Job Description

Director, Play Lab

In a nutshell:

IDEO is seeking a senior leader to join our Play Lab , a team that is dedicated to applying play principles to design engaging products and experiences that build trust and psychological safety, stoke curiosity and creativity, increase engagement and collaboration, and provoke new perceptions and behaviors. We are looking for someone who is passionate about transforming hearts and minds, bringing a human-centered lens to design solutions and inspiring our clients to create impact based on real human needs and behaviors.

As a Director at IDEO you will work collaboratively, creatively, and flexibly with interdisciplinary teams and with our clients on a variety of projects that invite audiences to engage with spaces, services and products in new ways. You will both guide project teams and immerse in them. This means that you will spend some of your time working across multiple projects, advising teams and managing client relationships; other projects may require you to dive deeper into content, serving as a core team member.

Additional responsibilities include mentoring designers, driving business development and spreading the world about the importance of play as a thought leader both inside IDEO and in the world beyond.

Why is this role important for IDEO’s work?

The IDEO Play Lab has brought over 250 products to market in partnership with beloved brands like Mattel, Hasbro and Sesame Workshop. Through this experience, we have honed our expertise in play, leveraging play principles, game mechanics and immersive storytelling, to tackle challenges across industries, including education, health, food and beverage, retail, and more. We believe that play has the potential to connect with people at a deeper, emotional level that captivates, delights, and inspires. It has the power to build loyalty, enhance learning, and motivate positive behavior change.

As a Director in IDEO’s Play Lab, you’ll have the opportunity to work at the intersection of strategy and design, ask big questions, leverage a mix of business and design thinking to tackle design challenges with our clients and work with an incredible team of multidisciplinary designers.

There is an opportunity to make our work more equitable, nourishing, and sustainable. This role is critical to making that vision a reality, through expanding the network of clients and partners we’re working with, to giving our clients the confidence that the work we deliver can be brought to market successfully, to help define creative excellence in the industry both inside and outside of IDEO.

The ideal candidate has a unique blend of real-world experience and theory – someone who likes to blur the lines between strategy and creativity, who has a passion for nurturing client relationships, setting a strategic vision, and leading teams. They have deep expertise in human-centered innovation, experiential or game design, and/or strategy. In your past life, you may have been a design strategist, a creative director or a senior interaction design lead.

Once here you will:

• Help shape and share our strategy for helping clients find new frontiers of growth, and evolve their organizations to unlock new possibilities.
• Own and collaborate in new client relationships and partnerships, bringing in new business and leveraging your existing network to realize impact.
• Scope and guide large, complex projects to be both creatively fulfilling and successful in creating the intended outcomes in our clients’ organizations. Grow and sustain key relationships that will help push the portfolio of impact.
• Lead by example, taking on core team roles on projects to practice your craft and push our standards of excellence in delivering quality work.
• Work with the rest of the leadership team, hold shared accountability for revenue commitments.
• Mentor designers and champion their growth at IDEO.
• Shape IDEO’s capabilities to meet market needs, including collaborating with IDEO designers and leaders to deliver new products, services, and experience, and evolving our mindsets, skill sets, tools, and partnerships to design and deliver experiences.
• Help craft and share our POV around the value of Play and how it contributes to solving complex challenges.
• Build an inclusive culture and community alongside the existing leadership team, leading and mentoring an extraordinarily talented community of people with a wide variety of creative backgrounds.

Relevant Experience And Mindset

• A depth or breadth of 10+ years of experience seeking to understand and leverage Play through experiential or game design, product development, brand strategy, digital, or services work from within the industry, or influencing the industry from other organizations (e.g. education, non-profit, etc)
• Fluency and experience in strategy, design, development, and implementation, with clear objectives that support growth in bringing play to the world.
• Progressive leadership experience in a creative business environment.
• Experience in a client-service or consultative role which might include management consulting, creative services, design, technology or operations.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills.

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place unlike any other. It’s a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients or the organization, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and optimism. Sure we work hard, but we also intentionally craft moments that allow our community to pause, create, and connect. We encourage our community to bring their whole selves to work, respect the need for work-life balance, and allow for autonomy in the design process and your career.

Some previous projects to check out:

Creating an out-of-this-world STEM-learning experience

Helping a technology brand connect with China’s young consumer

Bridging music and technology through an interactive exhibit

Helping young adults make smart money decisions

Designing video games to build kids’ emotional strength

Creating an interactive new learning experience for children to experiment with code

A bit more about IDEO’s Play Lab:

The IDEO Play Lab has brought over 250 products to market in partnership with beloved brands like Mattel, Hasbro and Sesame Workshop. Through this experience, we have honed our expertise in play, leveraging play principles, game mechanics and immersive storytelling, to tackle challenges across industries, including education, health, food and beverage, retail and more. We believe that play has the potential to connect with people at a deeper, emotional level that captivates, delights, and inspires. It has the power to build loyalty, enhance learning, and motivate positive behavior change. Learn more about Play at IDEO through our Big Questions page.

Commitment to Diversity

At IDEO, we are committed to the work of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within our organization and in the world. Our purpose of having disproportionate, world-changing impact through design is directly connected to our ability to bring many different perspectives to the table. This applies to our candidates, the people we hire, the clients and customers we serve, and the communities we learn from in our research.

As a human-centered organization, we are committed to working with and designing for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief. We recognize that this commitment

requires ongoing work and sustained attention, as well as adaptation to new insights and best

practices.

Application instructions:

To apply, please submit your resume, cover letter and portfolio:

• Resume (suggested 1 page max): Please highlight experiences related to the ‘Relevant Experience’ section of this job description.
• Cover letter (suggested 1 page max): Please share why you are interested in this role and how it aligns with how you are looking to grow in your career.
• Portfolio: Your portfolio can be web-based, a PDF, or whatever you feel best communicates your work. A portfolio should consist of a highly curated set of projects (these projects can be a mix of work related and personal projects) that demonstrates:
• A variety of approaches and projects
• How you help turn insights into actionable design opportunities, products, services, or experiences – your process for developing your concept
• Your ability to communicate in a clear, concise way. For team-based work, please indicate your role.

Please include your answer to the following prompts in your cover letter:

1. What do you think is the most well designed experience in the world? Be specific! Why do you like it? If you could make it even better, what would you do?
2. Tell us about a work achievement that makes you particularly proud.

We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis after the application deadline.

Equal Opportunity Employer

IDEO is an equal opportunity employer; applicants are considered for all roles without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, citizenship status, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, marital, parental, veteran or military status, unfavorable military discharge, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.