Designing safe spaces for creativity
As one of the leading voices in design innovation, you’ve probably, at some point, heard of Ana Arriola-Kanada. The global creative, accomplished craftswoman and Queer Latine Mother of four has brought products, brands, and services to market for the likes of Microsoft, Sony, Meta and Apple. Putting the lived experience of people at the heart of all her work, Ana’s award-winning designs are grounded in the idea that every experience crafted should be “human, simple and authentic”.
Splitting her time between California and Japan, Ana is currently the co-Managing Director of IDEO Tokyo and Adjunct Lecturer and mentor at both the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California, Berkeley. Ahead of her upcoming keynote at the World Design Assembly in Tokyo this October, we spoke to Ana to learn more about her creative process, design inspirations and the advice she has for other designers looking to nurture their creative confidence.
Recognizing that creative confidence can represent many things to different people, what does it mean to you?
Creative confidence means creating a safe space for yourself and others to practice your deep craft and think within a physiological, emotional, physical, and intellectual safe area. It’s about having the self-assurance to take risks and express your unique creativity. Creative confidence involves overcoming the fear of judgment and failure, allowing for more open and imaginative thinking. Failing is learning. To fail means one can grow to glean insights for future ideations and possibilities.
As a managing director at IDEO Tokyo, nurturing creative confidence among our teams leads to more innovative solutions and designs along the edges of our explorations. Creative confidence is a valuable quality in design and innovation, enabling individuals and teams to push boundaries and create meaningful change.
Can you tell us a little bit about your creative process? From where do you draw inspiration? What do you do when an idea strikes?
My process varies based on the opportunity. I like examining the challenge to see if it is a real-world problem. I always start with design anthropology, researching with people impacted or who might be part of the solution and novel solve. Getting into the hearts and minds of those who will engage with a solution is always so rewarding to see how your design pulls and tugs on their heartstrings. It’s such a rewarding feeling.
Iterating on field insights, folding in metrics, existing data, market landscape, and designing for impact. I plan to measure this impact once the experience starts forming shape. I believe in simplicity, where being radically redactive solves the experience’s core essence. Only then consider what could be additive to enhancing the solution or product’s pureness.
I draw inspiration from my surroundings and travels. IDEO today talks about rewilding creativity and design; this also has been a source of personal motivation. When inspiration and insights strike, I simply put pen to paper and capture it in my notebook(s) so that I can return to it knowing where it is. Getting things out of my ADHD brain ensures I can focus on relaxing, being present and in the moment, and knowing where to return to pick up the creative process.
Can you share with our audience one of your most favourite design projects to date?
More than my favorite projects to date, I care about lived experiences and those I co-create in deep partnership with. To that point, I would say my top three teams would be:
Playstation
My leadership who believed in me and my vision, my engineers and creatives who helped us all collectively bring our imagination to life.
Microsoft
My peer research scientists, creatives, researchers, product managers, and outstanding leadership within the Office of Responsible AI (ORA).
Apple
The engineers I worked alongside on our concepts and ideas, which we collaborated on, have changed the world.
Creating is a full-contact team sport, and I love it so much.
As a global creative whose work spans both the corporate and academic sectors, what are some key lessons you’ve learned about the way design creativity is applied across both these spaces?
Returning to my point above around how creation is a full-contact team sport — academia is where the edges of science fold upon itself, creating new magic. It’s how we leverage state-of-the-art academic exploration and learning into our human-centered solutions for real-world problems. This is where the most passionate Jazz happens in co-creation. I use the metaphor of Jazz explicitly because no single person can bring something truly transformative to market. Creating a systemic impact requires a Jazz ensemble of C-suite support, engineers, data scientists, researchers, and product designers.
“Creative confidence involves overcoming the fear of judgment and failure, allowing for more open and imaginative thinking. Failing is learning. To fail means one can grow to glean insights for future ideations and possibilities.”
In today’s fast-paced culture, what advice would you offer to young designers who feel that creativity is no longer enough to ensure their success?
Creativity hasn’t been the case for success for over two decades. When I mentor and adjunct lecture/teach, I ask creatives to ensure they invest in their business learnings, and business and engineering majors invest in their creative understandings. This approach rounds us all out, ensuring we continue our ongoing studies with a growth mindset.
Creatives must understand all forms of research, both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Creatives should firmly grasp product management, requirements gathering, and agile development, leveraging the ‘Weighted Smallest Job First’ approach to modern experience and product building. This knowledge will help you, your team, and your organization tangibly bring ideas to market.
Have there been times throughout your career where you’ve struggled creatively? If so, how did you go about navigating those moments?
There have been many times throughout my life where I’ve struggled with solving for creativity and life as a whole. The Designing Your Life framework has been my best approach to these intertwined problems. Think of this book as a check-up for your soul. I like to go through this book every 18–24 months. I wish it existed when I started early in my career.
“When inspiration and insights strike, I simply put pen to paper and capture it in my notebook so that I can return to it knowing where it is. Getting things out of my ADHD brain ensures I can focus on relaxing, being present and in the moment, and knowing where to return to pick up the creative process.”
As someone who has led diverse and multidisciplinary design teams, how do you go about managing differing creative visions and expectations to ensure synergy?
Never manage, lead. One has to lead through accountability, integrity, and trust. Build your projects with a shared vision and ownership, sharing in the impact. Remember it takes a Jazz band to craft your roadmap, requirements, and North Star vision with a sense of togetherness.
Some designers see the recent rise of generative artificial intelligence as a threat to their own creativity. What’s your perspective on this new era?
It’s much bigger than just GenAI, it’s the technological frameworks and foundational datasets of AI and AGI / artificial general intelligence as a whole. So much is happening under the surface of generative AI. I’ll be speaking about this in my upcoming WDO keynote at the World Design Assembly in October.
While AI may not replace organizations, those that fail to adapt will likely fall behind. The same applies to individual professionals. AI will not replace your organization, but organizations that do not use AI will be replaced.
Ana Arriola-Kanada is a Queer Latine, Mother of four, award-winning product designer and researcher, and the co-Managing Director of IDEO Tokyo, Japan. With a focus on software and hardware as a service, consumer electronics, lifestyle experiences, UX/UI systems, and ethics & AI, Ana’s designs are based on the principles of being human, simple, and authentic. You can follow her here.
