Prior to his academic appointment, he worked as a product design engineer and project leader at IDEO and Apple Computer and taught in the Product Design program at Stanford University. Hargadon's research focuses on the effective management of innovation, and he has written extensively on technology brokering, the role of learning and knowledge management in innovation, and the strategic nature of design. He is the author of "How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth about How Companies Innovate (Harvard Business School Press, June 2003).