Interesting trends to follow in 2021 and beyond

14 Jan Interesting trends to follow in 2021 and beyond

The main trends which I find interesting to follow in 2021 and beyond:

• In order to create an outstanding innovation before we used to use the co-creation process but this year it shifted from the process itself to it becoming the end result.  Customers during a pandemic try to use all possible solutions to help them to survive and find necessary comfort by using technologies, products and services. We are in a situation where the world is closed for one year. We have got used to it. Now all our service providers and products must adapt to it as well. We use Zoom starting from the regular meetings and ending weddings and funerals, we get lost in the regular shopping center because now we are more used  to shopping online, we have even found out how to work at home with kids, partners and pets. This year we will see open-ended products’ increase when customers will decide by themselves what the end result should look like (e.g., digital spaces design, digital clothes). This trend will lead to DIY exceptional customer experience starting from simple household routines and ending with a sophisticated work environment, making friends experience and many more. 

The challenge here is what a lot of companies have never tried to create together with their customers and now it is time to start doing it. 

• Human body redesign. The future opens to gene manipulation and the possibility to design your future children, extending the longevity and new studies of how we change and manipulate our body.  

All these achievements will bring a lot of value and possibilities in preventing disease, improving disability or empowering the human brain. At the same time it brings a lot of new challenges and needs for regulation, ethical discussions and new social norms. 

• Sustainability: carbon neutral cities, CO2e/kg pricing, interest rates based on your physical performance will become the new normal. Pay as you live principle becomes even stronger and we will see further developments within this area.  

The challenge here is how to calculate and get transparent data. Lately we have been talking a lot  about solutions, but what we really lack is information on how to choose one or another product, or our behaviour compared to their impact on the planet. 

All these trends are not new but now they have reached interesting development phases which are useful to observe and discuss.

If all these signals become more powerful, what does it mean to your business?  

What opportunities does it bring?

What worries can it bring?

Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash