Projects / Archive / Ahead Platform

Ahead Platform

Research

Developed in collaboration as a concept by Metlab Latam, the Ahead project consisted of extensive research and analysis on how to bring future studies content to the university sector in an easy, accessible, and fun way so that students could learn and apply it in their academic projects. 

We interviewed students, professors, deans, and foundations to understand their perspectives on their future, the collective future, and the role of education.  At the same time, the research focused on understanding how students selected their project topics for the different classes of the semester. We concluded that this selection was often hasty, confused, random, lacking a strategic vision of the future, and influenced by short-term fads stimulated by social media. 


Future trend analysis can provide critical insights for a project, from opportunities to threats. But where does a student start?  

There is so much information on the web that it is easy to get lost. It takes time and effort to find reliable information and sources. Once these data are found, it takes more time and effort to understand them fully. Simple questions arise: How did they arrive at these forecasts? Which are the most important ones? How many are there? How are they classified? For what specific time frames were they projected and why? etc. In short, a student's first approach to the subject can be confusing and dense.

What other alternatives do they have? Many sources and companies specialize in the study and analysis of Megatrends. Among them are inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations and private groups such as Trendwatching, Zpunkt, PSFK, or Mind the Future. But because there is great value in understanding possible futures and translating them into viable business strategies, these products and services focus on the corporate and investment sector. These products and reports are often expensive and reserved for organizations' planning and strategy departments.

Analyzing long-term trends and translating them into business strategies requires knowledge and practice of various methods. Typically, this process involves intense collaboration between multidisciplinary teams.

Ultimately, students do not access this knowledge due to cost or lack of time. In addition, no platform or company at the end of this research targeted the university segment. 

As a result of this research and synthesis work, we developed 22 posters, a prototype of a megatrends educational platform, and three research articles. 

/Posters

1. Surveys
2. Generational experiment
3. AUSF Toolkit
4. User journey
5. Interaction map
6. Topic selection I
7. Precursors
8. Statistics
9. Observations of AEIOU
12. Deans 
13. Marks
17. Foundations
20. Sense intent
21. Exploration of TMs
22. Topic selection II

 

Previous
Previous

Future of Work

Next
Next

Article