Future state vision (idealized design)
Updated on Wednesday, July 26, 2023
A method that helps teams envision the concrete, future product or service they want to build. Includes templates and facilitation guide.
Future State Vision is one of the easiest envisioning methods that almost anyone can run. It's also one of the most valuable and versatile. It helps individuals and teams describe a concrete, measurable vision of the future, so you agree on what you’re building and why. It works for products, services, projects, green field, redesigns, and retrofits.
| Difficulty | Anyone can do this |
|---|---|
| Participants | Up to 12 with or without experience |
| Time | 30 minutes (in-person), 45 minutes (remote) |
| Materials | Standard stuff: a way to collect ideas and a way to collect them |
How does it work?
Picture this. You and your team have just started a new project. You even know what you will build first, but how do you make sure what you build will lay the right foundation for where you want the product to go?
- First, brainstorm the problems you want to solve.
- Second, brainstorm the things you don’t want to change. What works now? What should stay the same?
- Finally, imagine the future. In this successful future, what specific things do people do?
The things people do in the successful future represent a concrete vision of the future. Each of these future behaviors can translate directly into user stories for your team to work on.
Is this for me?
A core method; great for envisioning any product or service
Because Future State Vision aligns your team around a crystallized product vision, it is highly versatile and ideal for project kickoffs for any kind of project.
Although most useful during problem and solution definition, use Future State Vision at any stage to bring misaligned teams back together.
Ideal for redesigns and relaunches
Because you start with brainstorms about what to change and what to keep, Future State Vision is especially useful where you have an existing system you want to change.
Alternatives to consider
While Future State Vision generates a list of specific things users do in the future, you may need to a future vision that's more specific or less specific.
Try more generalized methods to imagine a less specific future:
- Future Press Release or News Article
- Design the Box
- Concept Poster
To envision a more specific future, map the future customer journey. You can convert the journey into a user story map, identify your minimum viable product, and populate your backlog.
What do you need?
Inputs
- Start with a blank slate
- Start with pre-collected problems, successes, and future behaviors
Outputs
- List of problems to fix
- List of successes to keep
- List of user stories (and optional metrics)
Participants
- Use on your own
- Up to 12 participants
- For more than 12, split into groups
Materials
- Some way to collect ideas
- Somewhere to collect them like a dry erase board or physical or digital wall
Templates and facilitation materials
Download Future state vision templates and facilitation guide
future-state-vision.pptx (89.07 kB). Last modified 02/14/22
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Facilitation tips and instructions
Austin Govella provides detailed instructions and facilitation tips for Future State Vision in chapter seven of his book, Collaborative Product Design. You can view chapter seven online via O’Reilly’s Safari Books.
Austin adapted Future State Vision from a systems thinking approach to innovation called Idealized Design formalized by Russel Ackoff.
The origin of idealized design
Ackoff observed idealized design in action at Bell Labs in the 1950s. Read or listen to the story on the Wharton School of Business’s blog, Knowledge@Wharton: Idealized design: How Bell Labs Imagined — and Created — the Telephone System of the Future.
Learn about idealized design
Russel Ackoff, Jason Magidson, and Herbert Addison wrote an entire book on Idealized Design.
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