Design Thinking Toolkit, Activity 5 – Remember the Future

Welcome to our series on Design Thinking methods and activities. You’ll find a full list of posts in this series at the end of the page.

Remember the Future

Once again, we’ll be referring to Lyft as our project and client example.

1. Prepare Your Materials

Sometime before the activity, prep all of your supplies. If you’re able, print out the product’s user personas so that the client can easily reference them. Gather enough Post-its so that each participant has one Post-it color per user persona.

You’ll also want to prep three large Post-it sheets. On the first write “6 months,” on another “1 year,” and finally “3 years.”

When you arrive to your activity location, place the large sheets on the wall, pass out each set of Post-its, Sharpies, and the print-outs of your personas.

2. Explain the Activity

Explain that you’ll be thinking about how the product will make their personas or users successful in the future, in particular after its launch 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years out. You want them to describe in detail specifics about how the product will make them feel (ex. happy, empowered, safe, secure).

If possible have them assign metrics to some of their thoughts. For example, a Lyft stakeholder might say that their New York users felt empowered to sell their vehicles and, therefore, were able to save $5-10k annually by taking a Lyft instead.

Have each stakeholder present their ideas and explain them out-loud as they post each note to the appropriate timeframe.

••• Advanced Edition •••

If you want to take this exercise to the next level, you can add in a few specifics to help guide stakeholder’s input. First, select one timeframe in which you’ll frame a majority of the feedback. For example, we’ll start with 1 year.

Then for that year break the Post-it into 3 columns:

• Tweets
• New York Times Headline
• Celebrity Endorsement

Then have each stakeholder write out scenarios where users, journalists, and celebrities would talk about how their products makes them successful or helps improve their quality of life.

For example, an Lyft executive might write the following for each section:

• Twitter: “I just rode with the coolest Lyft driver. He was super friendly and drove us thru @TacoBell omwh. #winning”
• New York Times Headline: “Lyft Gets $500 Million in New Funding Due to Overwhelming Demand”
• Celebrity Endorsement: Bill Nye endorses Lyft as champion for helping combat climate change!

The advanced version of the exercise is fun and impactful for a couple reasons. First, it helps frames participants feedback by helping them be more specific with their feedback. Second, it’s fun to think through scenarios of people saying encouraging things about your product plus it offers a chance to include user feedback and perceptions (Twitter) and business goals (New York Times).

3. Review

After each person has gone through all their definitions of success, discuss as a group which are the most important to keep track of. The most important definitions can help you drive the priority of your design work and backlog. They’ll also help your team drive towards a specific goal that the group has aligned on.

And that’s a wrap! Check back soon for new lessons, and leave me a comment below if you’ve given Remember The Future a try.

Class dismissed!

References

Reference for this exercise: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Creative Play by Luke Hohmann (2006)

Atomic’s Design Thinking Toolkit

• What Is Design Thinking?
• Your Design Thinking Supply List
• Activity 1 – The Love/Breakup Letter
• Activity 2 – Story Mapping
• Activity 3 – P.O.E.M.S.
• Activity 4 – Start Your Day
• Activity 5 – Remember the Future
• Activity 6 – Card Sorting
• Activity 7 – Competitors/Complementors Map
• Activity 8 – Difficulty & Importance Matrix
• Activity 9 – Rose, Bud, Thorn
• Activity 10 – Affinity Mapping
• Activity 11 – Speed Boat
• Activity 12 – Visualize The Vote
• Activity 13 – Hopes & Fears
• Activity 14 – I Like, I Wish, What If
• Activity 15 – How to Make Toast
• Activity 16 – How Might We…?
• Activity 17 – Alter Egos
• Activity 18 – What’s On Your Radar?
• Activity 19 – The Perfect Morning
• Activity 20 – 2×3
• Activity 21 – How Can I Help…?
• Activity 22 – Cover Story
• Activity 23 – Crazy 8s
• Activity 24 – Abstraction Ladder
• Activity 25 – Empathy Map
• Activity 26 – Worse Possible Idea
• Activity 27 – Pre-Project Survey
• Activity 28 – The Powers of Ten
• Activity 29 – SCAMPER
• Activity 30 – Design Studio
• Activity 31 – Forced Connections

This is an updated version of a post originally published in November 2017.