Envisioning Futures and Creating Strategic Choices

The business had set a new sustainability agenda, and needed to identify long-term, transformational growth opportunities (new markets, new capabilities). The innovation team decided on scenario planning and business model innovation to challenge orthodoxies, spark unconventional thinking, and contextualize strategic choices within the context of potential and preferable futures.

• Co-created four detailed future scenarios based on critical uncertainties regarding sustainability and social change; scenarios were used to inspire innovation and stress-test resilience of specific opportunities
• Co-created over 100 new business model concepts, which were narrowed to ten finalists. Selected concepts were visualized and tested with consumers, and further refined for internal socialization, evaluation, and development
• Designed an immersive lab experience for leadership team to engage with scenario thinking, concepts, and implications for the business

• Increase in futures literacy and alignment on a shared vision across program team and cross-functional leadership team
• Identification and prioritization of innovation initiatives
• Multiple pilot programs brought to market for evaluation and development

Identifying Opportunities for Innovation

The innovation and corporate strategy team sought an answer to the question “What comes after the SUV/CUV in ten years?” Answering this and developing clear strategic choices and identifying opportunity areas meant that the team needed to look at the broader mobility landscape, inclusive of emerging technologies and evolving customer needs. It also meant exploring tacit assumptions about the future of the personal automobile as a core part of daily life.

• Designed a unique mixed-methods research program including ethnography with edge-case mobility users, a wide range of expert interviews and field visits, and extensive desk research
• Developed six future scenarios, which were narrowed to three finalists for refinement, narrative development, and opportunity ideation
• Identified and illustrated core and adjacent opportunity areas for future mobility solutions across each scenario, including future product concepts suitable for evaluative research and further development

• Identification of future opportunity spaces and recommendations, which inspired downstream concept development
• Alignment across client team related to implications of alternative strategic choices and scenarios
• Identification of key drivers of change and emerging signals for ongoing horizon scanning and evaluation

Facilitating Dialog and Systemic Transformation

The widespread adoption of sustainable energy solutions is constrained by complexity across the value chain and external environment, requiring a systems-level approach to change that is inclusive of multiple stakeholders across industries and roles. There was a need to convene a representative group of stakeholders in a unique one-day lab to share perspectives, identify shared interests, and co-create pathways for transformation.

• Conducted stakeholder interviews with all participants to identify shared interests, challenges, and perspectives
• Conducted secondary research and applied systems thinking across the value chain to analyze current and desired future state of play, along with prospective intervention points
• Utilized design thinking methods to structure lab frameworks and activities, drive engaging and productive discourse, identify systems interventions, and align on actionable outcomes

• Meeting exceeded expectations for both client and stakeholder participants
• Alignment on shared vision and agreement to pursue a first-of-kind pilot program involving multiple stakeholders

Designing New Offerings and Experiences

This program was part of an exploratory research and design collaboration between Hyundai and the design firm Artefact. The goal of the work was to develop a speculative design perspective on the transition to autonomous vehicles (AVs), focused on near-term vehicles that feature limited/conditional automation and require high levels of user engagement. These vehicles present complex design challenges related to critical interactions, such as exchanges of control.

• Conducted futures research to forecast trajectory of AV development, which led to design principles and UX priorities over three horizons of change and inclusive of L3-L5 vehicles
• Identified specific use-cases and contextual challenges of L3 vehicles using human-centered design methods
• Designed and prototyped future UX/UI systems, showcasing novel multi-modal interactions inclusive of hardware and software

• Produced high-influence internal thought leadership and acted as a catalyst for further explorations
• Resulted in successful campaign, with earned media coverage across multiple channels and keynote talks at IXDA and SXSW