Growing up with a Jetsonian vision of push-button dinners and automated cleaning, it was easy to imagine coming home to a house managed by a trusty humanoid helper. In hindsight, that glimpse of the future wasn't a bold vision of what could be in 2040. It was a 1960s dream.

In this episode, Jennifer Lo, a futurist-in-residence and senior director of organizational design, shares five techniques for noticing when you're repeating someone else's vision of tomorrow, and getting curious enough to imagine your own.

Read along with the full story: https://www.ideo.com/journal/the-used-future-trap

Related Resources:

Jennifer Lo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-lo-28654b3/

Why every company needs a futurist-in-residence, by Jennifer Lo: https://www.ideo.com/journal/why-every-company-needs-a-futurist-in-residence

Building an enduring operating system, by Jennifer Lo: https://www.ideo.com/journal/building-an-enduring-futuring-system

How to think like a futurist, with Jennifer Lo on IDEO U's Creative Confidence Podcast: https://www.ideo.com/creative-confidence-podcast/how-to-think-like-a-futurist-jennifer-lo

In This Episode

(00:00) Why the housekeeper robot you're picturing is a 1960s dream

(05:00) Notice what's possible rather than forecasting what's certain

(06:26) Question the framing: incremental improvement or transformational reimagining?

(07:31) Prototype tangible futures: newspapers from the future and a mock clinic

(08:40) Create human narratives: what the future will feel like to live in

(09:55) Design nascent paradigms: reorienting how we define progress, value, and success

(10:41) The risk of innovation theater, and what opens up when you move past old visions

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