Two flat whites for here, to go or secret?

- Next please.

- Hi, can I have two medium flat whites, specialty roast, regular milk?

- Shall I throw in a sandwich or a muffin? Our toasties can make any Monday great.

He refuses shaking his head.

- No thanks. Just coffee.

- Ok. Two flat whites for here, to go or secret?

- Make it a secret please.

- Should I set it as default for presence payments at our locations?

- No thank you. Just this time.

- Your coffee will get to you soon.

- Thanks.

He looks around focusing on a business partner waving at him and walks towards their table.

- You picked my favorite spot.

Robo server arrives and with a gentle hiss slides the tray with their order on the table.

- Is it my order? I didn’t get the points.

- Sorry, I made it a secret.

- Secret coffee? What’s the special occasion?

- I’m masking caffeine intake from my health trackers. I don’t want to worry my personal trainer.

- There are pills for that. How is wiping out your transaction going to help?

- I’m not taking any chances.

- This whole data light lifestyle is just nonsense.

- You don’t value your data?

- Of course I do. One of my most valuable possession is a multi-year perfect streak in multiple apps. Do you know how much work I got from people looking at my stats online and thinking, this guy is consistent, disciplined and he shows up every day. This is the sales guy we should hire.

- So why do you care about trends in payments used by societies not comfortable with omnipresent face recognition?

- If I have a credit score, my physical presence and order intent is all a business needs to charge me. Great. To make me more comfortable using presence payments secret mode was marketed for situations when I don’t want to be associated with a given place, time or purchase. Fantastic. In such cases, I can pay a tiny premium for the company to scramble this data and as long as it’s legal no one will ever know. Amazing.

He takes a sip.

- What’s your point then?

- Turning an extra paid feature into a lifestyle choice. Look, I dated a guy who designs patterns for privacy makeup. I get the idea of using super reflective pigment to prevent cameras from recognizing your face, but new patterns every week make people feel like the old ones no longer work. This is just a way to charge a premium without offering anything of value.

- Everything can be turned into a status symbol if you try hard enough.

- Not our presentation if we are late. We should get back upstairs in 15 minutes.

- Ok, let’s look at those numbers again.

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Hello Practical Futurists,

Welcome back from the future, where walking into a shop and nodding at your favourite barista is enough to get your caffeine fix billed directly to your account.

Let's jump into our weekly practice, where we use futures thinking and product sci-fi to enhance your strategic imagination and prepare your leadership for the future.

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Start here to make the most of your time if this is your first rodeo edition.

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Weekly Self-Reflection Prompts

Let's start by making products and services mentioned in the story a bit more relatable by grounding them in your personal life.

You can start with this quote for extra inspiration.

“The future came and went in the mildly discouraging way that futures do.”

Neil Gaiman

Personal life reflection prompts

1. Name two products or services you would be willing to pay more for, knowing that no one would ever know you used them.

2. Would you be interested in paying a small fee to secure your digital achievements or data you are currently tracking?

3. How does the use and management of your data influence your choices in services and products?

4. Which type of digital achievements do you find most rewarding, and why?

5. How often the opportunity for digital achievement drives your physical activity?

6. In which 2 types of places would you feel the most comfortable using presence payments?

Good job!

Let’s move on to the context of the industry, organisation, team, service, or product you are working with.

Professional life reflection prompts

1. In what two ways could data enrichment with third party insights improve your organization’s products or services?

2. What potential does the "privacy as a service” business model hold for your industry, and what challenges might it present?

3. Could offering a "secret" payment option at a premium impact customer trust and privacy perception in your business?

4. In what 3 ways could your industry integrate digital achievements into its services or products to enhance customer loyalty, or employee performance?

5. When considering two equally strong candidates, could a consistent track record in a digital product help you make your decision?

6. Name 2 friends or colleagues whose digital achievements you find inspiring.

You did great!

Hungry for more?

Try the recommended follow-up for this story next:

They were still getting used to her working in her sleep.

This edition was written in Minneapolis.

Next time you visit make sure to save time for the Mill City Museum to find out how the local milling industry democratized worldwide access to white flour.

Have a great week, and see you soon.
Pawel Halicki

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