Don’t leave the future of your business in the hands of C19
Minimum Viable Futures: Using Lean Foresight to survive and thrive through the uncertainty of Covid-19
Our world changed forever in a matter of weeks. We’re heading for a global recession, and those that are able to take prudent cost-cutting measures, while diversifying or pivoting their offering and investment bets will be poised to emerge as winners. But in a time where change is a constant, how can you confidently know where to place these bets?
In these entirely unprecedented times driven by Covid-19, many of the predictable patterns, models and plans for business have been thrown into deep uncertainty. Sectors and the jobs within them will fundamentally shift, while consumer needs and priorities are poised to change in significant and multifaceted ways.
Instead of gazing longingly into a crystal ball, we’ve created a 2-week Lean Foresight approach to help you plot out the minimum viable futures for your industry and your business.
We start by determining the Covid-influenced factors that will impact your business most — this is where we determine the key elements of change amid Covid-19 that most crucially impact your business. Next, we work collaboratively with your team to conduct a robust ‘market forces’ research sprint. This work will rapidly result in evidenced scenarios that aid your Leadership team to plan the best way to prosper, no matter which version of the future comes to pass.
In the second and final week, we bring together these ‘external forces’ of change with crucial internal organisational knowledge and data to develop a well-rounded point of view on how you should plan to shape the best possible future for your brand.
At the end of the 2-weeks, you’ll have a bespoke set of evidenced scenarios along with a set of strategic implications you plan for short-term recovery in parallel to long-term reinvention. Each scenario will be a well-evidenced point of view on how to survive and thrive in any of the minimal viable futures we uncover.
Deciding on the factors that are most crucial to your business, and most impacted by Covid-19 is the critical starting point. Here are some examples:
For retailers and hospitality sectors, who rely on the public to frequent their spaces, the likely factors would be consumer confidence and footfall. Minimum Viable Futures enables these hard-hit businesses to plan for survival in a projected world of low confidence and low frequency of footfall, as well as how to thrive as spending habits resume or adapt.
In the financial services sector, the likely factors are consumer confidence and liquidity. Commercial banks and insurers perform best in a world where both consumer confidence and individual and organisation liquidity is high. Covid-19 will result in a recession — confidence and liquidity will drop, so financial institutions will have less access to consumer capital. The big question is — what will these scenarios look like, and how can commercial banks and insurance providers prepare and create a proactive set of new offers or even pivot their current propositions to succeed no matter which version of the future becomes true?
In times of chaos, uncertainty and upheaval, the best way to take control of the future is to shape it.
Jenny Burns is an Executive Partner at Fluxx, a company that uses experiments to understand customers, helping clients to build better products and services. Find out more about other consumer insight projects; Connecting customers with craft beer in just three weeks, Cutting through stereotypes to help older people or Insurance is not a product, it’s a service to meet customer needs.
Are you curious as to how Fluxx has helped companies such as Condé Nast, Mars, Thames Water, HSBC, Addison Lee Group and many more? Check out Fluxx Studio Notes. Want to learn the secrets for sustained, repeatable innovation models, from expert practitioners? Check out The Innovation Starter Kit. Stay tuned with all that’s Fluxx by following us on LinkedIn or signing up to our WTF Newsletter.
