Hvordan arbejder en trendforsker? Hvad er en trend egentlig? Hvorfor og hvordan bliver man trendforsker? Og hvordan spotter og analyserer de selv trends?

Elina Hiltunen, finsk konsulent, foredragsholder og forfatter til  bogen “Fremsyn og Innovation: Hvordan virksomheder håndtere fremtiden”, giver her sit bud.

Dette er et lille uddrag af bogen ’Trendsociologi v. 2.0’ udgivet af pej gruppen. Køb bogen her

Why and how did you become a trend forecaster?

I have grown into it. It is also in my nature. I am curious, always spotting, trying new things, and constantly asking questions. And this has become the basis for my business. Year by year, I have further refined my spotting abilities and have noticed that companies are increasingly asking for my services.

Why is it important to forecast trends?

If you want to be successful in the future you have to be prepared for the future. Spotting trends is essential. I emphasise to my clients that looking at other businesses and areas than their own industry is also very important.

How do you define the concept of a trend?

There are trends of various ‘sizes’ in my mind. An emerging trend is something that you can see only in the form of weak signals. With emerging trends there are often a couple of examples of the trend happening but no clear evidence is present. Weak signals are signals of emerging trends, while trends are clusters of events that are already happening and have happened in near history. They can exist in various areas geographically, in various industries, and in different classifications (social, technological, environmental, economic, political etc.). For organisations it is important to look holistically at trends.

Which types of trends interest you the most?

I am mostly interested in pre-trends or emerging trends, which can be found by spotting weak signals. I am interested in technology trends as I have been working on this issue extensively. But I am also a generalist. I have been working on trends within travel, work, education etc. I would say that the only area, that I am not interested in, is fashion trends.

How and where do you discover trends?

I travel, read books and magazines, interview people, browse social media etc.

I sommeren 2015 udgav pej gruppen den ultimative grundbog i trendforskning. Da den er en grundbog får den (forhåbentlig) en lang levetid.

Bogen består af tre dele:

1. Teori om og praktisk beskrivelse af, hvad en trend er, hvordan den spredes og hvilken effekt den kan have. Her er det alt lige fra de store gigatrends til de små døgnfluer, der er dækket ind ligesom industritrends, kategoritrends, forbrugertrends mv. beskrives.

2. Interview med 17 af verdens bedste trendforskere ud fra grundlæggende spørgsmål om, hvordan de definerer en trend, hvordan de arbejder med dem og hvordan de er endt i denne profession.

3. Praktisk procesbeskrivelse (5 faset proces) med konkrete metoder og værktøjer til selv at arbejde med trends.

Over de kommende måneder vil jeg (og pej gruppens medier både online og offline) dele lidt mere af indholdet med læserne / følgerne og her er således første lille historie baseret på de mange interviews.

Skulle der være nogen, der er interesseret i at få hele bogen i hånden selv (den er på 400 sider), så kan den købes her