Pros
There is a wide range of interesting client work available to IDEO talent if you’re willing to navigate the internal politics and fight for it. IDEO’s brand is still surprisingly strong despite a diminishing track record of actual to-market solutions and a lot of internal stagnation these past few years.
Cons
Your Managing Director makes all the difference in what kind of IDEO experience you have. If you’re assigned to the wrong leadership or the wrong project, it’s an uphill battle. This can be location-specific as well due to decentralization to a fault. Any internal movement or promotion happens through mastering the decades-old, social network. Most of the Glassdoor reviews here accurately speak to this politically-charged culture. There is a new female CEO so it remains to be seen if this will change. After a three month “listening tour”, however, little seems different on the IDEO agenda. After-all, change at IDEO is typically glacial and always conflict-averse. IDEO’ers often joke that the company needs to “IDEO itself” - the organization, however, is not good at having its own hard conversations. Because of this, it’s my opinion that women at IDEO suffer due to a “boys club” culture that still exists. It seems as if, even top performing women (those who’ve given years, if not, decades to the organization) have a much harder time getting to partner, receiving credit where credit is due on projects, being published, earning the same or more, etc. For those who are working mothers, I believe this disparity is even further exacerbated. If you are young, childless and have endless hours to give to work - IDEO will gladly take 10-15 years of your life. If you are old(er), raising a family, and have outside experience to know your boundaries on how much work (and bad management) should impose - I’d strongly suggest doing your due diligence on which team you’re joining.