Human-Centered Design for Business Innovation by IDEO MD Japan

Mike Peng is a managing director of IDEO Tokyo. He joined IDEO in 2006 and moved to Tokyo in 2011. Mike is passionate about IDEO being a creative catalyst for change in Japan. He believes that unlocking people’s innate creative ability will be the key to helping Japan become more innovative.

As co-Managing Director, Mike works with colleagues to set the strategic direction of the business in Japan, mentor designers, and lead client relationships and projects. Industries Mike has worked on range from education and hospitality to financial services, food & beverages and consumer electronics. He is also a visiting lecturer at Tokyo University, Keio University, and Kyushu University.

Before moving to Tokyo, Mike helped start IDEO’s office in New York. He led several projects and experimented with new methods in design research and storytelling to stretch the Human Factors practice. He also worked as an adjunct professor at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, teaching public policy, urban planning, and nonprofit management students how to use design thinking to solve complex problems.

Prior to joining IDEO, Mike was a senior informatics analyst at Johnson & Johnson where he worked on the global strategy, user interface design, laboratory informatics, and process excellence initiatives in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors. He also trained as a Six Sigma black belt.

Mike graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in cognitive science and an emphasis in neuroscience. In his spare time, he plays tennis competitively (his high-school court is named after him!) and is an amateur hip-hop dancer who finds solace in reality TV and celebrity gossip.