Kelley believes that you should not take a conventional approach to hiring people and building teams. He offers up a few suggestions including:

1) Hire individuals or non-confomists to stimulate the organization

2) Hire a diverse range of experts and generalists in different fields

3) Form hotgroups of 8-12 people. He mentions the benefits of having close ties with your local reputable university to source out the best potential staff. To Kelley, an ideal hire interacts well with established IDEO staff, and demonstrates an attitude of wisdom: he/she strikes a good balance between their ability to promote their ideas yet welcome constructive criticism. IDEO has slowly grown from a staff of 2 to 430, he notes.