Inspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
Summary
Want to learn how to make the future you see in your mind come to life? Cut through red tape, flip limitations on their head and inspire meaningful progress in both the short and long-term by creating artifacts from the future. Artifacts from the future are designed objects or creative representations of everyday life at a different point in time, meant to persuade or challenge, develop champions and align resources. Learn how to create and share your own “preferred futures” as well as cautionary ones through artifact design with a civic design strategist, experiential designer and certified futurist.
Key Insights
-
•
Artifacts of the future are immersive, visual tools that help people experience and evaluate potential futures rather than just imagining them verbally.
-
•
Using AI to write essays is not just a threat but can be framed as a future pedagogical tool to teach skills like policy translation through AI.
-
•
Signals are emerging trends on the horizon seen in niche groups that may become mainstream and can be used to build artifacts of the future.
-
•
Creating low-fidelity prototypes, like a text message thread demo, can help governments get buy-in from stakeholders for complex systemic changes, as Gallimore did with Detroit's early childhood program.
-
•
Artifacts of the future allow diverse groups to align around a shared vision or North Star by providing concrete, emotionally resonant experiences.
-
•
Exploring risky or undesirable futures with artifacts helps reveal trade-offs and prepare for potential societal decisions, as shown by Toronto’s Wi-Fi free zones example.
-
•
Backcasting from an artifact of the future helps identify what actions need to happen today to reach a desired or to avoid a risky future.
-
•
Artifacts can target near-term futures (1-2 years) to accelerate governmental or civic decisions despite traditionally longer foresight horizons.
-
•
Visual and AI tools like Midjourney or Jasper AI can quickly generate compelling design artifacts representing future scenarios, enhancing impact.
-
•
Centering future designs on people and place before technology ensures relevance and human-centric innovation rather than technology-driven solutions.
Notable Quotes
"Evan actually spent less than 15 minutes on the essay, and instead of working on homework, he was writing a letter to his significant other back home in Detroit."
"What if I said that this was actually the assignment: to write an essay using AI, helping students become familiar with translating their policy intent through AI?"
"Signals are something that’s happening at the horizon, percolating at the fringes of society or in a narrow subset of the population."
"Artifacts of the future help us envision and grasp the change that we’re hoping to have—it’s not just bullet points or vision statements."
"We created a Wizard of Oz smoke and mirrors prototype—a simple text message thread between a parent and this service—just to get enough buy-in."
"Every parent we talked to had some variation of the question: this exists, can I use it right now? Where was this when I needed to apply?"
"The mayor wanted to shrink the neighborly bonds that the city was known for by investing in a 2030 living Monument of collaboration and community."
"In Toronto it’s now illegal to transmit a Wi-Fi signal in designated public spaces, with penalties for violations—a policy driven by people wanting to unplug from digital life."
"Backcast from preferred or risky futures to start thinking about what we need to do today to get there or avoid that outcome."
"If we’re really centering it on people and experiences, consider life before place, and place before technology."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The landing charge is the key thing airlines look at and that needs to stay flat."
Stephen PollardClosing Keynote: Getting giants to dance - what can we learn from designing large and complex public infrastructure?
November 7, 2017
"Switching sideways from management to principal IC was a leap of faith but ultimately gave me more impact."
Edward CuppsThe Principal Path: Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor
June 11, 2021
"Follow-up questions missed opportunities to probe deeper or were confusing, and participants had to repeat themselves."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"Exploratory user research can help teams think outside of commonplace organizational silos and facilitate collaboration across teams."
Sharon BautistaTime to Make the Donuts: How User Research Helped Bridge Disparate Teams
January 8, 2024
"Redefining who researchers are can teach us new ways to share stories."
Jemma AhmedTheme 2 Intro
March 10, 2022
"Using systems tools is only about 5% of my day-to-day work; I handpick them to meaningfully engage stakeholders."
Boon Yew ChewMaking Sense of Systems—and Using Systems to Make Sense of the Enterprise
June 6, 2023
"AI is fascinating for doing low-level design tasks so we can focus on higher-level service and systems design."
Louis RosenfeldCoffee with Lou
January 11, 2024
"The self-care industry is commodified; true healing requires organizational change, not just personal coping tactics."
Matt Bernius Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Aditi Joshi Alba VillamilLearnings from Applying Trauma-Informed Principles to the Research Process
March 10, 2022
"Not belonging anywhere meant that I had access everywhere."
Dean BroadleyNot Black Enough to be White
January 8, 2024
