Expertise and Select Work
Below are a few sample projects that I have worked on. Questions or comments? Please reach out.
Strategic Foresight - Explore, Embody, Act
How is the changing world around us impacting the future direction and success of your organization, city, or community? Exponential technologies and intelligent machines, shifting geopolitical and demographic power dynamics, new business models & peer-to-peer funding mechanisms, accelerated environmental impacts and resource scarcity, shifts in citizen and consumer identities, lifestyles and expectations, private space exploration and talk of interplanetary settlements are just some of the mega trends that are creating a world that many of us have never previously imagined.
Many leaders across the public, private and social sectors are seeking to map and measure these emerging trends to better understand their impact on their ecosystems and prepare for never-before seen or even envisioned realities.
Using design thinking, experiential hands-on learning, and systems design approach, I have been conducting research and exploring at the "edges of change" to gain deeper insights into the drivers of socio-cultural, political, environmental and technological changes and developments.
To understand how the rapidly changing environment may impact your organization and to “future-proof” your strategic plan, I help organizations uncover blind spots and provide critical insights to map out risks and key opportunities for uncovering innovation.
Immersive Futures Mars settlement experiences, where I am participating in several analog missions to simulate living and working environments on Mars focusing on Space Medicine, Search and Rescue activities, Health and Wellness, Biotech, Virtual Reality and other exponential technologies with Mars Academy USA. You can see more about this work here.
As part of Sustainable Futures Lab, at BSR, I had been brought in to help set up horizon scanning process, trend descriptions scenario development, and workshop facilitation. The research areas covered future of work, emerging technologies such as AI and its intersection with ethics, and futures of climate change impacts and responses. The final report, Doing Business in 2030, can be seen here.
Research and Strategic Design project to help healthcare executives envision the Hospital of the Future. Project included research, immersive futures workshop and report for action. Research and workshop outputs had been fed into a long-term planning strategy for acute care.
Working with the City of Edmonton I designed a Virtual Reality application, Smart City Futures immersive project; leading user experience, research, and developing and facilitating citizen engagement workshop.
Dementia Futures Research Strategy, a multi-stakeholder strategic framework development project. My role was to facilitate the planning process by creating and conducting a series of desired futures and strategy development sessions.
A learning tool exploring the nature of the economic system and business models in relation to design principles of Biomimicry. Click here for more
Sustainable Consumption Insights and Strategies
As the world braces for three billion new consumers entering the middle class by 2030, forward thinking organizations and cities are transitioning into smarter and more restorative production and consumption models. Large scale transitions require business model and policy innovations and human-centered systemic design strategies to create socio-cultural shifts around how we consume products; use energy and water; and live fulfilled and healthy lives.
Using design thinking and systems design approach, I have been conducting research to gain deeper insights into the drivers and barriers for individual consumers/users, in addition to socio-cultural trends relating to shifting to sustainable consumption patterns.
Consumer insights and design strategies for socializing circular modes of value exchange. Click for more
User research exploring leading attitudes towards energy conservation behaviours.
Strategies for consumer engagement and behaviour change. Click for slideshow
Futures trends, signals, implications and scenarios relevant and influential to consumer goods and retail brands.
Report submitted to the City of Toronto proposing material reduction and reuse strategies to be considered as part of the goal to address Toronto’s Long-Term Waste Issues at the residential level.
Service Design Strategy
Service design strategy is about understanding the deepest purpose and competencies of an organization; the explicit and implicit needs of the user; and the current and future context within which an organization is situated in to ensure that the service is relevant, competitive, and addresses implicit and explicit needs of the customer.
Taking a user-centered approach in my work, I have used the following research, analysis and strategy design methodologies during the process: Competitive Landscape Scan, User Interviews, Stakeholder Workshops, Observations, Value Proposition Canvas, Business Model Canvas, Customer Journey Maps, Customer Personas, Product/Service Concept Designs, and Stages of Buying Process Maps.
Market opportunity research, business model concept design, and activation plan.
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Market opportunity research within the Canadian cooperative segment and strategy development. Click for more
Feasibility study and business model concept design for an innovation service centre.
Digital Strategy Design and Stakeholder Engagement
I take a user-centered approach in my work involving stakeholders early in the process, essential for buy-in and engagement. This creates an opportunity for potential users and decision makers to be part of the ideation, prototyping and evaluation processes, bringing ideas and challenges based on their unique experiences and organizational roles. This leads to more robust plans with an engaged constituency.
Digital communications and employee engagement strategy and implementation (with Carbon49)
Planned, developed, and guided CBSR’s digital Member Engagement strategy; communications strategy and events.
Employee Engagement competition design. Click here for more