Signals are *“Something real, existing at one point, that doesn’t necessarily belong in our present (yet)."* More specifically: *“Something real, that didn’t reach critical mass”.* *Real* means that there is an actual product or service or procedure that is (or was) used commercially and that could scale if needed. *Not reaching critical mass* means that although it could scale, it is not widely adopted outside a specific circle of users. An example for this could be the [[Apple Newton]]. It was a real product that sold commercially, however it was only popular in a small number of specialized industries as it was too limited and expensive for mass market adoption. That said, it was a great signal that would lead to the [[Palm Pilot]], [[Nokia Communicator]] and later the [[iPhone]]. ## Analyzing signals Look for "Plausibility on second sight", something that might not make sense now, but might in a potential future. The basic question is *"What would need to happen to make this (idea / product / process / ..) viable?"* To do that, analyzing signals needs a framing: * What is the environment? * What are the actors? * What is the context? ## Articles & posts [Trends, Visions, Signals and Assessing Potential Futures](https://medium.com/@dirksonguer/trends-visions-signals-and-assessing-potential-futures-17c4a05121ce)