Powered by the Research Squad. Written by @Keels and condensed by @Kairon

For the deep – and we’re talking deeeeeep — dive edition, click here.

In just about one week, RADAR will be kicking off its first ever research process, a critical stage on our journey to Discover, Incubate, and Deliver better futures.

This will be a first for DAOs — tackling a foresight process, producing a futures report, and fueling a flywheel with our Incubate squad as a community — and we’re thrilled to leverage our web3 infrastructure and collective philosophy as we do it.

Throughout the process, we’ll be thoughtfully balancing centralized and decentralized approaches, leaning into niche expertise and leveraging the wisdom of the DAO, and prioritizing feedback loops as we go about both the process and its output — all while emphasizing the divergent perspectives that make the community we’re building at RADAR so special.

This is about cultivating a new approach to futures thinking — one that’s been reimagined top-to-bottom for this new future we’re all building together. And so, in the spirit of building in the open, we wanted to show our work!

OUR PLAYERS

The Project Team: A small team of 4-6 that’s dedicated and accountable to the brief.

The Research Squad: Community members who have been tasked with developing the process to date, and will be on hand to engage with and support the SuperCurators and Project Team as needed.

The SuperCurators: A high-context and super-curious group of hand-raising community members who play an integral role in identifying and developing potential topic areas of exploration.

The Community: Responsible for sharing signals on an ongoing basis, stepping in to assist in areas of expertise, and providing feedback and approval at key moments throughout the process.

OUR INPUT

We’d be remiss to ignore the always-on engine that fuels this whole process: Signal Scanning.

Signals (emerging indicators of the future) and Collective Futures (mutually-determined hypotheses) are the essence of RADAR. They capture our collective discovery and curation process and sit at the heart of building the future of futures. And it all happens at RADAR HQ on Discord.

From #ai-algorithms and #media-brands to #aesthetics, #environment and #education, our channels explore broad cultural pillars and specific trend topics to serve as a living, breathing platform for collective curation, sense-making, and discussion of what’s next.

In the context of RADAR, everyone is a signal scanner: foresight practitioners contribute alongside brand and innovation strategists, writers, web3 experts, topical specialists and more to generate collaborative perspectives uniquely suited to uncovering novel insights.

OUR PROCESS

3 Phases, 8 Steps, 10 Weeks.

BEFORE (2 Weeks)

1. SuperCuration: How can we harness the power of our community as a source of knowledge and trend-spotting? Our SuperCurators have shown their talent in recognizing emerging trends across a variety of topics and channels.

We’ll organize Signals into what we call “Trends Constellations” — made up of different behaviors, values, and cultural anomalies that indicate a meaningful shift is on the horizon; that a coherent story is emerging.

Our SuperCurators will meet for several rounds of discussion and community feedback, before anonymously scoring the Constellations that make the cut, using our Futures Criteria rubric to define a clear path forward.

2. Brief Development & Approval: With our priority Constellation defined through our SuperCuration process, a Research Lead will hone the information and inspiration gathered to date into an internal brief.

This one page document will offer an overview of the Constellation with all necessary background and set the course for further exploration.

DURING (6 Weeks)

3. Kickoff: Having defined the path we’d like to explore, we’ll hold our first Kickoff Session with the Project Team — our task being to discuss and align on the brief, and to distribute the jobs to be done.

4. Research: Over the course of 4 weeks, we’ll dive deep into this possible future using both primary and secondary research to explore the underpinnings of what’s happening, as well as unpack the consequences and future-forward implications of the topic at hand.

We’ll also tap into the wisdom of the DAO, leveraging conversation threads to crowdsource information and inspiration from the RADAR community.

5. Converge: The Project Team will surface the insights they’ve gathered to the community in the form of a one-page overview and brief presentation.

This moment of convergence will set the stage for our Futures Mapping process and give the community an opportunity to get excited about what’s to come.

6. Futures Mapping: Using a philosophy of 3 P’s, our Futures Mapping approach helps us set the path for the Incubation and Delivery stages — finding the intersection between the Push and Pull in order to Plot our path forward.

Through a series of sessions, we’ll gather critical voices in the community — from the Project Team to the Research and Incubate Squads and beyond to bring our map of the future to life.

AFTER (2 Weeks)

7. Reporting: What’s a research process without a report? We’ve thought long and hard about what will make a RADAR report unique from its web2 counterparts — about how we can leverage the superpowers of this community to really create something special that your traditional consultancy couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do.

You can expect a dynamic experience, more than just a simple deck. A built-in feedback loop, with interactive opportunities that draw the public in. And a choose-your-own-adventure vibe, because futures simply aren’t straight lines.

8. Hand-Off to Incubate: And then? It’s out of our (the Research Squad’s) hands! At least, mostly. We’ll be working closely with the Incubate Squad to ensure that the research & futures mapping process grounds and inspires the exploration that will be done in this phase, without constricting creativity and wild ideation.

What Comes Next?

Stay tuned for an in-depth look at how we’re thinking about the Futurethon and what’s to come as Discovery gives way to Incubation and Delivery.

Love,
RADAR 💜🔮