We offer
Stakeholder Assessments
collecting and analyzing insights & ideas about a shared future
Shared Future Vision Formation
synthesizing stakeholder input to pursue a shared vision of a shared future
Forward-Looking Program Reviews
using multiple data sources & insights to align a program with its desired state
Ideas About the Future
organizing an individual's ideas into an actionable vision
The future brings change
We help clients shape future conditions through clear, creative, and intentional efforts to define the "what, why, and how" of the future.
What we do
We work with clients to focus a research process on specific aspects of the future. Data is collected individually and remotely. Qualitative techniques are used to develop actionable ideas leading to a shared vision.
What you get
Projects are conducted online and create valuable results, such as: 1) Stakeholder engagement about a shared future, 2) Development of ideas and insights, and 3) Clarity of what, why, and how to manage future change.
Our clients
We serve people who believe the future can and should be carefully considered and thoughtfully implemented.
Clients include state and local governments, non-profit organizations, for-profit businesses, colleges, universities, schools, healthcare organizations, and start-ups.
Our method builds an insider's perspective of a future socio-cultural system grounded in the words, thoughts, insights, motivations, and aspirations of those who have a stake in that system's future.
Vision is the narrative for change
A story about the future describes desirable future conditions, the changes required to make it happen, and an explanation of why these changes are important, achievable, and worth pursuing.
Custom, scalable projects
Pricing is based on project size and complexity.
Choose from one of our 4 project types
Solutions
We offer four solutions, each powered by our visioning method.
Method
Our visioning method is embedded in all project types (i.e., solutions) because it has proven to be an effective and reliable approach to elicit and analyze people’s ideas about possible futures. This method has evolved over time. Originally modeled after an anticipatory anthropological approach called Ethnographic Futures Research, our current inquiry method uses proprietary technologies that collect and code data (captured as structured conceptual units) describing future socio-cultural conditions. Our data coding system is designed to identify “ideas about the future” that aggregate inputs from multiple stakeholders and data sources. Within a specific project, these “ideas” are used to produce outputs such as vision statements, actionable goals, strategy blueprints, tactical logic models, and assessment rubrics for measuring success in efforts to attain desired future conditions.
1. Stakeholder Assessments
A solution for a group needing to understand and respond to the interests, values, and needs of the people they seek to serve.
Application
- Contextualized insights on possible change. This solution engages the people who share a certain future describe as desirable and possible for their futures.
Output
- Data set of insights derived from visioning stakeholder interviews (coded by meaning-making tags)
- Aggregated ideas derived from data set
- Various options for output formats (depend on client goals and budget)
- Written report
- Curated presentations
- Video of project findings (aggregated ideas)
- Data, analysis, and other outputs from Stakeholder Assessments are INPUTS for Solution 2: Shared Future Vision
Impact
- Individual impacts of each stakeholder include:
- Feeling included, heard, respected, and appreciated
- Clarity of desired future and required attainment actions
- Client impacts for the “group” include:
- Contextualized understanding of stakeholder needs
- Specific insight on what they future can look like, why it’s important, and how to make it happen
Detail
- Every project is different, generally these projects involve 20 to 50 stakeholders who are each interviewed
- Timeline is affected by interviewee availability. On average, we are able to handle 2 interviews per day (10 per week)
- Cost of a 30-participant Stakeholder Assessment is ~ $17,000
3. Forward-Looking Program Reviews
- Enhanced awareness among key program staff & stakeholders of analytic result of past-performance data
- Development of context affecting previous opportunities and challenges
- Exploration of current and emerging opportunities and challenges affecting mission and approach
- Articulation of a program’s desired future conditions, why those future outcomes are important, and how those outcomes will be pursued
4. Ideas About the Future
A solution for individuals seeking clarity about their own possible and preferred futures.
- Statement of an individual’s desired state outcomes for selected issues
- Cohesion mapping of achievable and sustainable ideas that lead to intended future conditions
- Identification and sequencing of actions that align with, and contribute toward the individual’s desired future state
- Heightened clarity within the individual on the desired and attainable future outcomes for their own future and how it relates (connects) with the futures they share with others
- Examination of “throughline” connections between goals of “current self” and goals of “future self”
- Self-assessment of alignment between practical actions currently available, possible short-term changes, and preferred future conditions
- Conducted as a project, this solution requires the individual client to participate in
- Individual projects can be conducted quickly in a few days or paced over a few weeks or months, eith option depends on availability and focus
- This is solution is currently not available to persons less than 18 years of age
- Project cost depends on the scope of the future to be explored and timeline, most projects explore three interrelated issues and completed on a three day timeline = $1,500
About Us
Futures Research was created by Matthew Mitchell with the goal of expanding access to innovative services that help groups and individuals be more intentional about their futures.
As a graduate student, Matthew began using anticipatory ethnography to investigate systemic causes and socio-cultural impacts of the "digital divide." This work led to the application of futures research to several large public- and private-funded grant programs designed to build digital inclusion through access to technology and digital literacy.
Evolution
In 2004, Matthew applied a nascent version of an anticipatory ethnography method to bridge a major private foundation technology grant program into a state-wide sustainable initiative, which in turn prompted a state-funded technology grant program (called CTOP), that Matthew managed for a few years.
In 2008, responding to opportunities in industry and government, Matthew co-founded a policy research group focused on building national strategies to expand the availability and application of broadband services. Significant advances to the core visioning method were achieved through analytical innovations leveraging database and UX technologies.
In 2016, Matthew created Futures Research to focus on "mission-driven" clients. Futures Research found early success with non-profit and public-funded higher education clients. Technological innovation continues to play an important role in expanding access to the essential services of informed anticipatory research.
Central in all of this work has been an evolving research method to conduct thousands of visioning interviews with leaders of state and local governments, businesses, K12 systems, colleges and universities, non-profits, foundations, health care organizations, and other community anchor institutions.
Discover Change
Futures Research is an online, data-driven "change discovery" system. Our projects seek out the what, why, and how of change. We collect data from those who share a future to conceptualize and articulate ideas about the future. We help groups build visions of their future. We develop strategic visions for mission-driven companies, organizations, and groups. Our projects can be applied to planning, assessment, and engagement efforts of all types. For example, projects inform efforts like strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, outreach campaigns, policy formation, program review, board development, needs assessment, risk analysis, and identification of opportunity and innovation.
Data-Driven Futures
The future is too important to not be as intentional, thoughtful, and strategic as possible. This is why Futures Research exists: to help individuals and groups develop and pursue a shared vision of their shared futures.