Ford’s chief futurist joins The Current Podcast to discuss how preparing for the future is imperative for marketing.

Episode Transcript

Please note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio.

[00:00:00 ] Damian: I'm Damian Fowler. 

[00:00:01 ] Ilyse: And I'm Ilyse Liffreing. 

[00:00:02 ] Damian: And welcome to Season 9 of The Current Podcast. 

[00:00:05 ] Ilyse: And we're kicking off this new season with Jennifer Brace, Chief Futurist at Ford. 

[00:00:11 ] Damian: Now, Jennifer has deep roots at Ford. Not only did her father work for the company, but she started working there 20 years ago, first as an engineer. 

[00:00:20 ] Ilyse: Now her days are filled with keeping an eye on all things that could impact Ford's business in the future. Everything from AI to the latest consumer trends. Her team is often keeping track of four different futures at once. 

[00:00:34 ] We started by asking Jennifer about her title, Chief Futurist. [00:00:39 ] Jennifer: I'll be honest with you and tell you that, uh, Apparently my future in skills were not intact when I started working for Ford because I would have never expected to be in such a role. That being said, what I do as the chief futurist is I spend a lot of time paying attention to trends and signals, paying attention to 

[00:01:00 ] the categories that we refer to as steep, meaning social, technological, economic, environmental, and political. Um, you'll notice I did not mention automotive. That is also by design. And what I like to think of my job is paying attention to all the things that are happening outside of automotive that might come back and impact our business or the environment that we have to operate within. 

[00:01:24 ] So, I actually never say that I predict the future, I say instead I help teams prepare for the future. So, Uh, you know, contrary to the, the title of futurist, um, I can't actually see the future. I wish I could. I was disappointed when I found out like the job did not come with a crystal ball that worked or anything like that. 

[00:01:43 ] Ilyse: You say that, that does not include automotive. By design, you say. Why is that? 

[00:01:50 ] Jennifer: Well, the truth is there's a ton of experts in the automotive space within this company, and I'm happy to lean on them for their expertise and understanding whether it be, 

[00:02:00 ] um, the future of, you know, engine propulsion systems or battery technology and things like that. I let them kind of own that space. 

[00:02:07 ] And when I want to know more about it, I can talk to them about what they're seeing and how they, they continue to see it evolve. 

[00:02:13 ] So a lot of what I do, I like to say that, um, part of our job is to connect the dots so by connect the dots, I mean, if we're seeing something happening, maybe in, education, if we're seeing something happening in mental health. What my job would be to do in my team is we're going to take some time and we're going to say, okay, if we're seeing this happen over here, can we connect the dots to get it to a point where it might come back and impact our business and come back and impact our products or services, um, the environment that we're operating within. 

[00:02:42 ] So a lot of the times we're starting at the very high level. Then we talk about how it could impact the market. And then we get to how it could impact Ford or a specific product, depending on, um, what work we're doing at the time. 

[00:02:53 ] Damian: One of the questions just based on what you just said, you know, you're sort of looking at current trends. But then how do you kind of extrapolate 

[00:03:00 ] from those current trends? A kind of future scenario. And what's the kind of chronology of that? 

[00:03:05 ] I mean, what's the time shift? Are you looking out a year, two years? 

[00:03:10 ] Jennifer: So the answer is yes. In terms of timeframes, we do look at an array of timeframes. I would think of the one year timeframe is a much clearer. Then say the five or 10 year time frame. So of course, the farther out you go, the more kind of opportunity that the trend could shift or change. 

[00:03:28 ] So when we're looking at trends, often what we're doing is number one, we're we have to take data that we see today. Um, but we'll also we'll go back and we'll try to understand whether the trend has momentum. We'll look for other signals to help us Start to quantify that trend for example, if you're understanding where venture capital dollars are being spent or even how many times a term is brought up in, uh, earnings calls, something like that. 

[00:03:53 ] So when we're thinking of trends, we're all, my team, we're always trying to add some of that, um, that data element to make sure that we're 

[00:04:00 ] proving to ourselves that we're taking it through some checks and, and gateways to ensure that we do believe it's a trend that has some staying power. 

[00:04:08 ] And then the other side of that, when we're thinking about how the future might be different, I think of the trends as the things that we feel confident in. We, things are things that we quote unquote know, or we expect to continue moving forward, but the other half of that are, are the things that we don't know, and that's what we would call uncertainties, um, and those uncertainties. 

[00:04:28 ] are duly named because they could go in any direction and we don't pretend to know what direction those might go in. We look at both trends and uncertainties, uh, to consider how different futures might play out. 

[00:04:42 ] Damian: That's fascinating. And how, given all those different scenarios, do you determine which of the scenarios are the kind of headline scenarios? I mean, I know that you talk about different futures. Do you winnow it down to a specific number of futures? 

[00:04:58 ] Jennifer: Yeah. So usually what 

[00:05:00 ] we, the way we tend to do it, if we like doing for future matrix, if you will, if you take two critical uncertainties, uh, typically we would pick dependent on the problem. We will pick whatever uncertainties we feel are the most impactful. 

[00:05:13 ] So, with the state of EVs, for example, we might look at the regulatory landscape might be one of those where it could become, you know, more stringent or less for that matter. And then we might take another access something say like, um, maybe social acceptance. Of EVs. How's the public feeling about it? 

[00:05:33 ] It's kind of a mix of art and science, if you will. 

[00:05:35 ] Damian: Do you find that, um, you're ever surprised by something that's gone away? 

[00:05:42 ] Jennifer: Yeah. You know, it is a constant. Kind of moving beast, if you will, in terms of where we see momentum and energy. It's rare, to be honest with you, for us to consider something, a trend, we take it through several gateways. So it's rare that it goes away completely. 

[00:06:00 ] If it's something that we've considered a trend. 

[00:06:03 ] Um, I'm I'm calling it out that way because the way that my team works, we're very Um, scientific with what we consider to be a trend, something that has gone through a lot of gateways for us to believe that it's got lasting power versus something that would be a signal. Now a signal, we don't know what way it's going to go. We don't know if it's got lasting power yet. So it's the type of thing that we would start tracking because it's a signal and we'd want to be paying attention to it. 

[00:06:28 ] But, um, the signals don't always grow up to be fully fledged trends. 

[00:06:33 ] Ilyse: That's really interesting. I mean, especially when the culmination of all those trends become like four different futures, which is a lot, a lot of futures. [00:06:42 ] Jennifer: It's a lot to think about, isn't 

[00:06:44 ] Ilyse: a lot to look at at once.

 [00:06:45 ] Jennifer: feedback sometimes from teams that they're like, but can't we just pick one?  

[00:06:51 ] do we have to think about four? 

[00:06:54 ] Ilyse: Yeah, you know, and when you say, um, you guys don't predict but you prepare,

[00:07:00 ] can you explain the difference a little bit 

[00:07:02 ] Jennifer: So when it comes to predicting, um, that is saying that we can see the future and this is what it looks like. And the truth is nobody, nobody really has that power. 

[00:07:13 ] And that's why we say that we help people prepare because the truth is, if you've made a prediction. And you're wrong. And one of these uncertainties comes up and changes the game. You've put all your eggs in one basket and you're in trouble. I like to say that COVID made our job a lot easier and trying to convince people that betting on a single future could be dangerous, so that is when we're asking teams to be prepared for the future by considering more than one. Uh, more than one scenario. 

[00:07:45 ] What we're asking you to do is to kind of recognize where your blind spots might be in your current strategy and how you might pivot if you need to. So it can be used in, you know, in product and, um, in different parts of the business and, and of course, um, also in marketing, 

[00:08:00 ] uh, a lot of what we're doing when it comes to the marketing side is trying to understand. 

[00:08:05 ] sentiment. So where are people? How are they feeling? What are their needs? How are their, um, how are their needs or sentiments shifting? We'll do things like trying to understand how people feel about Technology like AI is a great, um, a great example that, uh, that we've been talking about quite a bit in the last year or so, uh, and how people are feeling about it and, and understanding where people are at and how we might see that evolving helps us. 

[00:08:34 ] With