Experience Vision
Crafting 75,474,104 pixels in 2 weeks to help senior leadership visualize a desirable future for Brandwatch- Vision Concept
- Strategy
Context, source material and synthesis
Jared Spool describes experience vision pieces as “a flag stuck into the sand somewhere on the horizon” that successful companies frequently refer to.
Although this vision was set 5 years in the future, it was not wishful thinking. It was based off existing research in our internal Dovetail repository, plus 12 distinct future glimpses of core offerings that different squads had been asked to draft. I received text documents, hand-drawn comic strips and everything in-between. These drafts were conceived in silos, and had nothing in common with each other.
I had plenty of my own ideas and opinions I wanted to flesh out; and so the biggest challenge for me was discerning which ideas and concepts to take along, and also crafting a narrative that could carry all these diverse inputs cohesively.
Narrative setting and influences
I settled on a tandem narrative structure which is commonly used in theatre and film to drive the story forward. The main storyline centered around how Brandwatch helps a diverse set of organisations navigate and eventually mitigate a future worldwide pandemic set in 2027.
For the final deliverable; I drew inspiration from several sources, most notably the film Contagion and other viral marketing videos by Slack and Microsoft. The idea for the longscoll format came from old-school web design landing pages. The chapter-based narrative was inspired by Sphere.
Final output
Shown below is the final result — a fully interactive, long-scroll landing page built in Figma. At over 75 million pixels, it is difficult to slice and render; so hit the “F” key on your keyboard to go fullscreen and start scrolling.
Outcome and impact
Experience Vision 2027 was well-received and generated lots of conversation among senior leadership. It continues to be shared informally with new senior hires in Product & Design. Some ideas and concepts (such as the integrations Marketplace visualised above) today have dedicated teams with their own roadmaps.
Fantastic work, @karl.fernandes! I really enjoyed every bit of your presentation. Great storytelling, and the business thinking you represented was awesome … This is a really good addition to the exploration of “possible futures” that takes a global, more holistic view of the challenges ahead of us.
Let me echo Norbert and say that was an impressive presentation, @karl.fernandes! So much interesting stuff to digest. I will need several replays to study your ideas and concepts. I am intrigued by your courage to dissolve our product-centric focus and create something completely new. Your ability to constantly challenge yourself, me and the company (even when it creates friction) is highly appreciated… Your ability to execute and present your work with high precision to all kinds of people is rare to find.
Karl has a particular flair for crafting visionary concepts and turning abstract ideas into compelling stories and delightful user experiences … He has led several key contributions to our Design and Product vision … His work has had a massive impact across our current products and directly impacts products launching in the years to come.
Your work helped provoke important conversations within leadership about the current and future state of our platform … You’re an amazing designer and have great potential to grow into leadership … It would be amazing to cross paths with you one day.
