What if instead of fixing the problem in todays world we where fixing it in 5, 10 or 20 years?  Would we come up with different ideas?

With the future scenarios ideation technique we use trends or future scenarios created by strategic foresight experts (yes, such people exist) as an inspiration point. 

In a first round we show how life could be in 5, 10 or 20 years. After that we ask participants to solve the problem in one of these futures.

Here the constraint are as always the time you give to people, and the topic that serves as an inspiration, here the future scenarios.

Where can I get some base scenarios?

You can use as a basis the future scenarios created by INHERIT. 

This organization created four scenarios with  four little explanatory videos that depict how Europeans could live in 2040. The four scenarios are: 

1. Meet Adam – My life between realities

2. Meet Isabella – Less is more to me

3. Meet Milan – One for all, all for one

4. Meet Tereza – Our circular community

Where can I get some base trends?

If you don't want to go to far in the future, you can also use trends highlighted by researchers. The company FJORD publishes every year a set of trends that are not too far away from what we experience today but still can serve as an inspiration to come with new ideas.

https://vimeo.com/380441527

On their website you can find for each trend a little description of the trend and even suggestion on how you can react to this trend.

Need more

If the trends or future scenarios I selected for you aren't useful for your challenge you can search for the keywords "trend reports" or "future scenarios" in google and add the name of your industry, for example: "Trends report NGO 2020". Happy searching.