About Kerry

Kerry O’Connor designs business models and user experiences. Balancing high-level strategy with a hands-on approach, I work with multi-disciplinary teams and leaders to solve complex innovation challenges through life-centered design. I lead by teaching and mentoring, both clients and students, in ways that enable my collaborators to begin to solve problems for themselves.

I have evolved from being a human-centered designer to a life-centered designer. I teach a class on Responsibility to graduate students in the Design Impact program at Stanford, where I have students think through a broad range of stakeholders who will be impacted by their designs, and the likely consequences - good and bad - of their work. Because stakeholders include the natural environment and its inhabitants, being human-centered is no longer adequate, and now I bring that expanded viewpoint into all of my work.

While I love working across industries, I do have a passion for designing new products for women. I co-founded a medical device company focused on women+ pelvic health where I commercialized a revolutionary expanding vaginal dilator. The company’s second product, aimed at preventing pelvic trauma during childbirth, is currently in FDA trials.

I began my career at an investment bank, in equity research (that’s where the nerds were, so that's where I felt comfortable). After that I transitioned into medical devices, working in marketing at Boston Scientific. My evolution as a designer, design thinker, and design leader happened during a fellowship at Stanford’s d.school, and over 13 years at IDEO, a leading design and innovation firm.

My east coast roots called me to Boston University, where I graduated with honors and a degree in Anthropology, with a minor in Italian. Then I headed west during the dot com boom to enjoy better weather, learn about the stock market, and discover what exactly the internet was. I didn’t want to leave California, and so attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where I got my MBA, and focused on finding a job that unified my generative, people-focused brain with my analytical and logical thinking.

In a post-Covid work world, I spend a lot of time traveling abroad with my laptop, seeking out new cultures where I can learn about the local versions of bread and cheese. My happiest times are in and on warm water: sailing, scuba diving, and swimming.

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articles
podcasts
courses

6 Ways to Design a Business
IDEO Stories

Zig, Then Zag: when to use design thinking and when to use lean startup approach
The Startup

Designing for Sensitive Topics
‍Creative Confidence Podcast

Designing a Business: build and test new business ideas
IDEO U Course

Kerry O’Connor designs business models and user experiences. Balancing high-level strategy with a hands-on approach, Kerry works with multi-disciplinary teams and leaders to solve complex innovation challenges through human-centered design. She leads by teaching and mentoring, both clients and students, in ways that enable her teams to begin to solve problems for themselves.

This makes her title difficult to pin down but she’s currently describing herself as an anthropological business designer; building new businesses and strategies that make life better for users, without creating harm to our communities or environment. She has done this for a broad range of clients: from lean teams at startups, to Fortune 100 companies; representing industries such as consumer products, software, financial services, healthcare, and more.

Kerry began her career at an investment bank, in equity research. After that she transitioned into medical devices, working in marketing at Boston Scientific. She then co-founded a medical device company focused on women+ pelvic health where she commercialized a revolutionary expanding vaginal dilator. The company’s second product, aimed at preventing pelvic trauma during childbirth, is currently in FDA trials. Kerry evolved as a designer, design thinker, and design leader during a fellowship at Stanford’s d.school, and over 13 years at IDEO, a leading design and innovation firm.

Although she has held many different job titles, what unifies Kerry’s career is her deep desire to understand people and what they need, translating that into strategies, products, and business models that embody elegance.

Her quest to elevate the role of responsibility in design includes her work at Stanford University, where she teaches students in the graduate Design Impact program how to forecast the consequences of their work and mitigate harm, to create more equitable futures.

Kerry graduated with honors from Boston University with a degree in Anthropology, and a minor in Italian. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where her concentration was to find a job that unified her generative, people-focused brain with her analytical and logical thinking.