Methodology

A suggested approach

This approach outlines the construction and maintenance of a real-time, STEEP framework, with iterative ‘layers’ of thought. It is useful for a futures project team and is an excellent way to extract value from the tool. This process is interactive, fun, highly visible, helps communicate the project, engages the team and is very inexpensive.

Find a large bit of flat wall space and cover it with brown parcel paper, or similar. Something about 2m x 5m and upwards is good to aim for, but adjust as you need for your situation. Lay out the STEEP areas on the left and indicate timeline areas to populate to the right.

Then encourage the team to place insights on the STEEP framework. Here is an image of an interactive STEEP framework under early construction. 

At first, the framework will only have casual insights from the team and any invited others. These might be articles or sticky notes. Try to set aside regular time to add more insights. A few minutes a week might be enough. Very soon, a bit of order will arrive. This will be in terms of relative timings of the insights and the relationships between them.

As the futures project progresses, the framework should be layered with more material. This could be abstracts, trends and drivers, depending on which techniques you employ. Encourage team members to ‘layer’ the material. An abstract, replaces a casual insight; a trend replaces an abstract, and so on. Have them indicate relationships as well, perhaps by drawing key linkages.

Before long, the framework will become a fascinating fabric of thoughts, indicators and even actual events that visibly demonstrate the project, the team’s perspective and thought development over time. It will serve as a discussion point for visitors who want to ‘get the gist’ of the project and as a ‘dashboard’ of the project for the whole team.

As for resources, recall that the whole process takes only minutes a week to conduct and that a roll of parcel paper is less than £1!

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STEEP variation is OK. You may find with time that you want to add some other areas to the framework. Aid agencies might add ‘humanitarian’ or ‘philanthropy’, for example, making a STEEP-H. Likewise, the team might be interested to plot some key internal areas alongside the external STEEP factors. These could be organisational performance or brand, for instance. This is all acceptable. The framework is for you and your team.