Technology can be a key growth driver for businesses — that's probably not news to anyone. Yet while technology can promise significant opportunities for growth, for business leaders trying to seize them, the industry can seem, at best, constantly changing and, at worst, built on little more than hype. How can they take advantage of a field where uncertainty and novelty seem to reign?
That's why we created Looking Glass: it's a publication designed to help those making critical strategic decisions in business identify what's going to be important in both the short- and long-term — and how they should respond.
The origins of the Thoughtworks Looking Glass
The origins of Looking Glass go back almost a decade before the first edition of the report was published in 2021. Like other Thoughtworks publications (such as the Radar), it began as a response to an internal need — in this case the need to set a strategy around how the organization was to approach emerging technologies. This came to be known as the Tech Strategy: it documented our view on emerging technologies and trends in order to better support our clients.
However, it soon became clear that the value of the work we were doing was being wasted by keeping it to ourselves. Thoughtworks places significant value on openness and community sharing, and just as we did with other publications and practices (such as microservices and CI/CD), we decided to share our technology strategy not just with clients but with the whole industry.
For us, such a move felt natural. However, we know that it might appear strange to other businesses — why would you want to share something so organizationally private? The answer, as far as we're concerned, is simple: it’s information business decision makers value.
In conversations with clients and others, we see a real need for insight and guidance on the future of technology. If we’re doing the work to explore that ourselves, why not support others in the industry? If people are making better decisions about technology, their businesses will be more effective and, ultimately, more successful.
Actionable guidance on emerging technology trends
The Looking Glass goes deep into given technology trends by offering a multi-dimensional perspective on them. This is why we use the language of “lenses” — a lens is a way of looking at a given area of technology. Within a particular field of vision there are trends that are closer and clearer, and others that are some way off (and so more difficult to make out). Some, meanwhile, may demand further exploration while others require caution.
We think this is particularly important. It’s all too easy to think — especially when bolstered by industry hype — that something is happening now and so requires urgency and an immediate response. Recognizing the timeline of a given trend makes it easier to orient yourself in relation to it and evaluate what kind of response or action you should take.
It's for this reason that we present each lens in two dimensions. First, how prevalent they are today:
- Seeing now
- Beginning to see
- On the horizon
Second, the strategic response we recommend:
- Adopt
- Analyze
- Anticipate
Together, they form a map of the landscape for a particular lens. You can read a lens and understand what trends are important, how to prioritize them for your business and how to respond as these trends become a reality.
We believe this way of presenting technology trends and wider industry narratives helps readers become more adaptable and resilient. It strengthens your awareness of what may be coming, while also ensuring you’re not buffeted by change to such an extent that you lose sight of your own objectives and goals.
How we put it together
The Looking Glass is based on the experiences and expertise of Thoughtworkers around the world. This means that everything you find inside the publication is drawn from the research and conversations we have with each other and with clients. Although it can be challenging to surface the thoughts of the entire organization, because such activities are part of our cultural DNA, much of the groundwork for the Looking Glass emerges from the bottom up.
For the things we see now, it’s likely we’ve identified these because they've been leveraged in projects we have worked on; for those that appear to be located further into the future, our judgment is based on where we are today and what we see happening in the industry at present. The advice we give for each lens is built on our reading of the evidence — we’re opinionated but we certainly aren’t dogmatic.
Bringing clarity to complexity
Whatever your specific challenges, the Looking Glass will clarify some of the key topics and storylines in the technology industry. With significant new technologies and trends emerging and evolving all the time, the 2024 edition is set to be essential reading for anyone making strategic business decisions. Watch this space...
Thoughtworks published the Looking Glass 2024 in January. Read the 2024 edition now.
Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.