with a Former Disney Exec: Catherine Connors

July 16, 2025 • 36 mins
What makes a story powerful enough to shift culture? In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, Catherine Connors—former Head of Content at Disney Interactive and founder of storytelling consultancy StoryQuo—shares five key shifts that can help leaders use story as a tool for transformation. From rethinking traditional formats to embracing play and shared authorship, Catherine challenges conventional ideas about storytel...
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Asked & Answered: Matthieu Lorrain & Savannah Kunovsky

June 24, 2025 • 26 mins
How are creative professionals actually using AI today? In this Asked and Answered follow-up episode, Google DeepMind’s Matthieu Lorrain and IDEO’s Savannah Kunovsky respond to questions from the IDEO U community. They cover real-world examples of AI-powered co-design, how to maintain creative control with liquid content, designing for neurodivergence, and what it means to make nature a creative collaborator.
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AI x Creativity: Matthieu Lorrain & Savannah Kunovsky

June 4, 2025 • 46 mins
Google DeepMind’s Matthieu Lorrain and IDEO’s Savannah Kunovsky on how AI is reshaping creative work.
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Staying Human-Centered in a Tech-First World | Grace Hwang

April 28, 2025 • 40 mins
Explore how to lead with human-centered design in a tech-driven world. Insights from Grace Hwang on ethical innovation, safety, and designing for impact.
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Introducing Mina Seetharaman: Your New Creative Confidence Podcast Host

April 3, 2025 • 20 mins
The Creative Confidence Podcast has been going strong for eight years, with more than 120 leaders sharing their advice, tips, and stories with the IDEO U community. Longtime podcast listeners might recognize the voices of IDEO U Founder Suzanne Gibbs Howard and Design Director Coe Leta Stafford, our original hosts who masterfully surfaced insights and lessons from our expert guests. Now, we’re excited to introduce you to the new vo...
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What Leaders Should Know About Leading Through Change: Melanie Bell-Mayeda

March 9, 2025 • 42 mins
Learn how to lead through change and uncertainty with a human-centered approach. Discover three key leadership levers to help your team navigate uncertainty with clarity and confidence.
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How to Improve Your Leadership Mindset for Greater Growth: Bonnie Wan

January 26, 2025 • 39 mins
Explore how overcoming limiting beliefs and enhancing your leadership mindset, with guidance from Bonnie Wan, can propel your growth as a leader.
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How to Take Action and Shape Your Future Today: Frederik Pferdt

January 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Discover how small actions today can shape the future you want. Learn key strategies for taking control of your future with empathy, experimentation, and your unique superpower.
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Unlock the Power of Systems Thinking: Deirdre Cerminaro

October 28, 2024 • 31 mins
Learn the core mindsets of systems thinking to tackle complex problems. Our beginner's guide helps you zoom in and out, shift perspectives, and reframe challenges for lasting solutions.
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The Role of Human-Centered Leadership in the Age of AI

October 3, 2024 • 37 mins
Discover the importance of human-centered leadership and AI. Learn how to balance technological advancements with empathy and ethics to drive sustainable success with Chair of IDEO, Tim Brown.
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Humanistic AI: Tom Gruber, Co-Creator of Siri

August 19, 2024 • 40 mins
What skills can help us get the most out of AI? When we approach AI in a human way, with people at the center, it can be a powerful tool that augments how we work. As AI becomes more and more widespread across industries, it’s critical to learn the skills to harness and collaborate with AI in a way that is humanistic, ethical, and impactful. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, we speak with Tom Gruber—product de...
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Creating Impactful Products: YC Sun

May 30, 2024 • 38 mins
Great products and services are driven by great product strategy. But too often we get stuck in the strategy part of product strategy, failing to get tangible enough to make insight-driven decisions about our roadmaps. In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, we speak with YC Sun, Design Director at IDEO. He shares common challenges for leaders when it comes to product strategy, the keys to building great product strat...
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Manager Mentorship Strategies: David Yeager

May 14, 2024 • 46 mins
We all want to be great managers. But when it comes to actually working with and leading young people, there’s no clear strategy or playbook for success. Too often it feels like we’re having to decide between two extremes: enforce high standards and risk pushing our mentees away, or take a more gentle approach and withhold criticism, therefore missing out on critical learning moments. Often the end result can be intergenerational m...
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Why Curiosity is a Business Imperative: Scott Shigeoka

April 2, 2024 • 34 mins
Most of us recognize why curiosity is important. Few of us know how to practice and unleash its full potential. But when leaders embrace curiosity, it becomes a catalyst for transformation, helping leaders challenge their assumptions, connect with people, and build cultures where everyone feels like they matter. Learn why curiosity is one of the most important skills for leaders today, plus tangible tips and activities that we can...
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How Great Leaders Use Friction: Bob Sutton

March 20, 2024 • 32 mins
At its worst, friction can be a destructive force in an organization. Friction can undermine productivity and innovation, create inefficiency, and even chip away at our energy and enthusiasm for work. But what if friction could be reframed as something positive—something that makes the right things, like joy, productivity, and creative thinking, easier? Learn how great leaders use friction to make the right things easier and the...
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