553: Harnessing strategic foresight for product managers to anticipate change and gain competitive advantage

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Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators

Chad McAllister, PhD

300 episodes

1 week ago

Welcome to Product Mastery Now, where you learn the 7 knowledge areas for product mastery. We teach the product management practices that elevate your influence and create products your customers love as you move toward product mastery. To learn about all seven areas and assess your strengths in product mastery, go to my website -- https://productmasterynow.com -- and click the Podcast button at the top of the page. Hosted by Chad McAllister, product management professor and practitioner.

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553: Harnessing strategic foresight for product managers to anticipate change and gain competitive advantage – with Robin Champ

Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators

28 minutes 45 seconds

3 months ago

553: Harnessing strategic foresight for product managers to anticipate change and gain competitive advantage – with Robin Champ

How product managers can make their own futures

Watch on YouTube

TLDR

In this episode of Product Mastery Now, we’re joined by Robin Champ, VP of Strategic Foresight at LBL Strategies and Harvard Extension School instructor. Robin shares practical approaches for product managers and leaders to anticipate, rather than merely react to, disruptions in the market and competitive landscape. Through the Strategic Foresight Framework, scenario planning, and trend scanning, Robin explains how to create agile strategies that help organizations deliver value in uncertain futures.

Introduction

Any product manager with some experience knows the frustration of being blindsided—competitor launches that catch you off-guard, market shifts that kill your roadmap, or customer behaviors that seemingly emerge overnight. Many product teams are in a cycle of reacting to change and putting out fires. Instead, what if you could anticipate change? By the end of this episode, you’ll have the strategic foresight framework that is taught at Harvard and applied in organizations.

Our guest is Robin Champ, Vice President of Strategic Foresight at LBL Strategies and Harvard Extension School instructor. Robin spent 33 years applying foresight in the highest-stakes environments—the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Defense. She trains executives on the strategic planning methodologies that equips them to stay ahead of competitive threats and create opportunities.

Also, Robin is speaking on Tuesday, September 16th, 2025, at my favorite product innovation conference, the Product Development and Management Association’s Ignite Innovation Conference. Learn more about the conference at www.PDMAsummit.com.

Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers

What is Strategic Foresight?

* Foresight vs. Forecasting: Foresight embraces uncertainty and explores multiple possible futures rather than making a single prediction.

* Scenario Planning: Organizations develop strategies by considering different directions the future could take, enabling agility and preparedness for disruption.

Why Product Managers Need Foresight

* Competitive Advantage: With foresight, product managers are better equipped to stay ahead of market changes, competitor launches, and evolving customer behavior.

* Case Example: Robin describes applying scenario planning with a senior living community to anticipate shifting senior preferences and invent innovative solutions.

Foresight Methodologies

* Environmental Scanning: Deliberately monitoring signals and trends in the market and society via tools like LinkedIn, futurist publications, and AI-powered analytics.

* Futures Wheel: Mapping out potential first-, second-, and third-order impacts of proposed changes or emerging trends.

* Bringing in Creativity: Leveraging both human creativity (e.g., involving science fiction writers) and AI tools to generate diverse and imaginative future scenarios.

Practical Application

* Use scenario planning and futures wheels to consider the implications of market shifts, like changing education delivery models with AI and shorter attention spans.

* Scanning can be both manual and AI-assisted; following futurists can keep PMs ahead of upcoming trends.