Rating: 
Summary: If only all companies were like Ideo
Review: This is a great tale of innovation. What a pleasure it would be to work for a company who rewards creativity and strives to think outside the box. Rather than try to explain HOW a company innovates, Kelly takes specific design challenges and uses them to illistrate possibilities.
Rating: 
Summary: IDEO may be great, but this book isn't...
Review: Tom Kelley is vastly more impressed with himself and his company than I am. The only reason the book doesn't get one star is because it does contain some useful information. The useful information is about one-fourth of the book, can be found elsewhere, and probably should be. The other three-fourths is endless self-congratulation and pointless anecdotes. Any ideas he presents are given with no real suggestions for implementation. If you have no background (absolutely NONE) in product design or are just curious about IDEO, it might be worth a read. Otherwise, buy something with real content instead of recycled management bromides.
Rating: 
Summary: Less than expected
Review: The Art of Innovation is the story of the famous Palo Alto based design firm, IDEO. The book is easy to read and moves quickly. The author, Tom Kelley, is the brother of founder David Kelley. Tom is the General Manager and is an ex-management consultant. This is important because the book really devolves into a light treatise on business management practices. This makes sense since given Tom Kelley's responsibilities at IDEO and his background. It also explains the Tom Peter's Foreword. If you like Tom Peter's books, you will enjoy this book.If you are looking for real insights into the IDEO design process you will be disappointed. Most of the insights are of a personnel management nature, and even those are at a relatively high level. Mr. Kelley pokes more than a few veiled barbs at the slow industrial giants who simply cannot compete with the brain power and management prowess at IDEO. That may sound sarcastic, but Mr. Kelley's pride in his company often crosses that fine line into arrogance. There are a few actual projects described to point out how valuable a certain IDEO practice is. There are repeated references to IDEO's contribution to the invention of the Apple mouse and follow-up work on the Microsoft Mouse. Also, a great deal of time is spent talking about the redesign of the common shopping cart that was done in one week for a segment on Nightline. I know that IDEO has had many important clients and recent important projects. Perhaps they can't talk about them because of non-disclosure agreements. There are color pictures of some products at the beginning of each of 15 chapters but often there is no mention of those products in the text. Some black & white photographs of products and the IDEO workspaces also accompany the text. There are no diagrams or illustrations. A great deal of the book outlines the emphasis that IDEO puts on the treatment of their employees and their penchant for quick and frequent prototyping as a key to success. All projects start by assigning a "hot" team and letting them brainstorm and prototype their way into some great ideas. No details are given on how the teams are formed or managed. This book is for you if you are looking for a light management practices book and just a little insight into a premier design firm. You will probably be disappointed if you want to find out how products are designed or what specific processes are used to manage the design process. You also will not get a great deal of competitive information about IDEO. The book assumes that you have at least a general idea of what Industrial Design is about. Tom Kelley admits that workshops about the "IDEO way" have been turned into a profit center. They give seminars on how to organize product development at client companies. I could see IDEO including this book with their seminar, or perhaps they could give it to a prospective client to whet their appetite. It definitely leaves you wanting more information. I am left wondering, "How much is that seminar, and will they let me in?"
Rating:
Summary: Thinking 101
Review: A good business read - nicely organized with numerous examples of innovation that surround our daily life. Some of these stories begged for more depth and as a result, would likely have been more interesting than the somewhat chatty style of text that filled the rest of the pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book peppered with real life experiences !
Review: Wonderfully written and very informal. A must read for people in any area of work - inspires and opens
your mind. Lots of case studies and insights into the minds of
some very creative folks at IDEO.
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Summary: Great work--more about the Art of Work
Review: This book really looks more at the proper design of a good workplace and how people thrive in the right environment. While reading this book, I was deciding whether to accept a new job. Many of the things Mr. Kelley discussed factored into my decision to jump ship. Hearing the stories of how their team pulled together to bring new products to market (or in some cases not) was a great testament to the creative process and what a positive environment can do.
Rating:
Summary: The art of innovation
Review: The art of innovation, with its focus on the innovative process, still gives such a broad perspective that almost anyone can find ideas and inspiration from the book. The book covers everything from finding the team players and making them perform well, to the basics of looking into the future. The things that struck me the most were: - Looking at things differently. The powerful questions Why? Why not? - How the surroundings affect you. The work place, the culture. The more conceptual parts were also inspiring: - The art of brainstorming. It is not only a "way" to turn a regular meeting into a way to solve problems or come up with ideas. It is something that you need to practice and use for it to reach its full potential. - Cross-pollination and drifting over the fence by walking away from your regular path. Go idea-wading - exposing yourself to the latest ideas. The book is full of examples from IDEO and major companies in different areas of business. It also includes many examples that are easy to understand and take in. I don't work in the design business (IT-consultant), so things new to me might not be as new to you...
Rating:
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Review: With his tour through the inner-workings of design firm and idea-factory IDEO, Tom Kelley achieves the nearly impossible: He presents creative and innovative observations about creativity and innovation. We'll put it simply: Toss aside all the books about the topics that you've ever bought, and tear into this beautifully constructed showpiece. Kelley distills the often amorphous concepts of brainstorming and teamwork into directives with honest-to-goodness real-life applications. His notions about prototyping are fresh, insightful and practical. His bigger-picture ruminations illustrate not only how organizations should work at innovation, but also how easily creative initiative can be smashed by dumb bureaucracy. If the book has one failing it is this: Reading it can be a bit like watching a home movie of a friend's children - Your role is clearly to join in the adulation. That aside, we [...] recommend The Art of Innovation as one of the few can't-miss books in the creativity genre.
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Summary: It's more than just design
Review: I am a great fan of Ideo and how they have allowed innovation to come out of the basement. The book is excellent, if you learn from examples then this book has the learning you need. If you think you know something about the topic of innovation, then this book is for you because it takes you to another level of understanding. If you are a control person wanting to hid under sheep clothing this book is not for you. A great book for the texture of innovation from one of the masters.
Rating:
Summary: If you haven't read anything on creativity...
Review: ...then this is a good start for people in management. Previous reviewers who wrote "nothing earth shattering" and "longest advertisement" are definitely correct. While it didn't really "spark" anything for me, it was a good book to leave on my manager's desk as he is a management consultant type who needs to hear about creativity from a management consultant type. For me, I'll stick to the brilliant academics like Howard Gardner and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
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