Coe Leta Stafford, PhD

Partner IDEO

Why Coe?

Coe Leta is a Design Director at IDEO, where she leads Design Research to understand people’s needs, reveal insights, and inspire innovative solutions for new products, services and systems. She’s known for her expertise in digital design, systems thinking, data, technology, play, education, and designing for kids and families.

Since joining IDEO in 2006, Coe has led numerous creative teams across a diverse range of organizations, including Microsoft, eBay, Target, Bank of America, Hasbro, Sesame Street, Electronic Arts, public schools, non-profit foundations, and government and healthcare groups. She specializes in both traditional and experimental Design Research — including IDEO’s hybrid approach of blending qualitative and quantitative methods – to understand the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of people for whom IDEO designs. Her work has won several international awards and patents for clients and has been featured in the New York Times and Wired. Coe Leta has a Ph.D. in Cognition and Development from U.C. Berkeley and is passionate about teaching others at Stanford University’s d.School and as a featured instructor on IDEO’s on-line learning platform, IDEO U, where she leads the Insights for Innovation course.

When not connecting insights to design, she can be found sewing, drinking wine, eating chocolate or playing video games with her family.