Using futures studies to design tomorrow’s products: a case study

The challenge companies face in developing innovative and profitable products and services that will be in demand in the future can be facilitated by futures studies techniques. This article presents a case study where an organization in the general insurance industry used a combination of futures studies techniques (including scenario development, causal layered analysis and backcasting) to develop over 40 new product concepts for evaluation by their strategic product development team. Some of the product concepts were considered by the client organization to be potentially revolutionary in nature.