Scenario Planning
Ensure your product can adapt to future challenges and opportunities
Effective scenario planning helps teams anticipate and respond to changes in technology, market trends, user needs, and other external factors.
Insights + Recommendations
Define objectives
Clearly articulate the goals and purposes of the scenario planning process to ensure alignment with the desired outcomes for the product’s system.
Identify key drivers
Identify and prioritize the critical uncertainties and variables that could impact the product's success, such as technological advancements, user behavior, or regulatory changes.
Develop scenarios
Create a set of diverse, plausible future scenarios based on different combinations of key drivers. Each scenario should represent a distinct possible future environment in which the product might exist.
Analyze the implications
Assess the potential impact of each scenario on the product design and development process. Consider how each scenario might affect user needs, technical requirements, and product strategy.
Encourage stakeholder engagement
Engage stakeholders throughout the scenario planning process. Their insights and perspectives on product stratgey and organizational planning can help create more comprehensive and realistic scenarios.
Test with prototypes
Test product concepts against different scenarios to evaluate their resilience and adaptability. This helps identify potential weaknesses and areas for improvement.
Adjust assumptions
Acknowledge that scenarios are not predictions but rather plausible narratives of possible futures. Remain open to adjusting assumptions and strategies as new information emerges.
Stay flexible
Incorporate flexibility into the product design to accommodate various scenarios. This might involve creating modular components, ensuring scalability, and planning for easy updates and modifications.
Be proactive + informed
Use scenario planning to explore alternative strategic options and pathways for the product's evolution, enabling informed decision-making and proactive risk management.
Methods
Thoughtful work begins with clearly defined objectives and selecting the right methods.
Requirements gathering
Stakeholder alignment
Systems mapping
User research and testing
User/customer insights gathering and analysis
User/customer journey mapping
Prototypes and usability testing
Assistive technology testing
Scalable design systems
Content audits and analysis
Future state definition
Digital transformation strategy
