Diego Rodriguez
Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford d.school
At the d.school, Diego helps students think big about the future of marketing, business strategy, and innovation. He believes that successful, innovative business ventures need not happen by chance – they can, and should be, designed for success.
Diego brings a wealth of real-world experience to classrooms at Stanford. With a career spent doing the messy work of bringing good stuff to market in both Fortune 100 companies and startups alike, he’s passionate about creating classroom experiences which are transformative in nature because they encourage students to design real solutions to real-world challenges. People in his classes don’t waste time and energy talking smart about abstract scenarios. Instead, they dive in and get their hands, marketing plans, and spreadsheets dirty. They learn about viral marketing by trying to spread Firefox, about meaning and brands by hanging around Ducati motorcycles, and about human psychology by trying to convince people to save some change instead of sipping that next latte.
Outside of the d.school, Diego Rodriguez is a partner at IDEO, where he works with colleagues and clients on venture design, organizational processes, and marketing. Diego pioneered a new discipline called Business Design at IDEO, which has since become part of the firm’s core offering.
In 2010, Fortune named Diego as one of “The Smartest People in Tech.” His influential blog metacool is an opinion leader in business, technology, and innovation. Fast Company calls it “a must-read for anyone who wants to incorporate design thinking into their work.” Diego has received many accolades over the course of his career, including a Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, and he holds multiple patents. He serves on the boards of Boulder Digital Works and the Harvard Business School California Research Center.
Prior to joining IDEO, Diego was a R&D engineer at Hewlett-Packard and a marketer at Intuit. Diego earned bachelor’s degrees with honors in engineering and humanities from Stanford and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
You can follow him on Twitter @metacool
