2. What is Scanning?
The beating heart of foresight.
A constant, ongoing process of looking across
the “horizon” to detect, identify and catalog
weak signals, trends and driving forces
embedded in information and activities in the
world around you.
Built up over time to facilitate pattern
recognition and identification of important
future factors.
"A kind of radar to scan the world systematically
and signal the new, the unexpected, the major
and the minor"
3. Why does it happen?
To identify important metrics, such as:
Frequency of signals
Strength of signals
“Directionality” of trends
Maturity of issue
Spread/contagion
4. Who does it?
Foresight professionals
Strategic planners
Competitive analysts
Designers and creatives
Engineers
Government
5. How does it happen?
System of capture, collection
and organization
Process for scanning
Tools for scanning
Framework for seeing patterns
6. Where does it happen?
News media
Professional and academic journals
Blogs and Web articles
Entertainment
Events
Interviews
Word of mouth
Direct observation
Social media
Expert networks
9. What makes a “hit”?
One or more elements that catch the trained eye
Weak signal
Strong signal
Data
Sentiment
A piece of a larger puzzle—part of a sequence
Signal to noise ratio.
