MISBO + IDEO Project
Meet the IDEO Team!
Miki Heller on LinkedIn
"As an educator-turned-business-designer, this is a challenge that I am particularly excited to be addressing. I look forward to seeing all of the new and innovative business models that we come up with together!" - Miki
Miki Heller is a Business Designer at IDEO’s San Francisco office. As an engineer-turned-educator-turned-entrepreneur, Miki is passionate about bringing lessons from many disciplines to design.
Before joining IDEO, Miki worked at Teach For America and the Mayor’s office in San Francisco, interned at Facebook and the White House, and founded
Miki holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo. She loves lists, thinking about the future, watching a lot of TV, and chocolate.
Divya Viswanathan on LinkedIn
"I’m super excited about we can learn about innovating at the intersection of design and business, in the education space, in a human-centered way" - Divya
Divya Viswanathan is a Senior Design Researcher at IDEO. She is naturally curious about people, their motivations and how they make decisions. As a researcher, she works with people to understand their explicit and implicit needs and helps articulate them in actionable ways. As a designer, she works as a problem solver – bridging the gap between user and solution. Combining the two fields, she enjoys designing new ways of interacting with people through cultural probes and contextual inquiry.
Prior to IDEO, Divya was a User Experience Designer with Nokia Research Center in India. Her work has taken her across the world, looking at ways in which people are using and experiencing mobile technology. These insights and explorations lead to identifying relevant new areas for mobile services to play a meaningful role in the future. She focuses on crafting research methods that allow users to play a bigger role in the design process. Her projects include work on researching health care systems, education
Divya has a background in Communication Design & Filmmaking, from the Srishti School of Art, Design
Lisa Baird on LinkedIn
Lisa Baird is a business designer with a passion for new-venture design. She has a particular interest in the interactive power of advanced financial models. Lisa believes that a well-designed financial model doesn’t look or feel like a financial model at all — through beautiful design, it empowers non-numbers people and bean-counters alike to imagine (and re-imagine) new businesses, products, services, and experiences. She excels in the art of drawing out details and short-term business effects while keeping an eye on the big picture and long-term business outcomes. Her areas of expertise include startups, financial services, and postsecondary education.
Lisa started her career in investment banking in New York before moving into enterprise finance at public university systems in Texas and California. She followed her public university work with a stint as Senior Program Officer in the postsecondary education group at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, followed by a shift to Principal Designer at the international design consultancy IDEO where she specialized in the discipline of business design. Lisa earned her MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and her Master of Design from the California College of the Arts. She earned her bachelor’s degree in finance as well as a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin.
Annette Diefenthaler on LinkedIn
Annette Diefenthaler is a Portfolio Director at IDEO's Design For Learning Studio in San Francisco. Her passion is bringing human-centered design to systemic challenges in education. She has worked with clients in K-12 and higher ed, rethinking learning tools, empowering entrepreneurs to design teaching apps, and envisioning a new educational model for an entire state. Annette is
Annette is invested in evolving methodologies for (re)search that inspires design and explores how students and teachers can be involved catalyzing new design solutions. Her work has received multiple design awards.
She taught at New York University and co-designed a fellowship program for new majority students at The New School of Public Engagement with Dean David Scobey.
Since joining IDEO in January 2008, Annette has guided teams in designing bank branches, toys, hospital experiences, multiple services for chronic disease patients, and organizational change programs. She has extensive experience in designing solutions in the area of healthcare.
Prior to IDEO, Annette worked with the Industrial Design Management Department of Vodafone Global in Germany and brand development company "The One Centre" in Sydney, Australia. She was engaged by the advisory board of the International Design Forum Ulm to develop the Promotion Program "Designing Politics - The Politics of Design", and managed Stefan Ytterborn’s installation "unidentified" by rendel&spitz for the Cologne International Furniture Fair. She holds a masters degree from Köln International School of Design.
Now based in San Francisco, Annette grew up in Germany and has lived and worked in many cultural contexts, including Russia, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. In her free time, she is usually training for her next marathon.
Becky Lee on LinkedIn
Becky Lee is part of the Design for Learning team, where she crafts one-of-a-kind engagements to improve the education space through design. She is driven by a desire to spark curiosity and build confidence in students of all ages. Becky finds joy in learning just about anything, from a new bus route to a new language, and is particularly interested in cultural exchange, literacy, equity in education, and lifelong learning.
Prior to IDEO, Becky graduated from Cornell University with degrees in English and Psychology and joined Nielsen, the global media research firm. As part of Nielsen's Emerging Leaders Program, she built long-term partnerships with major media companies, helped launch mobile TV ratings, and studied the economic impact of binge watching.
In 2015, Becky moved to southern Brazil for a year to learn Portuguese and teach English through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. She has taught many subjects in many places, from SAT Prep in New Jersey to photography in Thailand and continues to volunteer at education non-profits in San Francisco. In her free time, she enjoys coming of age stories, street art, and spontaneous camping trips.