Working at IDeaS, you can take intelligent risks and innovate in ways that impact the business while relying on the stability of a larger company. You have the chance to chart a new course with cutting-edge technologies to solve problems for our clients.
We’ve never been wired to sit still. From our earliest days with airlines to transforming how hotels, parking, and meetings & events spaces manage and optimize revenue, we’ve proven time and again that innovation is just part of who we are. And with the launch of IDeaS.Lab, we’re pushing boundaries even further, exploring new frontiers like cruises and marketing. It’s safe to say momentum is in our DNA.
And all that restless innovation? It needed a place to live, grow, and flourish. Enter IDeaS.Lab: our launchpad for our biggest ideas to take shape. ‘The Lab’ is pushing us into industries we once only imagined, and where our curiosity becomes real.
Step Inside ‘The Lab’
The concept of IDeaS.Lab started from a simple realization: innovation was happening everywhere in the company. Teams were asking “what if?” and experimenting with the IDeaS engine. What we lacked wasn’t ideas, but a place to nurture them with structured intent. So, IDeaS.Lab has become the dedicated home for exploration and pushing boundary after boundary.
The Lab was officially launched in early 2022, with the originators posing a simple question to team members, “Have a solution-worthy idea? Tell us about it.” Since then, the IDeaS.Lab team has expanded in members and developed an airtight concept-to-creation process.
IDeaS’ Method to Fostering Innovation
To illustrate how the process comes to life, we turned to the people who know it best. Members of the IDeaS.Lab team shared their journeys into the Lab, their experiences driving each phase, and what it means to innovate with confidence.
Step 1: ‘Discover” with Yuki Hu, Principal Research Analyst
As a key researcher, Yuki Hu sees innovation before it even begins. But in the Lab, discovery isn’t a hunch; it’s a disciplined, repeatable method that turns curiosity into next steps. “This is structured process backed by real commitment,” Hu said. “We have made a promise to the company: one new product opportunity every year. We treat that promise with the seriousness it deserves.”
“We are not just building products. We are building what comes next.”
To do this, they start with idea generation. Creative solutions originate from external partners, industry trends, and many more great minds. But the concepts coming from inside IDeaS hold a special place.
“What makes this approach more rigorous and trusted is the ecosystem around it,” Hu said. “We receive incredible support across the entire organization. That kind of backing is what allows you to innovate with genuine confidence, not just hope.”
The next step is to research. Hu and the team assess the new opportunities using a structured framework to understand the specific business problems, and how IDeaS can help. “Our approach is super agile. We constantly review past and present work, modify our processes, sharpen our tools, and upgrade our own skills,” Hu said.
For Yuki, and many in the Lab, they find themselves not only pushing the company’s boundaries, but also their own. In Yuki’s situation, she was tapped to join the early stages of the team. “The company didn’t just post a job and wait,” Hu said. “They recognized potential in someone already within and gave me the runway to grow into something I didn’t even know I was meant to do.” Now, she has strengths she didn’t even know she had.
Within weeks of working with her new colleagues, “I was hooked.” Hu said. “There is something about diving into a completely unknown market, peeling back layer after layer, connecting dots nobody else has connected yet.”
What it really means for someone on the front lines of innovation is the permission to be bold. At IDeaS, Hu has the analytical firepower, the industry credibility, and the steady backing to do it right. We do not chase trends; we do the research, build the case, validate with real partners, and then move with confidence.
“We are not just building products. We are building what comes next.”
Step 2: Develop with Sarah Yaeger, Senior Project Manager
“One of the things that excites me most about working in IDeaS.Lab is that we don’t stop at asking ‘what if?’ — we focus on ‘how do we make this real?’” Yaeger said.
Sarah Yaeger works in the development phase of innovation, where ideas start to take shape as tangible, testable solutions; where early concepts evolve into pilots and proofs of concept our clients can interact with. Her role is to help teams move forward with clarity and maintain momentum without losing sight of why the idea matters in the first place.
But development is a balance of structure and curiosity. “Because the Lab operates with the backing of a larger, established organization, we can take smart risks while still applying the rigor IDeaS is known for.” Yaeger said. This dependability allows them to focus on phased development, regular checkpoints, and shared visibility to ensure that stakeholders always understand where we are and what we’re learning.
As ideas progress, The Lab soon begins to act as a connector not only between people, but between concepts and career paths. “I was drawn to IDeaS.Lab because it sits at the intersection of strategy, analytics, innovation and execution a place where curiosity turns into action.” Yaeger said, “My background in project management and cross‑functional leadership naturally aligned with the Lab’s mission of bringing structure to ambiguity and helping ideas move from concept to reality. Internal mobility played a big role in that journey.”
“We don’t stop at asking ‘what if?’— we focus on ‘how do we make this real?’.”
At its core, IDeaS.Lab is about possibility. Team members ask bold questions, explore new industries, and apply IDeaS’ proven approach to decision science in entirely new ways. As Yaeger put it,
“It’s energizing to work in an environment where curiosity is valued, collaboration is expected, and innovation is treated as a discipline — not a buzzword.”
Step 3: Deliver with Blake Madril, Director of Emerging Solutions
After ideas are explored, tested, and refined, IDeaS.Lab moves into its final phase: Deliver. For Blake Madril this is the moment when innovation begins to stand on its own. “Our focus shifts from ‘Can this work?’ to ‘Can this be repeated, supported, delivered, and trusted?’”
By this stage, the Lab has invested heavily in research, collaboration, and learning. The ‘Deliver’ phase is the leap from validated innovation to scalable value. It’s where concepts move beyond experimentation and demonstrate the consistency, clarity of value, and operational readiness required to function as a key component of the broader IDeaS portfolio, often in new industries to IDeaS.
“In the Lab, ambiguity is a welcome adventure — never a barrier to innovation,” Madril explains.
Rather than avoiding unknowns, teams break them into smaller, testable questions and learn quickly. “We frame ambiguity as something to be explored intentionally rather than something to be avoided or deferred to a later stage.”
“There is a direct connection between our curiosity‑driven exploration and IDeaS’ long‑term growth strategy.”
As a newer member of the Lab, Madril was struck by how intentional the work is. “There is a direct connection between our curiosity‑driven exploration and IDeaS’ long‑term growth strategy.”
That intentionality, combined with IDeaS’ commitment to internal mobility, played a major role in Blake’s journey to the Lab. “The organization creates space for people to grow by applying their strengths in new contexts, rather than focusing solely on climbing a linear career ladder,” he said.
Drawing on his experience across enablement, marketing, consulting, and now IDeaS.Lab, Blake brings a connector’s mindset to delivery, ensuring ideas don’t just stay interesting, but become impactful.
Help Build What’s Next
Since its creation, the IDeaS.Lab has been churning out new ideas, concepts, and products at an impressive pace. But they’re far from done. The team’s roadmap stretches well into the horizon as they continue to research how AI is impacting the hospitality industry, developing an exciting ticketing service, and delivering our promises to our home field of hospitality.
As the Lab continues to innovate across IDeaS, the questions shift from “what if?” to “what’s next?” and the answers are shaping the future of the industries we serve.
Interested in being part of a team that’s building what comes next? Explore career opportunities at IDeaS.