Hi!

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Much writing about digital product is tactical - it’s easier to write tactically. The problem space is contained. You’re likely to be able to suggest a process that will help. Most work early on in the trenches is tactical, so you’re likely to have direct hands-on experience.

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At the other end - the strategy end - it’s more of a challenge. Processes certainly exist, but the problems are less well-formed. You also don’t make big strategic decisions every day, so hands-on experience is harder to come by.

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I’m interested in strategy in general and as it relates to digital product. It’s also been top of mind recently as I’m currently doing very early work on a new product, so that’s what I’m going to write about next.

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Seeing the Future, Making the Future

If you could see into the future and others couldn’t, you could design products and services to be ready to catch future waves of change. You could - if you had the resources - act to change the future to your advantage.

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Some companies seem to be able to do this, to be there ready with the right solution when the wave hits. How, though?

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Zoe Scaman, a creative strategist, gave this excellent talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SPz-MaQaqA) in May 2020 about using science fiction as a weathervane for the future. Specifically, she was looking to persuade her fellow creative strategists to engage in creative “worldbuilding”.

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What’s interesting about science fiction, apart from the escapism and adventure, is that the authors are often following big, important “what if”s to their conclusions as far as their imaginations will take them - up to and including the creation of worlds, societies, the laws of physics etc. The point is that we can inhabit these worlds for a time and let them expand our point of view on “what if”.

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If we don’t expand our point of view, we are limited by what we know now. We're stuck with our own imaginations and existing biases. I don’t think many people would disagree with this - can looking to stories really help build great new products?

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I think so. Having followed Zoe Scaman’s work a little, I think it’s clear that she is directly influenced by science fiction. She mentions Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson’s cult 1992 novel that describes the Metaverse, a virtual game environment that bleeds over into the real world. Accordingly, she is heavily interested in related technologies like “web 3” and NFTs. She is far from alone; Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook is becoming “a metaverse company”.

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There is also something in the power of stories about possible futures to expand your horizons. The energy company Shell is famous for its Scenarios, which is a future storytelling technique that they’ve used for more than 40 years to inform their decision making. They don’t aim to make predictions, but to expose the company to ideas and possible outcomes that could otherwise have been ignored.

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Zoe’s talk has prompted me to review what I know about strategy and to start to look around at the different techniques used in different places to look into the future and how useful they can be in practice. I'll continue on this theme next time.

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Feedback

Does this subject interest you? Hit reply and let me know.

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Thanks,

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- James Browne, prod.fyi​

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