More about Predict next year’s Headline
Predict Next Year’s Headline helps in looking at the way stakeholders expect their products, services or businesses to shape up in the future and what steps should be prioritized in order to meet those expectations.
Predict Next Year’s Headlines must be combined with methods carefully as a bias introduced in data gathering either due to peer pressure in a group discussion or researcher’s opinion during an individual interview will affect the overall prediction. This research method is usually worked out in collaboration with the customer. It is important to keep the headline restricted to one line otherwise the client may squeeze in multiple headlines into one prediction. The different predictions may seem connected for the client but may be actually unrelated. Depending on the projections, the researcher then culls out those that are unrealistic or not in line from a combined vision. This method can be employed at an early stage of the project to define goals and vision for a product or service.
Predict Next Year’s Headline can be either open ended where the participants are asked to suggest the headline without limiting parameters or the method can be closed where the participants are asked to choose from a given set of headlines.
Method
Purpose
Advantages
Disadvantages
Open
To allow stakeholders to project the future of a product, service or industry openly.
- Individual stakeholders can openly project the immediate and future steps that need to be taken to reach a certain state of existence for that product, service or industry.
- The predictions may be complicated to collate.
- Too many diverse predictions.
Closed
To allow stakeholders to project the future of a product, service or industry for predefined predictions.
- Individual stakeholders must choose among predefined options which is helpful in limiting the scope of projections.
- As the stakeholders must choose from the options determined by the researcher or designer who may not be an expert on the product, service or industry.
- As the participants are suggested the options to choose from, a prediction that they would otherwise make can go unmentioned.
Advantages of Predict next year’s Headlines
1. Diverse viewpoints
This method allows gathering different visions and steps to achieve the vision from the stakeholders involved in the design research process.
2. Goal definition
Predict next year’s headlines is a great method to define the goals of a project.
3. Collaborative
The method helps arrive at a common vision through collaborative between the stakeholders and the researcher or designer. The designer also ensures that the project is kept in the focus and the ideas getting generated can be pursued realistically.
4. Concise
The actual goal doesn’t get lost in long complicated goals; the method, if executed correctly, clearly elicits one headline from each stakeholder.
Disadvantages of Predict next year’s Headlines
1. Unrealistic Vision
If the stakeholders do not have a clear goal, they can end up making unrealistic projections, which may be worse than no prediction at all.
2. Experienced Researcher
It is important for an experienced researcher or designer to be part of the collaboration to guide the stakeholders in figuring out the true goals of the project.