Designing Desirable Futures Through Speculative Artifacts—Lessons from Two Global Design Studios

OVERVIEW: Due to uncertain contexts, organizations struggle to foresee innovation opportunities that are plausible and desirable to society and the environment. Speculative design, with its ability to leverage artifacts to spark discourse, can complement corporate foresight approaches to envision plausible and desirable futures. A case study of two global design studios unveils a three-step process to foresee and design futures (augmenting, reflecting, and redirecting), and unpacks six roles of speculative artifacts within the process. The study findings provide effective levers for practitioners willing to manage speculative projects.