User-Centered Design and Innovation with Chris Cowart

Chris Cowart has applied the expertise in user-centered design he developed during 14 years at IDEO to innovate across product, partnerships, venture capital and business.

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His career spans Venture Capital with Montage Ventures, revolutionizing food systems with Treasure8, and designing many “first of their categories” products and experiences including TiVo and Handspring at IDEO.

Now as the Managing Director of the Nomura-SRI Innovation Center (NSIC), he works to accelerate the adoption of Silicon Valley’s disruptive technology innovation processes into corporate Japan.

We talk about the socialization of ideas and seeing the future through design fiction + explore a Google X moonshot project that didn’t quite make it past the stratosphere.

Chris Cowart headshot

The San Francisco Chronicle calls SRI the birthplace of some of Silicon Valley’s most important innovations including the computer mouse, robotic surgery, the modern Internet and wireless networking. 

Chris is also an expert on the future of medicine and the future of sport and has been a Venture Partner at Montage Ventures for two funds focused on disrupting retail, health & wellness, and consumer financial services.

He has been a user experience, design, and product executive working across brands, innovation consulting, and venture communities for more than 25 years. A formative part of his work experience includes 14 years at famed design and innovation consulting firm, IDEO. 

You can’t swing a stick in your home without hitting something IDEO helped design, make better or perfect. At IDEO, Chris pioneered the human factors and user research disciplines in the design industry, and launched many ‘first of their categories’ products for the company.

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Choose the Hard Way is the podcast where guests share stories about how doing hard things build stronger, more resilient humans, learn more at www.choosethehardway.com.

In This Episode:

Chris Cowart Instagram | LinkedIn 

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Andrew Vontz LinkedIn

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Choose The Hard Way is a Palm Tree Pod Co. production 

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