Best for: Innovation consultancy, service design, healthcare, education, social impact, enterprise transformation
Services: Design research, service design, product strategy, organisational design
Notable clients: Kooth, plus healthcare, education, and public sector programmes
At a glance
- Founded
- 1991
- Location
- San Francisco, plus offices across the US, England and China
- Team size
- 500+
- Budget
- $$$$
- Hourly rate
- Not published
Three continents and three decades of running the same methodology in all of them, which is the specific thing that makes IDEO a global rather than merely international practice. Engagements begin upstream of the brief, mapping a problem space before anyone proposes a solution, and that framing work travels across markets better than execution does.
Research evidence and structural depth both score maximum, the only agency here to take 10 in either column twice. The office network is narrower than frog's or Designit's, so this is global reach through methodology rather than through headcount in many places at once. Over 500 people also means the principal you meet early is unlikely to be on your project throughout.
Not the right fit when your brief is clearly scoped and what you need is execution. You would pay consultancy rates for a discovery phase you have already completed internally.
Rating history Q3 2026 — 9.7 to 9.6, aligned with the composite recorded on the main ranking






