Framing Playgrounds
Framing Playgrounds is the first step to operationalise a Picture of The Future. We link the future and the present and define "interest areas" for the upcoming research and ideation. Learn in this article how this works!
Bernhard Doll
Business Design Maverick
1. Purpose
Playgrounds are special "interest areas" within a Picture of the Future — territory that's still uncharted today, yet highly relevant for turning the vision into reality. We explore these areas with curiosity and a sharp eye, aiming above all to uncover surprising insights we can use to develop new ideas. A Playground always has to tie back to a Picture of the Future — that's non-negotiable. Here are a few examples of Playgrounds:
Using AI and web bots in B2C customer management
The number of customer complaints when building new data centers
The impact of new legislation X on our future sales process for heat pumps
All three examples show the two essential components of a Playground:
Opportunity or challenge: An "opportunity" can be a new technology, a new regulatory environment, or a societal trend that we can turn to our advantage. We act, developing an entrepreneurial idea for one or more elements of our future business model. A "challenge", by contrast, is a current problem that could hurt elements of that future business model. Here we react, looking for solutions that solve the problem and head off further damage.
Element of the Picture of the Future (context): As we've stressed a few times already, a Playground always keeps one eye on the Picture of the Future. That means an opportunity or challenge has to affect one or more elements of the future business model. Only in that interplay can we plan targeted exploratory research and dive deep into a Playground.
In practice, the line between opportunities and challenges isn't always sharp — and that's fine. The point here isn't linguistic precision; it's showing that Playgrounds can relate to both the familiar and the completely new.
2. Duration
2 weeks
3. Key Activities
Description of playgrounds:
Decision on further reseach: Exploration is a decision, not a default. Once you have framed a Playground through its two components, look each other honestly in the eye and ask: do we have everything we need to generate ideas in this Playground? Or are we still missing the detail and the fresh inspiration? The gap can sit in either component — in the opportunity or challenge (a technology nobody in the organisation has ever worked with), or in the element of the Picture of the Future it acts on (a customer segment you have never served). Where both are familiar territory, take the Playground straight into ideation. Where they are not, explore the Playground first, in a dedicated project (see Exploring Playgrounds).