Turning attention to values and need states | Hinesight....for Foresight

We have focused a lot of attention on the mechanisms of values changes over the last year. I’d like to shift gears a bit and focus more on what that the outcomes of these changes look like. In ConsumerShift, the primary means for I chose for illustrating the outcomes was the formation of 23 emerging need states organized into seven “meta-needs” for the next decade. They are later “brought to life” in the form of future personas, but first things first.

The idea of the needs states is to provide useful targets for market researchers, new product and business developers, and strategists to aim at as they anticipate and plan for the future. The descriptor “emerging” was carefully chosen to signify that these need states are already appearing in consumer life to some degree. The relative maturity of the following need states will differ—some will be “more emerged” than others. An important caveat is that the emphasis here is on “new” need states, not all need states.

I’ll ask for some patience as I’ll take a few posts to explain the process, so you know where they came from, before diving into the actual needs states and meta-needs. Andy Hines

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

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