Jeremy Alexis

“For the last 100 years or so the world has been primarily run by lawyers or people with an MBA, who often take far too narrow of a view of things. This has resulted in the kind of problems we experience today—corruption, inefficiency, poor use of resources. I think it’s time for a new brand of leadership—and designers can do that.”

Jeremy Alexis is an Associate Teaching Professor at ID and the Vice Provost for Professional and Continuing Education at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech). At ID, he teaches Analysis & Synthesis in Design (a Foundation design process class) and Innovation Methods (a survey class on advanced innovation methods).

As Vice Provost for Professional and Continuing Education, Jeremy curates the knowledge, experience, and talent from across all of the colleges and institutes at the university to offer customized non-degree, credentialed training, coaching, and toolkits. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Illinois Tech and a master of design (MDes) from ID.

Activities at ID

Since joining ID in 2006, Jeremy has created and delivered course content on design, leadership, decision-making, and design for technical innovation. He served for eight years as Director of Interprofessional Projects (IPRO), Illinois Tech’s distinctive project-based program for undergraduates. He also served as Assistant Dean of the Institute of Design from 2006–12. Jeremy created the dual degree program (MDes + MBA) and the executive education program at ID. The executive education program, now the ID Academy, has served clients such as FedEx, Nestle/Purina, AB/Inbev, Ford, The Kresge Foundation, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Jeremy’s research and development interests include increasing the success rate of design implementation through interdisciplinary collaboration, design and innovation capability, culture building in large organizations, and making user-centered design more relevant for technical problems.

Industry Experience

Before joining ID, Jeremy served as Team Lead at GravityTank (2004–05) and Project Leader at Doblin (2000–04) and Archideas (1999–2000) in Chicago. He has worked with clients such as Unilever, Motorola, Citibank, Pfizer, American Express, Target Corporation, and Zebra Technologies.

Speaking and Publishing

Jeremy’s publications and other media include “Design Innovation” in The Global Innovation Science Handbook (McGraw Hill, 2013); “From Lock In to Lock Out, Using Design to Create Fiercely Loyal Customers,” in Rotman on Design: The Best on Design Thinking from Rotman Magazine (University of Toronto Press, 2013); and “Getting People to Talk,” a widely viewed video on ethnographic interviewing.

Recent Work

Alexis, Jeremy. 2013. “Design Innovation.” In Global Innovation Science Handbook, edited by Praveen Gupta and Brett E. Trusko. New York: McGraw Hill.

Alexis, Jeremy. 2013. “From Lock In to Lock Out, Using Design to Create Fiercely Loyal Customers.” In Rotman on Design: The Best on Design Thinking from Rotman Magazine, edited by Roger Martin and Karen Christensen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.