Foresight, sensemaking, and new product development: Constructing meanings for the future

Abstract

Recent studies have emphasized the need to merge the divergent streams of foresight and sensemaking and to empirically explore their mutual influences. Accordingly, this paper builds upon previous work to expand understanding of the relationship between foresight and sensemaking and its role in affecting cognitive group dynamics, especially during the early stage of the new product development (NPD) amidst technological changes and market shifts. We adopt a systematic coding procedure of our empirical data drawn upon a longitudinal study of an entire NPD project as it unfolded in real time and in situ from its early stages through to its market commercialisation. Thus, the contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it extends previous foresight-sensemaking research by illuminating for the first time the role of sensefacilitating, a new cognitive mechanism that enhances the gradual development of new collective future-oriented mental models. Second, it answers the call for further investigation on the impact of foresight and sensemaking in NPD by showing that the cross-fertilization of foresight and sensemaking enables the collective discovery and formal diffusion of user foresights, which in turn inform the development of meaningful and novel brand worlds early in the NPD process.