The Foossa Futurecasting Canvas (FFC) is a tool for teams and organizations to model, rehearse, and prepare for the future as part of their core strategic planning and innovation practices. This document provides a brief introduction to the FFC. We offer custom trainings and curricula to help you make the most of the future. Let’s talk: hello@foossa.com.

1.
Futurecasting Canvas
version 1.5

2. Let’s design a
better future.
Together.
The Foossa Futurecasting Canvas (FFC) is a tool for
teams and organizations to model, rehearse, and
prepare for the future as part of their core strategic
planning and innovation practices. This document
provides a brief introduction to the FFC. We offer
custom trainings and curricula to help you make the
most of the future. Let’s talk: hello@foossa.com.

3. Weak Signals:
Futurecasting Canvas / Preliminary Worksheet
Identify weak signals, early adopter
behaviors, outlier innovations, novelties,
and other “proto-trends” related to your
industry or interests.
What would the world look like if these
weak signals scaled up and became
mainstream?
Driving Forces:

4. Weak Signals:
Futurecasting Canvas / Preliminary Worksheet
Identify driving forces and uncertainties
that affect your work. Driving forces are
technological, cultural, economic, and
social phenomena, trends, and
transformations.
Map key driving forces on a spectrum:
i.e. low/high inflation, fast/slow
technological innovation, population
decline/growth, etc.
Driving Forces:

5. Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Grid
Wildcards:
Fast Tech Innovation,
Population Decline
Slow Tech Innovation,
Population Decline
Slow Tech Innovation,
Population Growth
Fast Tech Innovation,
Population Growth
Population Growth
TechnologicalInnovation
Massive World Wide Data Hack
Disaster Triggers Migration Crisis
Etc.

6. Title: Logline:
Implications: Actions:
Indicators: Questions:
Give your scenario a name.
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Summary

7. Title: Logline:
Implications: Actions:
Indicators: Questions:
Summarize the scenario in 2-3 sentences
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Summary

8. Title: Logline:
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Summary
Implications: Actions:
Indicators: Questions:
What are some of the social, cultural, and
economic implications of this scenario?
What changes? What is disrupted? What
stays the same? What norms are rewritten?
Who are the winners and losers?

9. Title: Logline:
Implications: Actions:
Indicators: Questions:
What actions should we take in the future
to respond to the implications of this
scenario? What actions can we take NOW
to prepare? What must we do to make a
preferred scenario a reality? What must we
do to prevent an undesirable future?
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Summary

10. Title: Logline:
Implications: Actions:
Indicators: Questions:
What metrics and milestones would tell us
that this scenario is becoming a reality?
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Summary

11. Title: Logline:
Implications: Actions:
Indicators: Questions:
What are kinds of questions or concerns does this
scenario spark? What additional research questions
can we explore to refine and test this scenario?
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Summary

12. Sketch Title:
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Sketch
Make your scenario come to life in the form of an
immersive story. Make it feel real and immediate for
us using the medium and technique(s) of your
choice: storyboard, moodboard, live action role play
(LARP), video, VR, etc. We encourage you to sketch
out your scenarios beyond the confines of this page.

13. Scenario Prequel:
Futurecasting Canvas / Origin Stories
Using the indicators from the main canvas
as guides, formulate a prequel to your
future scenario sketch. What happened
before your future story takes place? How
did we get here? What’s the origin story?
Prequel to the Prequel:

14. Scenario Prequel:
Futurecasting Canvas / Origin Stories
What happened before the prequel? Set
this part of the story closer to our present
day to understand how our current reality
could evolve into the imagined future.
Prequel to the Prequel:

15. Futurecasting Canvas / Cheat Sheet
1. Identify trends and weak signals of interest.
2. Identify driving forces behind the trends and
weak signals.
3. Prioritize 2-3 driving forces to start.
4. Map the driving force as a spectrum or
continuum: i.e. low to high unemployment, slow
to fast technological innovation.
5. Plot the top two driving force spectrums on the
scenario grid.
6. Optional: Mix in additional “Wild Card” or
“Black Swan” scenarios
7. Build out scenarios from each grid quadrant
(and wildcard) using the FFC.
8. Start thinking through potential implications and
indicators of the scenario based on the driving
forces at play.
9. Respond with potential actions in response to
the scenario.
10. Bring the scenario to life with an immersive
storytelling sketch.
11.Give the scenario a title and logline summary.
12. Pose questions for further discussion and
investigation.
13. Craft a prequel and pre-prequel origin stories to
each scenario to understand how they might
come to pass.

16. Weak Signals:
Futurecasting Canvas / Preliminary Worksheet
Driving Forces:

17. Scenario Grid: Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Grid
Wildcards:

18. Title: Logline:
Implications: Actions:
Indicators: Questions:
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Summary

19. Sketch Title:
Futurecasting Canvas / Scenario Sketch

20. Scenario Prequel:
Futurecasting Canvas / Origin Stories
Prequel to the Prequel: