The Art of the Focal Question
You have to start somewhere, and every foresight project should begin in the same place: with the focal question.
A focal question frames your inquiry. Too narrow, and you risk tunnel vision. Too broad, and the analysis loses focus. The challenge is to find the middle ground that helps prioritize which future implications are explored and taken forward in sensemaking and strategic planning.
To make this more concrete, let’s look at an example: Imagine a marketing company exploring how its business, and the broader industry, might evolve in the coming decade. What kind of focal question would give them the most strategic value?
Here are three possible options, each illustrating a different level of scope:
Too Narrow: What will happen to email marketing by 2027?
Focuses on one tactic and ignores larger shifts in attention, tech, and consumer behavior
Too short a timeframe
Too Broad: What is the future of marketing?
Encompasses everything from packaging to store layouts to experiential branding
Makes it hard to determine what trends to track and which stakeholders to engage
Just Right: What is the future of digital marketing?
Leaves room to examine multiple forces: technology, behavior, policy, ethics, etc.
Provides boundaries to exploration that can guide research and participation
As you explore scanning, sensemaking, insights and action, having a focal question will help ensure that by the end of your project you have a clear, structured perspective on a topic that matters to you.
