Making Futures Work

Stage 2. Designing Futures

In this stage, I’ll discuss how Strategic Foresight informs design and innovation activities by providing the input for ideation and future vision concept development. Having been a practicing designer for over 20 years, and having been involved in innovation projects across many industries, I consider this to be the most exciting stage; it can also be the most challenging one if you are not well prepared. Designing a vision or an initiative for a distant future comes with its own risks when you are trying to determine what people might need but can’t call the future. Thus I’ve collected many examples, methods, and approaches for how to make this stage more effective. That is why a whole chapter is dedicated to designing the ideation workshop. Preparing the environment, teams, and methods has always been important to me in my work as a facilitator, and when done effectively, this can be the most transformational and exciting stage of work.

In this stage, we’ll discuss the following:

• Chapter 9, “Designing Futures”

  • Four common types of futures design work: Speculative Design, Design Fiction, Science Fiction Prototyping, and Experiential Futures

  • How futures design can be used as a prototyping tool, and how it can be effectively used as a strategic vision or North Star for an organization

• Chapter 10, “Designing the Ideation Workshop”

  • How to plan for a futures design workshop

  • Ideation methods, and how and when to use certain exercises depending ...