Teach Classes

Entrepreneur (inventor of a foot-saving product for ballet dancers), artist, optimist, lover of (bright) colors, lover of dance of all kinds (particularly ballet and hip hop), someone who likes moving and being outside.

If you were fortunate enough to stroll through the life-sized forest of ambiguity at San Francisco’s Design Week then you probably already know who Kelly Schmutte is. Kelly is our Product Design guru who works with students in the d.school’s Teaching and Learning group doing things like exploring how music can tap into design abilities or building a forest of ambiguity.

Kelly pursues design with a focus on people’s needs but likes to look beyond the obvious. She digs into things like how different people approach and process ambiguity. Or how we can better serve our students by continually iterating on our process-based approach to learning. She is especially interested in engaging young people to help them discover more joy in the things they love so that they can align their skills and passions with work that moves them.

A lifelong designer, entrepreneur and dancer, Kelly found a way to blend her passions to launch a line of customized ballet shoe solutions to help transform and improve the en pointe experience for all dancers. She’s a master at designing prototypes and can often be found surrounded by scissors, Post-its and 3D models.

From watercolor painting to hip hop and hiking, you’ll most likely find Kelly gravitating towards bright colors and unanswered questions. An unabashed Francophile, we’re thrilled Kelly hasn’t left Palo Alto yet for the allure of Provence.