In the race to decarbonize, hard-to-abate industries like transport, mobility, energy, manufacturing, and heavy industries face immense challenges. These sectors are pivotal in achieving global climate goals but require transformative innovation to overcome their reliance on high-emission processes. Enter design fiction: a tool for imagining and prototyping future scenarios that inspire radical innovation while addressing the complexities of decarbonization. 

What is Design Fiction? 

Design fiction is a speculative approach that blends storytelling with prototyping to explore “what if?” scenarios. It goes beyond forecasting trends or analyzing probabilities—it creates immersive, tangible provocations that challenge assumptions and inspire innovation. By developing speculative artifacts such as fictional news reports, prototypes, or policy drafts, design fiction brings possible futures to life, encouraging stakeholders to engage with them. Rather than predicting the future, it envisions alternative realities that push boundaries, provoke dialogue, and open up new possibilities for transformative action.

For hard-to-abate industries, design fiction offers a way to: 

• Explore the integration of emerging low-carbon technologies. 

• Rethink supply chains and production models. 

• Address societal, regulatory, and consumer behavior shifts in response to decarbonization. 

Why hard-to-abate industries need design fiction 

These industries operate within complex ecosystems, often constrained by entrenched practices, high capital costs, and regulatory pressures. Traditional approaches to innovation may fall short in imagining transformative solutions. Design fiction enables stakeholders to: 

1. Visualize low-carbon futures: Crafting scenarios where new technologies—such as hydrogen fuel, carbon capture, or electrified transport systems—are operational within a reimagined value chain. 
2. Challenge assumptions: Provoking fresh thinking about entrenched norms, such as the necessity of fossil fuels in energy-intensive manufacturing. 
3. Align stakeholders: Engaging diverse actors—from policymakers to engineers—through tangible prototypes and narratives that illustrate shared goals. 
4. Test policy and business models: Simulating the implementation of carbon pricing, circular economy strategies, or renewable energy integrations in controlled, fictional contexts. 

Examples of Design Fiction scenarios  

Net-Zero Factories 

A speculative scenario where AI-driven, autonomous factories produce goods using 100% renewable energy, with zero waste and closed-loop recycling systems. What roles would human workers play? What new supply chain dependencies could arise? 

Hydrogen-Powered Transport 

Fictionalized blueprints for hydrogen-powered shipping fleets or aviation systems, paired with narratives about new infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. 

Energy Communities 

A future where localized energy grids enable heavy industries to share renewable energy surpluses, reducing dependency on centralized grids. How might this disrupt existing energy markets? 

How to Implement Design Fiction in Your Organization 

• Assemble a cross-disciplinary team: Combine expertise in engineering, design, sociology, and business to capture diverse perspectives. 

• Identify key challenges: Focus on specific pain points, like process emissions in steel manufacturing or the electrification of long-haul transport. 

• Develop artifacts and scenarios: Create visual, tangible, or interactive prototypes (e.g., mock-ups of decarbonized supply chains or AI-driven energy optimization systems). 

• Facilitate collaborative workshops: Use the scenarios to engage stakeholders in brainstorming and co-creating actionable solutions. 

• Iterate and integrate: Refine the outputs based on feedback, and use insights to inform strategic roadmaps, R&D investments, or policy proposals. 

The Way Forward 

Design fiction is not just a tool for creative exploration; it is a catalyst for systemic change. By challenging entrenched assumptions and fostering collaboration, it can help hard-to-abate industries envision and accelerate their decarbonization journeys. As the world demands urgent climate action, the ability to think boldly and imagine differently is more critical than ever. 

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As businesses increasingly turn to innovative solutions to maintain their competitive edge, ideation plays a crucial role in the development of groundbreaking products and services.

At Aster Fab, we facilitate various types of ideation workshops, leveraging different methodologies depending on your goals. Here are the top 10 ideation techniques, each designed to help you navigate the innovation process effectively.

🎯 Massive idea generation

In situations where you are looking to develop many ideas, these methods help teams to move beyond conventional ways of thinking:

• Brainstorming: Brainstorming is a method teams use to generate ideas to solve well-defined problems. In controlled conditions and a free-thinking environment, teams approach a problem by methods like “How might we” questions.
• Brainwriting: Unlike brainstorming, ideas are written anonymously before being discussed, encouraging participation from all team members.
• Crazy 8’s: Each participant sketches eight ideas in eight minutes, fostering rapid ideation and creativity.
• Reverse brainstorming: Rather than actually solving the problem, groups attempt to come up with the best means of causing your solution to fail. This will reveal things you’ve overlooked and stimulate new ideas.

🔍 Structured exploration

Sometimes, you must examine ideas in a structured way to discover new possibilities or enhance current ideas.

• SCAMPER: Encourages transformation through seven key actions: substituting, combining, adapting, modifying, putting to another use, eliminating, and rearranging. By applying these principles, teams can break out of conventional solutions and explore innovative alternatives

💡 Concept stimulation

To challenge assumptions and stimulate creative thinking, these methods help teams in taking new perspectives:

• Six thinking hats (Edward de Bono): Gives participants six different roles, represented by colored hats. Each role – facts, feelings, risks, optimism, creativity and control- fosters a more disciplined and varied style of problem solving
• Call to a hero: Encourages participants to put themselves in the mind of a celebrity or a hero and imagine how they would tackle the challenge. Placing themselves in someone else’s position, teams come up with creative, outside-the-box solutions that they may not have thought of otherwise.

🖼️ Concept visualization

Concepts can be tricky to grasp. These techniques help teams to visualize their ideas, making them more tangible and actionable:

• Mind mapping: Powerful tool for organizing and connecting ideas in a visual way. Starting from a core idea and expanding, from there, teams can identify how concepts relate to each other and generate new ideas.

👥 User-centered innovation

These practices ensure that ideas align with user needs:

• Rapid prototyping: Refers to the quick creation of prototypes such as sketches, paper models, or digital mockups. This process allows teams to receive early user feedback, identify flaws before heavy investment.
• Design thinking: A human-centered methodology that ensures ideas are desirable, feasible, and viable. Through prioritizing user needs, technical feasibility, and business viability, this approach encourages continuous iteration and refinement throughout the innovation process.

Last week, during a discussion with a project leader from a major corporation, we asked a simple question: “How many business models do you know?”His response surprised us: “Uh… 5 or 6?”

This got us thinking about the importance of understanding business models in today’s dynamic landscape.

What is a Business Model? 🧐

A business model is essentially how a company creates, delivers, and captures value. It’s a fundamental concept that we explore using the Business Model Canvas (BMC). For those unfamiliar, there’s even a social version of this tool.

The Variety of Business Models

There are numerous business models out there, and a single company can adopt multiple models simultaneously.Take Google as a prime example:

• 💰 Pay Per Use: Google Cloud
• 🛠️ Self-Service: Clients access services directly
• 🎁 Freemium: Free services with paid options
• 🤝 Revenue Sharing: Partnerships with content creators on YouTube
• 🕵️‍♂️ Hidden Revenue: Monetization of user data
• 🎨 Long Tail: A vast catalog of services

As a transformation consulting firm, our role is to assist our clients in developing new business models.

Want to Go Further? Discover Our Business Model Toolkit

We’ve put together a toolkit to explore the 60+ business model in the format of a card game.

Context 

Our client, a major player in the construction industry, established an intrapreneurship program that led to the creation of a startup gaining traction both internally and externally. The company, that developed a platform for ordering low-carbon concrete, required additional funding to expand further. We mentored the intrapreneur in developing multiple comprehensive business plans and diverse funding scenarios.

Mission

In this context, we supported our client to:

• Team, Market, and Growth Analysis: Evaluate the team’s expertise, commercial robustness, and growth prospects
• Financials: Review the company’s financial health and performance to date, as well as future projections
• Business Plan: Craft a strategic business plan that outlines the company’s vision, objectives, and actionable steps for growth
• Funding Requirements: Assess the amount of funding needed for expansion and how it aligns with the business plan
• Funding Scenarios: Build scenarios to explore different funding options and their potential impact on the company’s future

Key figures

Context 

In the charging point operator (CPO) field, there are four main types of players: construction companies, energy companies, OEMs and startups. We worked with a leading construction player to help speed up the deployment of their EV charger network by assisting with funding.

Mission

• Market and Competitor Research: Conducted in-depth analysis to understand the landscape and identify key competitors.
• Customer Interviews: Engaged with current customers to gather insights and feedback on their experiences and needs.
• Financial Model: Developed a comprehensive business plan with a 20-year horizon to ensure sustainable growth.
• Pitch Deck Creation: Designed a compelling pitch deck from scratch to effectively communicate the project’s value proposition to potential investors.

Key figures

Effectuation is a concept in entrepreneurship that emphasizes transforming uncertainty into opportunity by leveraging existing resources rather than relying on predictive planning. Developed by Professor Saras Sarasvathy at the University of Virginia in the late 1990s, effectuation arose from her studies of expert entrepreneurs who navigate unpredictable environments through a unique decision-making framework.

What is Effectuation?

Effectuation is defined as a decision-making process where entrepreneurs start with the resources they currently possess and derive goals from those resources, rather than beginning with a specific goal and acquiring the necessary resources to achieve it. This approach contrasts with traditional causal reasoning, which is linear and goal-oriented.

The Fridge Analogy

A common analogy used to illustrate effectuation is that of planning a dinner party. Instead of creating a detailed menu and shopping for specific ingredients, one assesses what is already available in the fridge and pantry. This encourages creativity and adaptability, allowing for the combination of existing ingredients to create a meal, similar to how entrepreneurs can utilize their current assets—skills, relationships, and knowledge—to innovate.

Applicability to Corporate Innovators

Effectuation is particularly relevant for corporate innovators operating in fast-paced and uncertain environments. By adopting effectuation principles, these innovators can effectively utilize their existing resources for innovation while managing limited budgets. This approach allows organizations to experiment and innovate without overextending their financial resources.

The Six Pillars of Effectuation

1. Bird in Hand Principle: This principle emphasizes starting with the resources you already possess, which can be categorized into three groups: who you are (your traits, tastes, and abilities), what you know (your education, training, expertise, and experience), and who you know (your social and professional networks).
   Example: 3M leveraging its existing adhesive technology to create Post-it Notes.

2. Affordable Loss Principle: Focus on what you can afford to lose rather than potential gains.
   Example: Google exemplifies this through its 20% time policy, where employees dedicate one day per week to personal projects, effectively “losing” productive time. This calculated risk has led to breakthrough innovations like Gmail, demonstrating how a controlled, affordable loss can generate significant value.

3. Lemonade Principle: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Embrace surprises and use them as opportunities.
   Example: During the COVID-19 pandemic, General Motors (GM) pivoted its manufacturing capabilities to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers.

4. Crazy Quilt Principle: Just as a multilayer fabric consists of several layers woven together, the crazy quilt principle involves weaving together partnerships with various stakeholders.
   Example: Siemens collaborates with various stakeholders, including local governments and technology partners, to develop smart city solutions.

5. Pilot-in-the-Plane Principle: Focus on activities within your control.
   Example: Tesla exemplifies this principle by actively shaping its market through innovations in electric vehicle technology and battery production.

6. Non-Predictive Control: Shape the future rather than trying to predict it.
   Example: Toyota’s Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing system exemplifies non-predictive control

Aster Capital’s Experience and Toolkit

We have developed a series of workshops aimed at educating corporate innovators on intrapreneurship and essential entrepreneurial tools. Our intrapreneurship toolkit equips project managers with the skills to de-risk their initiatives and foster innovation within their organizations.

Ready to empower your team? Book a meeting with us today to explore how our tools can guide your innovation managers in a structured way.

Want to Go Further? Discover Our Recent Webinar on Effectuation with Michelin, SNCF & EDF

We recently conducted a webinar that explored nine key lessons drawn from over 20 years of experience in the intrapreneurship space. If you’re interested in discussing how to structure a program leveraging effectuation principles, check out our summary and YouTube replay here.

What is Intrapreneurship?

“Intrapreneurship is a dynamic approach where employees, in collaboration with their organizations, initiate innovative and value-creating activities”. This practice is a vital aspect of modern organizations, enabling employees to innovate and drive change within their companies.

During a recent webinar, we gained insights from experts who have successfully led intrapreneurial programs: Marc Evangelista (Michelin, Author of “Effectuons l’Intrapreneuriat”), Valentine Boitelle (SNCF), and Vincent Vidal (EDF). Their experiences highlighted the challenges and successes of fostering intrapreneurial initiatives, such as the Michelin Innovation Lab, SNCF’s La Ruche, and EDF’s incubation program. You can watch the entire webinar here.

Here are nine unexpected lessons derived from our discussions.

Lesson 1: Immediate ROI is a Mirage

Valentine Boitelle (SNCF) cautioned that expecting immediate returns on investment (ROI) from intrapreneurial initiatives can lead to disappointment. While businesses often seek quick results, significant ROI is typically a long-term endeavor. This pressure for instant results can hinder innovation, underscoring the need for patience and a focus on sustainable growth. For SNCF’s Ruche program, the most substantial impact lies in cultural transformation rather than immediate financial returns.

Lesson 2: The Importance of Structured Methodologies

Marc Evangelista (Michelin) emphasized the need for structured methodologies in intrapreneurship, proposing a three-pronged approach.

1. Hypothesis-Driven Methodology: Assessing desirability, feasibility, and viability through statements like “I believe I can…”
2. Effectuation Principles: Drawing inspiration from entrepreneurship principles by leveraging existing resources—skills, knowledge, and networks—rather than waiting for ideal conditions. This approach focuses on “affordable loss,” allowing intrapreneurs to determine what they can risk rather than fixating on potential returns, fostering creativity and adaptability.
3. “Crazy Patchwork”: Engaging external stakeholders for insights while maintaining ethical standards.

Lesson 3: Strategic Disconnection Leads to Failure

Vincent Vidal (EDF) emphasized that alignment of the intrapreneurship program with the company’s strategic priorities is crucial for success. For EDF, the goal is to create new businesses, not to create new offerings. A prime example of this approach is the establishment of Urbanomy, a company focused on decarbonization, and Hynamics, which operates within the hydrogen production value chain. While these initiatives may initially appear disconnected from current operations, they are strategically aligned with EDF’s vision for the next 5 to 10 years. This alignment not only strengthens the overall group strategy but also facilitates the identification of sponsors, which can significantly accelerate project visibility and support.

Lesson 4: Open Innovation is an Underutilized Lever

Valentine (SNCF) discussed how  open innovation can enhance intrapreneurship through collaboration with external partners. Evolving from the La Ruche intrapreneurship program to the Rail Open Lab—an open innovation department with multiple corporates—she aims to create synergies by accelerating intrapreneurship projects within defined sprints. This collaboration not only enriches the projects but also exposes intrapreneurs to the external environment, broadening their perspectives and enhancing their capabilities.

Lesson 5: Impact and KPIs Matter

For Marc (Michelin), there is no magical recipe for establishing KPIs. The most crucial aspect is to align these KPIs with the company’s objectives to effectively monitor progress. Additionally, it is important to focus on the human element of the program. Designed to develop talent, the intrapreneurship initiative should also measure participants’ exposure to innovation tools and methodologies.

To achieve quality outcomes in the intrapreneurship program, it is essential to start with a robust pipeline of projects—essentially creating a funnel for idea generation.

Lesson 6: Intrapreneurs are Not Superheroes, but collaborators

For Vincent (EDF) if intrapreneur views themselves as a superhero, it can lead to detrimental outcomes for both themselves and their colleagues. Intrapreneurs must be open to their ecosystem and build strong teams; they cannot succeed as solo entrepreneurs. He noted that there have been multiple instances where teams fell apart after the incubation period due to a lack of collaboration.

It is crucial for intrapreneurs to engage with their organization and leverage support functions such as marketing, legal, and finance. By actively seeking feedback and fostering collaboration, intrapreneurs can enhance project outcomes and ensure alignment with company goals.

Lesson 7: Budget Ownership Encourages Responsibility

Valentine (SNCF) emphasized that empowering stakeholders with budget ownership for intrapreneurial programs is crucial for their viability. This approach prevents the innovation unit from being viewed merely as an internal “bank” and facilitates the industrialization of new ideas. She also noted that engaging multiple internal sponsors increases project advocates, encouraging them to take a proactive role in advancing initiatives.

At EDF, the budget is managed by the incubator directly. In contrast, Michelin employs a seed funding model that includes salaries, which limits project time and requires finding an internal buyer afterward.

Lesson 8: Ideal Company Profile for Intrapreneurship

Marc (Michelin) emphasized that while there may not be an ideal company for fostering intrapreneurship, several key ingredients are necessary.

First and foremost is the unwavering support from top management throughout the year. Then, the program should be well-structured, with coaches and mentors to help projects progress quickly, which may involve adapting purchasing procedures for a supportive environment. Additionally, it’s important to mobilize competencies that intrapreneurs may lack.

Marc noted that smaller companies often struggle with intrapreneurship programs, as they find it more challenging to accept losses due to the financial investments required.

Lesson 9: The Importance of Dedicated Governance

At EDF, there’s a multi-layered governance which is independent from the rest of the organization. There’s a decision-making layers for the go/no stages, and there’s the mentoring layers. In addition, it’s important for Vincent (EDF) to implicate high-level people to make people move things faster and activate their network.

Conclusion

Intrapreneurship is more than just a trend; it has the potential to create a significant positive impact within companies when structured effectively. By fostering an environment that encourages innovation and collaboration, organizations can harness the creativity of their employees to drive meaningful change and long-term growth.

At Aster Fab, we are keen to help organizations assess their intrapreneurial capabilities. If you’re interested in a 30-minute diagnostic session, please reach out to us at hmaxwell@aster.com. Together, we can unlock the full potential of intrapreneurship within your organization.

For more insights on intrapreneurship, check out the entire webinar here.