David M. Kelley Quotes

United States, Businessman
February 10, 1951

David M. Kelley is an American businessman, entrepreneur, designer, engineer, and teacher. He is founder of the design firm IDEO and a professor at Stanford University. He has received several honors for his contributions to design and design education.

Also known as Entrepreneur, Designer, Engineer, Teacher

I always found that if you handle a problem in a benevolent way and a transparent way and involve other people, so it's just not your personal opinion, that people get to the other side of these difficult conversations being more enthusiastic.

David M. Kelley
- People
- Opinion
The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you're trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing - building empathy for the people that you're entrusted to help.

David M. Kelley
- People
- Thinking
- Trying

The profession of being a creative thinker is not so obvious.

David M. Kelley
The way I would measure leadership is this: of the people that are working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that the company is theirs?

David M. Kelley
- People
- Up
- Thinking
I don't think people do anything out of fear very well. So I think the only choice is to have them intrinsically motivated.

David M. Kelley
- People
- Fear
- Motivated
I went to Carnegie Mellon and was an electrical engineer, but electrical engineering wasn't right for me.

David M. Kelley
- Engineering