Executives #99: Dennis Boyle - Co-Founder of IDEO AKA, the worlds nicest man

Today on Executives After Hours is Dennis Boyle (Partner and a founding member of IDEO). Dennis may be the nicest guy I know. We had such a great conversation that I came back for a second conversation two weeks later. Based in Palo Alto, he leads the Health and Wellness practice, which works with clients in the medical and consumer health-care industries to develop innovative products and strategies for promoting healthful living and behavior change. Over the course of his IDEO career, he has worked as a design engineer, a project leader, a business relationship leader, a studio leader, and a practice leader. He has helped us build and nurture many key, long-term client relationships, including Silicon Valley tech firms, Fortune 100 consumer businesses, and health-care companies. He has contributed to more than 50 patents. Dennis helped to shape IDEO’s approach to teaching design thinking through workshops. He also created the TechBox at IDEO, a collection of tools used for creative problem-solving, research, and in communication both inside and outside the company. Dennis is a consulting assistant professor in the Design Division of Stanford University’s Mechanical Engineering School, where he’s contributed to courses on product, engineering, and human factors design, as well as design for sustainability and creativity and innovation. He also teaches “Design for Better Health” at the d.school, a course that draws students from each of the university’s graduate schools. (Students are placed on teams that work directly with individual patients to promote healthy behaviors in order to avoid long-term chronic illness.) Dennis holds a BS in mechanical engineering, with an emphasis on industrial design, from the University of Notre Dame and an MS in product design from Stanford. He is married to Peggy Burke, founder of 1185 Design, and has two sons.