fictiondriven

Fictiondriven is an approach in product development, policy design, and strategy that uses fictional narratives and imagined futures to guide inquiry, requirements, and decision-making. Rather than relying solely on data and user feedback, fictiondriven begins with stories, scenarios, and world-building to surface hidden assumptions, risks, and possibilities.

The term is closely related to design fiction, a field that integrates storytelling into design practice. Designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby popularized design fiction in the late 1990s and early 2000s; fictiondriven extends the idea to a broader range of disciplines, emphasizing narrative scaffolds that provoke discussion and creative exploration.

Methods include creating short stories, press releases, product announcements, videos, or mock artifacts set in plausible futures; these outputs help teams articulate requirements, identify gaps, and test the viability and desirability of concepts before building them.

Applications span software design, urban planning, education, and public policy. Benefits include increased empathy, clearer problem framing, and early risk awareness. Limitations include potential detachment from current constraints, overemphasis on narrative at the expense of feasibility, and the need to integrate fiction with data and technical assessment.

Related concepts include design fiction, speculative design, scenario planning, and narrative-driven design.