Helping companies innovate
IDEO is what the dot.com companies tried to be and failed. A place where imagination is rewarded, and failure is just part of the path to success. IDEO is fueled by team creativity, and they believe that your company should be too. That's why they have produced Method Cards, a set of 51 cards that are meant to get your team inspired and on the path to great design.
IDEO firmly believes that the best way to spark the type of creativity that leads to innovation is by having fun. Method Cards are a design tool that use images, affinity diagrams and processes like mapping to get you going, but may also encourage your team to bodystorm in order to understand how the user might feel in a particular environment.
Link: IDEO
Update 3/14/06:
Article: NY Times - Going Off the Beaten Path for New Design Ideas
You may also want to check out other publications by IDEO like Tom Kelley's best-selling Art of Innovation, and his latest The Ten Faces of Innovation that helps define the personalities that can help your firm triumph over "creativity-stifling nay-sayers", Also a must for designers and architects is Thoughtless Acts by Jane Fulton Suri, a voyeuristic view of how people use and interpret their environment. IDEO: get to know them.
¿How can I buy the Method Cards?