What Does the Future Hold? How to Be Ahead of the Curve

The ability to anticipate future developments in your field can give you a leg up when it comes to info product creation and marketing. As well, it can position you as an expert who has a keen understanding of key issues. Here are some tips on how to forecast what may lie ahead.

Map out a history.
Look at what's happened within your industry in the past. Examine factors that contributed to its formation and growth, revolutionary changes that have altered the field, and important developments that have already occurred, especially over the last 12 months. If X led to Y, and Y led to Z, what can you guess about where Z might go?

Research key players.
Make a list of the high-profile leaders in your field. Visit their web sites and look them up in a search engine. What topics are they writing or talking about? How are they positioning themselves in the industry? Once you have a good idea of their outlook and pet issues, talk to them. Collect more detail about a particular issue or find out what thoughts they may have in their head that haven’t yet made it to paper.

Talk to professors and students.
Universities and colleges are often where new ideas emerge. Professors and students may study in theory topics that can take months or years to filter down into the workaday world. For this reason, talking to professors and students can give you insights into the future direction of your field.

Borrow from other industries.
Pick up some magazines from totally unrelated fields. Have a look through them with an eye to picking out the trends that are emerging or peaking there, the specific problems those industries are facing, and how solutions are being created and applied.

One industry's reaction to a particular issue may give you ideas as to how that issue will eventually affect your own industry. Or you might find a framework that can be adapted to provide a new and creative take on problems you face in your own field.

Examine global trends.
Outside of your field, general technological, political, social and demographic trends are always emerging. Scan daily newspapers, general news magazines and trend sources such as Trendwatching.com to track them. Give some thought as to how these broader trends will affect your particular niche.

Write out your predictions.
Sit down and review both your industry-specific and global research. Think of each piece of information as a dot. Look for ways to connect dots with each other to form a bigger picture or new ideas. Make some educated guesses about what will happen in your industry in the next year, 5 years and 10 years. Then do some creative thinking about how you can position yourself or create info products to capitalize on emerging opportunities.

It's impossible to know the future with any certainty but with a bit of digging and some creative thinking, you can take a good stab at anticipating it.