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Learn from the Inventors
While the standard image of an inventor is someone
working alone in his basement or garage, many
inventors, especially today, work in teams.
At IDEO, a design firm, experts from a variety
of fields come together to design new products,
services, environments, and digital experiences.
IDEO’s design philosophy is that teamwork
boosts the firm’s efforts in innovation and
creativity. Teams share and improve ideas, building
on their members’ skills and providing more
opportunities for problem solving. Being part
of a team allows each member to engage in interdisciplinary,
simultaneous innovation.
This section features inventors such as Linus
Torvalds, inventor of the Linux computer operating
system, and car designer Jerry Hirshberg, founder
of Nissan Design International. The collaborative
approaches of these inventors follow in the footsteps
of Thomas Edison. Although often viewed as the
quintessential lone genius inventor, Edison’s
most important innovation may be his Menlo Park,
New Jersey, lab, where he developed inventions
with a team of scientists, machinists, carpenters,
glassworkers, and others. His laboratory expanded
the 19th century craft-shop model of invention,
pointing toward the corporate research-and-development
labs to come.
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