Studio Zg – Organisational Futures, Workshops, Training & Speaking

Workshop, Credits: TUM, Photo by Eileen Mandir
Training, Credits: Dark Horse, Photo by Ludwig Kannicht
Civic participation, Credits: MCube, Hochschule München, Photo by Melanie Settele
Training, Credits: bayern design, Photo by Lukas Barth
Training, Credits: Studio dotdotdot, Photo by Benedikt Groß
Training, Credits: Dark Horse, Photo by Ludwig Kannicht
Training, Credits: Dark Horse, Photo by Benedikt Groß
Winterstorm: It is very cold on top of the ZHdK building in Zürich :) Credits: Snapshot by an IxDA conference attendee
Workshop, Credits: foryouandyourcustomers Uster, Photo by Benedikt Groß
Civic participation, Credits: MCube, TUM, Photo by Viktoriya Zayika
Workshop, Credits: foryouandyourcustomers Uster, Photo by Sabina Loacker
Training, Credits: bayern design, Photo by Lukas Barth
Training, Credits: Dark Horse, Photo by Benedikt Groß
Training, Credits: Studio dotdotdot, Photo by Eileen Mandir
Training, Credits: Dark Horse
Workshop, Credits: Stihl, Photo by Eileen Mandir
Workshop, Credits: foryouandyourcustomers Uster, Photo by Sabina Loacker
Training, Credits: Dark Horse, Photo by Eileen Mandir
Training, Credits: IEES, Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart

Studio Zg is the futuring practice of Eileen Mandir & Benedikt Groß

Building on our book Zukünfte gestalten (English edition: Designing Futures), we also run a consulting and workshop practice. We enjoy working with organisations, teams, and individuals who want to look further ahead than the next roadmap. With design futuring, speculative design, and strategic foresight, we help make sense of uncertainty and find direction within it. Whether that means facilitating a single workshop or accompanying a longer transformation process, our approach stays the same: curious, collaborative, and grounded in craft rather than buzzwords.

Organisational Futures

We help organisations build the internal capacity to think in futures rather than forecasts. Together with leadership teams and innovation units, we map emerging signals, stress-test assumptions, and translate speculative scenarios into decisions that hold up over time. The goal isn't a single prediction but a sharper, shared sense of what could happen — and what to do about it now.

Use cases

Workshops

Our workshops are hands-on sessions where teams apply design futuring methods to real challenges from their own organisation. In a day or two, participants move from broad signals and trends to concrete, well-argued scenarios — and leave with both a tangible output and a method they can reuse on their own. Formats range from half-day introductions to multi-day deep dives, on-site or remote.

Training

For organisations that want to build lasting internal expertise, we offer structured training in the tools and mindset of design futuring — from horizon scanning and scenario construction to speculative prototyping and futures communication. Sessions can be delivered as a standalone curriculum or woven into an existing innovation or strategy programme, tailored to each group, from designers and researchers to executives.

Speaking

We speak regularly about design futuring, speculative design, and the craft of building for uncertain futures — at conferences, corporate events, meetups, and universities, as well as via podcasts and webinars. Audiences range from a few dozen designers in a workshop room to several hundred people at an industry conference. The topics vary, but the throughline stays the same: how we make decisions today that our future selves won't regret.