Consumer Trends Canvas

Consumer Trends are a key building block for innovation.

Is you are stuck coming up with innovation opportunities, part of it is that you are missing sources of insight.

And of the best sources of insight is actually consumer trends.

One tool for helping you turn consumer trends into innovation opportunities is the Consumer Trend Canvas, by Trendwatching.com.

What I like about it is the simplicity, the elegance, and the fact that it’s similar in format to the Business Model Canvas.

Analyze and Apply

The Consumer Trend Canvas is broken down into to simple sections:

1. Analyze
2. Apply

Pretty simple.

7 Components of the Consumer Trends Canvas

In terms of the overall canvas, it’s actually a map of the following 7 components:

1. Basic Needs
2. Drivers of Change
3. Emerging Customer Expectations
4. Inspiration
5. Innovation Potential
6. Who
7. Your Innovations

From a narrative standpoint, you can think of it in terns of pains, needs, and desired outcomes for a particular persona, along with the innovation opportunities that flow from that simple frame.

Ask Questions to Complete the Canvas

The real beauty of the Consumer Trend Canvas is that it’s a question-driven approach to revealing innovation opportunities.

Here are the questions within each of the parts of the Consumer Trend Canvas:

1. Which deep consumer needs & desires does this trend address?
2. Why is this trend emerging now? What’s changing?
3. What new consumer needs, wants, and expectations are created by the changes identified above? Where and how does this trends satisfy them?
4. How are other businesses applying this trend?
5. How and where could you apply this trend to your business?
6. Which (new) customer groups could you apply this trend? What would you have to change?

When you put it all together, you have a quick and simple view of how a trend can lead to some potential innovations.

The power is in the simplicity and in the consolidation.

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