Making Futures Work: Integrating Futures Thinking for Design, Innovation, and Strategy

Learn how to get started with Futures Thinking. With this practical guide, Phil Balagtas, founder of the Design Futures Initiative and the global Speculative Futures network, shows you how designers and futurists have made futures work at companies such as Atari, IBM, Apple, Disney, Autodesk, Lufthansa, and McKinsey & Company.

This book demystifies the process of Futures Thinking into a language that's practical and useful for both designers and strategists. You'll learn about Strategic Foresight for using ideas about the future to anticipate and prepare for change; explore Speculative Design to deal with the relationship between science, technology, and humans; and Design Fiction to explore and critique possible futures.

Balagtas also shares stories from his journey to build a global community and describes how he works with clients to reshape the futures vocabulary. With this guide, you'll learn how to prepare your client, team, and/or audience for futures; facilitate and work with the fundamental methods and frameworks; gain advocacy and support within your organization; provide measurable value from the process and outcomes; build a futures culture and team; and sustain a culture and support system beyond projects.

© 2025 Ascent Audio (Audiobook): 9781663753885

Release date

Audiobook: August 19, 2025