FutureConsumerNow
Globally, businesses are struggling to predict and increasingly volatile future. Technology, geo-political change and consumer demands point to plethora of potential futures, but FutureConsumerNow applied speculative design theory to enable a multidisciplinary cross-section of today’s visionaries and business leaders to define the future they want and how it will be created.
̌
Future consumer now started with a co-created body of drivers & hypotheses and culminated with 5 sprints in 5 cities each of which created 3 consumer profiles and scenarios.
Hackmasters collaborated with EY to build a portfolio of future vision resources; drivers, scenario hypotheses & analysis. These resources were channeled into 5 sprints in London, Berlin, Shanghai, Mumbai & LA. Each sprint brought together 30 local visionaries who were put through their paces in Hackmasters’ proprietary hack process. Together they imagined concept products, business models, consumer profiles and likely events that will enable a better future.
See the documentary for Berlin’s sprint below or watch the story from LA.
I was Hackmasters’ Programme Director for FutureConsumerNow and took responsibility for planning and facilitating the initial workshops that defined the drivers & hypotheses as well leading the team which created and analysed each sprint.
My responsibilities for the project also included designing the resources and exercises brought to each sprint.
Future Drivers
Interviews, workshops and analysis allowed the team to distill 100 drivers shaping the future consumer.
Speculative Exercises
We designed bespoke speculative exercises to enable participants to collectively define their preferable future and the opportunities it will create.
As Hackmasters’ Programme Director for FutureConsumerNow, I was responsible for planning and facilitating the initial workshops that defined the drivers and hypotheses as well leading the team which design and analysed each sprint.
My responsibilities for the project also included designing the resources and exercises brought to each sprint.
Brands participating in FutureConsumerNow praised the perspective it has provided to their product and service development strategies. Its success has prompted EY to add Consumers as a lateral service line extending across all of their consultancy verticals.
“This isn’t a week where you get to sit down and hear lots of presentations, no, it’s all of the ideas being worked at an incredibly fast pace, building ideas up, tearing them down, saying what it means. It’s exhausting, it’s fascinating, its out of control, and it’s incredible because it forces you into a position where you are seeing the future from a perspective you didn’t have before. ”
“I’ve never been to a workshop that suspended your current world and thinking, transporting you as far as you are willing to go.”
“I’ve really enjoyed the structure of the workshops because it’s not linear, it’s not traditional. ”
“Everything is changing and the world is moving really fast and we can drift into a certain place or we can be intentional about where we go. ”
Future Consumer Now was a collaboration between Hackmasters & EY with many contributors & participants
Ross Ambrose
Programme Director
Madeleine Clouteau
Knowledge Leader & Producer
Andrew Cosgrove
EY Consumer Knowledge Leader
