Services
Services Offered
Forecasting
Workshops
Curation
Past Partners
My Expertise
• Consumer Home Goods
• Lifestyle Trends
• 20th and 21st Century Design Insights
• Cultural and Market Shifts
• Product Innovation through Strategic Lens
• Creative Ideation and Problem Solving
• Deep Research and Data Tracking
Industries Served
• Home Goods and Housewares
• Lifestyle
• Furniture
• Lighting
• Ceramics
• Tableware
• Décor
• Historical Collections
Trend Forecasting
My practice specializes in creating future-casts affordable for small and mid-size home and lifestyle brands looking to add strategic forecasting into their product development. By identifying and predicting major macro forces that directly affect your brand, I help your company better prepare for future shifts in market and consumer patterns. Common deliverables include
Future Trends Packs
Trend Scans
Forecasted Consumer Profiles and Scenarios
STEEP Analysis
Macro and Micro Trend Forecasts
3-year, 5-year, and 10-year Outlooks
The Process
Step 1: Discovery
I meet with your company’s key stake holders to gain in-depth knowledge on your organization’s culture, values, products, and customers. Through our discussions we develop a list of the most urgent issues facing your organization—decisions that will directly affect your company’s success and bottom line in the next three to five years. From this list we narrow the focus down the fundamental axes of uncertainties on which your forecast will be drawn.
Step 2: Research
Using different analytical frameworks, I delve into the major external forces most likely to affect the issues we’ve identified. Through my extensive network of resources and contacts, I consider both strong and weak signals in order to identify patterns—everything from large economic forces to small niche subcultures that may influence the changing demographics and tastes of your target market.
Step 3: Forecast
Analyzing the data gleaned through my research, I develop multiple scenarios of the future in order to push your company’s thinking beyond its internal biases. These scenarios inform the decisions to your key questions.
Step 4: Strategy and Ideation
Following your forecast, I facilitate a series of strategic conversations to help your company interpret these scenarios and understand how to move forward. These conversations typically involve creative ideation, if/or role playing, and discussion of potential red flags and signposts to watch for as the future unfolds. Once completed, your company will be better prepared for what the future holds.
Educational Workshops
Let Julie teach your team the skills they need to understand forecasts and prepare for future uncertainties. Workshops and lectures can be customized to perfectly suit your audience’s interests and needs. Example topics include:
3 key indicators to predict future trends
5 key macro trends + cultural shifts
Using the past to prepare for the future
2-part activity to understanding current internal questions
Curatorial Consultation
Whether you want to start a collection or your need help with the one you have, I can help. As a noted author and curator with over 15-years of experience working with museums and private collections on both coasts, I am your go-to expert for collection advice. I offer a wide range of curatorial and archival for collections both large and small.
Areas of Expertise
• 20th and 21st century design
• American decorative arts
• Studio craft
• Ceramics
• Furniture
Services
• Exhibition planning
• Collection management and tracking
• Collection procurement and acquisitions
• Collection curation
• Event planning
• Publications and research