Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Look, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
Gold
Friday, October 1, 2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Share the love for this talk
Look, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
Speakers: April Reagan
Link:

Summary

Feel like foresight is best left to economists and business strategists? Think again. Fight your imposter syndrome to harness the power of futures-thinking in your design organization to imagine and pursue preferable futures in how you work, what you produce and even in your personal life. You do not have to stop the world to look, think and act – make the futures mindset a natural habit and make small actions today turn into a better world tomorrow.

Key Insights

  • The COVID-19 pandemic exposed global unpreparedness and severely impacted small businesses, with 30% closing in 2020.

  • Despite crises, remarkable global progress exists in areas like vaccination coverage, literacy, and environmental protection.

  • Futures thinking requires observation, synthesis, scenario creation, estimating potential outcomes, and planning for preferable futures.

  • Design organizations naturally possess many skills transferable to futurism, such as risk management and capacity planning.

  • AI applications can save lives but must be carefully trained with equitable data to avoid reinforcing biases.

  • Collaboration across teams and involving citizens broadly in design and innovation increases the quality of futures outcomes.

  • Technology is a powerful enabler of positive futures but often carries unintended consequences that must be anticipated.

  • Futures literacy and a change-friendly mindset within organizations foster adaptability and strategic foresight.

  • Climate change and extreme weather events disproportionately affect the poorest populations, highlighting global equity challenges.

  • Design leaders are uniquely positioned to advocate for human-centered, inclusive futures at organizational and societal levels.

Notable Quotes

"We can't just focus on the next deadline; we have to think about how the products and services we build impact the world."

"In 1800, 44% of children died before their fifth birthday. We've made dramatic progress since then."

"AI can be a great partner to humans if trained with fair and complete data, but we must be careful not to ship biased systems."

"Foresight is a team sport—the more perspectives you have, the better your future scenarios become."

"Design ops professionals are already futurists in disguise because they constantly manage risks and plan capacity."

"We need honest, transparent conversations about futures because the impacts can be huge and wide-ranging."

"It's not enough to imagine the future; we have to make plans that influence and build those preferable futures."

"The pandemic and climate change have shown how tightly interwoven and global our challenges truly are."

"The division between haves and have-nots is real, but history shows periods of immense innovation and progress can follow."

"We're building bridges not only for ourselves but for the generations who will come after us."

Doug Powell
DesignOps and the Next Frontier: Leading Through Unpredictable Change
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Conference
Sarah Kinkade
Design Management Models in the Face of Transformation
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Wendy Johansson
Design at Scale: Behind the Scenes
2021 • Enterprise Community
Jennifer Strickland
Adopting a "Design By" Method
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jonathan Fairman
Integrating generative AI into enterprise products: A case study from dscout
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Christian Crumlish
Afternoon Insights Panel
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Sarah Brooks
Theme 3 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Audrey Crane
Shadow Design–Where Else is Design Happening in Your Organization?
2023 • Enterprise Community
Niko Laitinen
Adaptable Org Design for Resilient Times
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Brian Moss
What Does it Mean to be a Resilient Research Team?
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Shelby Switzer
Making Space for Community Knowledge-sharing in a Distributed World
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
David Cronin
The GE Design System and Thoughts about Craft at Scale
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Jane Reid
Self-care in User Research
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Eduardo Ortiz
Theme 3 Intro
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Opening Keynote: Org Design for Design Orgs
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Craig Villamor
Design Systems for Ethical Design
2023 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Randolph Duke II

"Carol was really grateful for our conversation."

Randolph Duke II

War Stories LIVE! Randy Duke II

March 30, 2020

Corey Nelson

"This is a moment to rethink identity beyond UX and get creative with income streams and career paths."

Corey Nelson Amy Santee

Layoffs

November 15, 2022

Landon Barnes

"Customers benchmark your company to their last best experience, often outside of your industry."

Landon Barnes

Are My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?

March 10, 2022

Amy Bucher

"We’re often stuck on a hamster wheel of short-term metrics like daily or monthly active users that don’t capture long-term success."

Amy Bucher

Harnessing behavioral science to uncover deeper truths

March 12, 2025

David Sternberg

"Every piece of product can be described using components like intent, viscosity, and flow—making UX a physics problem."

David Sternberg

Uncovering the hidden forces shaping user behavior

July 17, 2025

Deanna Smith

"Leading change is like shopping—take time to find the right store before you buy."

Deanna Smith

Leading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process

September 23, 2024

Jennifer Strickland

"Power hoarding, paternalism, perfectionism—these uphold white supremacy culture in design."

Jennifer Strickland

Adopting a "Design By" Method

December 9, 2021

Rachel Posman

"Design Ops might not just support design anymore—our work is requested by non-designers and solving broader business problems."

Rachel Posman John Calhoun

A Closer Look at Team Ops and Product Ops (Two Sides of the DesignOps Coin)

November 19, 2020

Gina Mendolia

"In large complex systems, the dots are scattered across silos and time zones, making progress feel elusive."

Gina Mendolia

Therapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems

December 3, 2024