Is your marketing system creating the forward thinking that you need? It is just not using predictive analytics. It is also developing the mind-shift that forecasting, recognizing trends should be a large part of your efforts. The cliche I have used for years is that the role of marketing is just not getting the message out, it is just as much getting the message in. Putting the ideas of a futurist such as Amy Webb into practice can be a good start. The ideas Webb discusses in her book has helped me refine a few of my methods. It has helped me develop a better practice routine in spotting trends. I believe it gave me a better feel for future opportunity. Not everyone will incorporate it the same way. But how powerful can it be if you can develop a way of “work” to incorporate the future in everyday work? And, the more you practice the better you get. Amazon Link for The Signals are Talking: http://amzn.to/2y4rAWu If you are not familiar with the Lean terminology: https://lnkd.in/gCyWMxm

1. Pressure Test Your Actions
What if the action you choose to take on a
trend is wrong?
SDCA: Adjacencies are nurtured
Create Scenarios and Strategies
Build scenarios to create possible futures
and accompanying strategies
PDCA: Cluster & experimenting till obvious
connections take place.
Calculate the ETA
Interpret the trend and ensure that the
timing is right.
PDCA: Engage based on evaluation to
include differences.
Ask the Right Questions
Determine whether a pattern really is a
trend.
SDCA: Define our core, our why to move
forward. Does it make sense?
Use CIPHER*
Uncover hidden patterns by categorizing
data from the fringe.
EDCA: Organize Experiments for
Exploration
Find the Fringe
Cast a wide net creating a map showing
nodes & relationships between them.
CAP-Do: Seek to understand boundaries
Can Lean Help Predict the Future?
The Signals are Talking Lean Thinking
Can Lean Help Predict The Future?
The Cascading Effects of Lean in Your Marketing
Author Amy Webb (The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream) states “THE
FUTURE DOESN’T simply arrive fully formed overnight, but emerges step by step. It first appears at
seemingly random points around the fringe of society, never in the mainstream. Without context, those
points can appear disparate, unrelated, and hard to connect meaningfully. But over time they fit into
patterns and come into focus as a full-blown trend: a convergence of multiple points that reveal a
direction or tendency, a force that combines some human need and new enabling technology that will
shape the future.”
Below is Webb’s 6-step process and my application of Lean Thinking to it.
*CIPHER: Contradictions, Inflections, Practices, Hacks, Extremes, Rarities
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