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Based on copious data, our clients regularly speculate on the future of real estate, strategy, timelines, and capital to update or establish their workplaces with ramifications for years or even decades to come. But what if multiple probable workplace futures—modeled in response to specific questions, using a formal process that tracks and analyzes 11 macro sources of change worldwide—were highly visualized to feel real, experiential, and emotionally evocative for decision makers? Surely this would enhance the process, deepen the sense of preparation, and strengthen the conviction to move forward. Sounds good, but how would that work?

To answer that question, Senior Designer and IA Spark Fellow Erin Dayrit used her fellowship grant to embark on a formal course of study and become a Certified Design Futurist. Offered by IIDA, the course is a two-and-a-half-month program requiring a minimum total time commitment of approximately 20 hours and adds a new dimension to a design professional’s expertise.

The Program

Participants study strategic foresight — a rigorous, systematic, evidence-based process that identifies a range of plausible future scenarios for flexibility and resilience in response to a specific concern or cluster of concerns. This data-driven process tracks trends and signals, mainstream and fringe, that could impact the future of work and design. Uncertainties are plotted, and probable outcomes are identified.

If-then-thinking takes center stage to explore implications, consequences, opportunities, and outcomes, near or long-term. Based on questioning and the analysis of massive data, what could/will influence the future as it unfolds is conceptualized in detail. Storytelling using a specific design language makes it feel substantial and real.

"What if" becomes a powerful question. Requiring a shift in mindset, uncertainty becomes an asset that drives discovery and possibility. Trends (defined as fundamental human needs that persist over time, evolving as they emerge) and shifts in culture and commerce are viewed through multiple lenses. Eleven macro sources of change are tracked: government, wealth distribution, geopolitics, education, demographics, infrastructure, society & culture, environment, public health,  media & communications, and the economy.

Plausible future workplace circumstances are identified in response to a specific question or questions about the impact of human behavior, expectations, technologies, and other uncertainties over the next 5, 10, 15, or 20 years. How spatial and product use might change is also considered.

Translating trends into meaningful, visualized future scenarios through descriptive language that makes possibilities almost tangible and real is critical to the process. To cultivate that level of storytelling proficiency, the course also focuses on writing skills and a curated design language.

The Benefits

Through highly articulated, realistically envisioned (and almost experienced) scenarios that address specific concerns and agendas, clients have greater agency as active participants in shaping their organizations’ future.

Example: Creating a Specific Scenario

During her studies, Erin posed a mock question: How might the future of learning, skill development, and mentorship reconfigure the fabric of workplaces over the next decade? After searching for signals, identifying trends, exploring uncertainties, and testing multiple possible futures, she asked a second compound question: What if the workplace became the primary platform for learning, mentorship, and growth? What if employees had greater agency over how, when, and where they develop their skills? The agency-driven workplace was one of the plausible scenarios she identified in response to multiple factors: a workplace that no longer works, rapidly expiring skills, evolving expectations, and growing pressures on professionals and organizations.

The scenario is set in 2036. Colleagues have total agency over their workday, moving through immersive, digitally fluid environments that balance activity and restoration in support of continuous growth. This model is a system where learning, mentorship, and work are indistinguishable. As each day unfolds, colleagues move through responsive environments shaped by intention.

Their day begins in learning pods offering a choice of learning systems from AI to live to on-screen classes. Then, they transition into studios where ideas take shape through hands-on and interactive activities with colleagues or via an interface. Outside the studios, the corridor is a social spine for mentorship and exchange, where knowledge transfer is visible and growth is shared.

As the day progresses, they move into focus spaces, as well as spaces for restoration. Before they leave, their day is reflected back to them as a story, revealing what they have contributed to, built, and learned. In this agency-driven workplace, colleagues are defined by growth. Their progress is visible, continuous, and shared, compounded each day for a lasting sense of fulfillment.

Dayrit created a video drawing on IA’s AI design tool to give even greater reality and substance to the scenario. 

Conclusion

In response to specific goals and agendas, strategic foresight practiced by a certified Design Futurist explores highly plausible future workplace scenarios vividly envisioned and grounded in extensive evidence-based data. These spaces anticipate the future, giving substance to possibilities and options that empower decision-makers and their organizations to become more future-ready in a landscape of uncertainty.