A futures toolkit for designers, strategists and leaders

Making Futures Work fuses Strategic Foresight, Design Futures & Strategic Planning into an accessible framework that anyone can use

Table of Contents

  • Foreword written by Cat Drew, Chief Design Officer at the Design Council

  • A walk through history detailing how we, as a species and humans, have tried to understand patterns and uncertainties in the world to navigate into the future for survival

  • A high-level overview of the content of the book and how it's structured

  • The preamble to futures work, this chapter discusses diagnosing your client, team or organization so that you can better understand the problems you are solving, why they want to look into the future and the expected goals

  • Learn how to get you and your team(s) into a futures mindset and prepare everyone mentally for the work ahead so that you can succeed with less barriers, confusion or mutiny

  • How to articulate and frame a futures problem statement—when, where and why you are looking into the future

  • Things to consider and organize when planning futures work, from a project planning perspective

  • Walk through some of the fundamental principles and methods used in Strategic Foresight including horizon scanning and learning how to find and identify patterns and trends to understand possible future possibilities

  • Learn about the traditional scenario archetypes, world building and ways to format and illustrate scenarios

  • Learn about different types of futures design (Speculative Design, Design Fiction and Sci-Fi Prototyping) and how to use these vehicles for developing a North Star vision, product or initiative

  • Learn methods and frameworks that you can use for designing a futures ideation workshop

  • Learn how to plan, organize and facility a strategic roadmapping session toward your North Star vision, product or initiative, how to measure success and implement the long-term, mid-term and short-term strategies

  • Tips on how to begin integrating futures into your organization whether you are an in-house or external (consultant) practitioner

  • Written by Ben Lowdon (Design Director at EBay, formerly at Zalando, Nokia) a seasoned designer, futurist and sustainability expert

  • Includes a glossary of terms used in Futures Thinking

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Includes stories from the field by:

  • Alex Fergnani

    Alex Fergnani

    Strategic Foresight researcher and executive educator
    Fetzer Scholar with the Academy of Management

  • Anthony D Paul

    Director of Strategic Foresight, Amtrak
    (Formerly Director of Global Product Strategy and Foresight - Applied Innovation, Genera Electric Transportation)

  • Brian David Johnson

    Brian David Johnson

    Futurist in Residence at Arizona State University
    Author of Science-Fiction Prototyping
    (Formerly Futurist at Intel)

  • Ellery Studio

    Ellery Studio

    Berlin-based creative and strategy agency specializing in knowledge generation and transfer

  • Futur2

    Futur2

    A critical design studio based in Berlin, Germany that combines strategic foresight and experience design to build consequence-aware products and services

  • Futurity Systems

    Futurity Systems

    Barcelona-based futures studio using science-based design to build futures

  • Gabriella Campagna Lanning

    Gabriella Campagna Lanning

    Senior UX Strategist & Researcher at Google
    (Formerly Chief of Staff, GM of Data and AI at IBM)

  • Jake Dunagan

    Jake Dunagan

    Design futurist, social inventor, teacher at
    Institute for the Future

  • Joe Tankersley

    Joe Tankersley

    Futurist, author, and prncipal consultant at Unique Visions, Inc
    (Formerly Walt Disney Imagineer)

  • Livia Fioretti

    Livia Fioretti

    Director of Insights at TrendWatching, Cultural Strategist & Trend Researcher

  • Martin Waehlisch

    Martin Waehlisch

    Team Leader for Innovation Cell at
    United Nations Dept of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UNDPPA)

  • Michael Kenney

    Michael Kenney

    Program Leader & Global Knowledge Architecture for AI at UBER
    (Formerly Senior Strategist at IBM)

  • Julian Bleecker

    Julian Bleecker

    Designer, Futurist, Author of the Manual of Design Fiction
    Co-Founder Near Future Laboratory

  • Nick Foster

    Nick Foster

    Futures designer, Royal Designer for Industry (RDI)
    (Formerly Co-Founder of Near Future Laboratory & Head of Design at Google X)

  • N O R M A L S

    N O R M A L S

    Berlin-based studio for design, fiction, and futures

  • Radha Mistry

    Radha Mistry

    Associate Principal, Americas Foresight Leader at ARUP
    (Formerly Strategic Foresight Leader at Autodesk)

  • Rick Holman

    Rick Holman

    Senior Affiliate at Institute for the Future
    (Formerly Manager of Global Trends at General Motors)

  • Sarah Owen

    Sarah Owen

    Futurist, Trend Forecaster & Social Scientist
    Founder Future Friends
    (Formerly Global Futures Adviser SOON Future Studies)

  • Shihan Zhang

    Shihan Zhang

    Lead Product Designer at Twitch
    Founder & Innovation Director, AlterR Studio

  • Stuart Candy

    Stuart Candy

    Experiential Futurist, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tec de Monterrey and University of Bristol
    Advisor at NASA JPL, Director at Situation Lab

  • Tino Klaehne

    Tino Klaehne

    Director Strategic Innovation & Intelligence at Lufthansa Innovation Hub