The IDEO Methods cards were initially created as an internal tool, to help everyone see that design research was not a singular methodology, and that there were many, many options.

Indeed, the cards form a deck of 51 cards, since there is always a need to invent a new 52nd card.

One of the great things about the IDEO culture was this willingness to invent new ways of tackling problems, even when the public facing story was that IDEO had the most effective design process.

In relation to the Methods Cards this meant that even though the public story about using them was about finding the right cards for the current project, we often used them in quite the reverse way – identifying those cards that were not possibly relevant to the current project and then engaging in the thought experiment about what could be learnt by using them.