IDEO (internal)
Digital Dream Lab: IDEO's Creative Technology Community
Built IDEO's creative technology community from zero to 50+ members — and led it through public failure into repair.
- My role
- Co-Founder & Creative Technology Director
- Timeline
- 2019 – 2023 · four years
- Status
- Continues today as IDEO's EE Lab
- People
- 50+ member community across four IDEO studios
- Co-founders and rotating program leads
The challenge
IDEO’s creative technologists were scattered across siloed studios with no shared space for emergent work. How do you build a community — and a capability — with no budget and no mandate?
My role
Co-founder and creative technology director. I programmed initiatives, grew membership, and carried the community through its hardest moment.
The work
Digital Dream Lab grew to 50+ members across four studios, with 40+ events and initiatives: Dream Zine, the Butterfly Wall kinetic sculpture, the Form and Function creative coding curriculum, and The Repair Kit. When The Onion Garden experiment failed publicly, I led the community through transparent accountability — turning a crisis into lasting organizational learning.
The impact
The Butterfly Wall remains an active IDEO installation. DDL seeded IDEO’s emerging-tech and AI practice and continues today as the EE Lab — proof that community-driven innovation can outlive its founders.