Foresighting (trends, weak signals and wild cards)

Description: Foresighting is a practice of exploring expected and alternative futures. Trend is a general tendency or direction evident from past events increasing or decreasing in strength of frequency of observation. A weak signal is an indicator of a potentially emerging issue that may become significant in the future. “Wild card” is a high-impact event that seem too incredible or is considered too unlikely to happen; yet many do happen.

R&D service category-ies: Market and sales support

Objectives:

• Policy consulting,
• Create a future vision,
• Identify new opportunities and risks,

Methods: Back casting, brainstorming, user/citizen panels, workshop/session, expert panel, interview, literature review, role playing, scenarios, survey, SWOT, wild card & weak signals, science fiction/crazy ideas