Remember the Future

This game is based on numerous studies in cognitive psychology that have examined how we think about the future. When we ask the question “What will our product do?” we’re left with an open-ended future, one in which every possible future is equally plausible. Of course, this isn’t strictly true, and to answer the question we will pick a possible future and describe it. However, the lack of a concrete outcome means that we don’t have to deal with the details of how our product will have done it. Others will tend to judge our answers as “hollow” or “lacking substance,” because there is no requirement that this is actually the future that will materialize.

Remember the Future enables you to not only understand your customers’ definition of success, but also their understanding of how that successful outcome happened.

How to play: Hand each of your customers a few pieces of paper. Ask them to imagine that it is sometime in the future and that they’ve been using your product almost continuously between now and that future date (month, year, whatever). Then ask them to write down exactly what your product will have done to make them happy or successful or rich or safe or secure or art – choose what works best for your product. Key point – ask “What will the system have done?” not “What should the system do?”