The Discovery Process
Inferential Focus uses a well-tested intelligence-gathering discipline to detect consumer, political, economic and technological changes at their earliest stage. The Discovery Process has four steps:
Step One: Inference Reading
An intelligence-gathering methodology developed by Inferential Focus founders.
The Process
Read more than 250 diverse publications from around the world
Focus only on actual events and specific actions we observe or discover
Identify anomalies or small contradictions; a group of anomalies are early signs of change
The Discipline
Eliminate the writer’s narrative and opinion
Eliminate expert opinions
Avoid our own "expertise" perspective:
  No Bias
  No Theory
  No Opinion
Overcome overload by focus on anomalies
Step Two: Drawing Inferences
The Process
Examine the collected facts and the anomalous events to infer from them what has caused these early events to take place
Use a directed questioning process: Why is this occurring?
Work to link similar events in different fields
The Discipline
Suspend judgement
Use disciplined intuition
Return repeatedly to the observations
Screen out history/bias
Step Three: Identifying the Mosaic of Change
The Process
From the set of inferences, define and provide a context for the new situation
Determine the driver of the new dynamic
Develop a mind map to better understand and describe the change
The Discipline
Apply the 3-5 rule: Before we determine a change is taking place, we must see multiple evidence in different actions and events.
Look objectively at new situations and creatively identify connections
Apply intuition and group analysis, and use non-experts to look at new situations.
Step Four: Assessing the Change
The Process
Define the characteristics of the new dynamic
Evaluate what the identified change will do to an existing technological, political, economic or social situation
Assess the length and shape of the "change wave"
The Discipline
Use objective diagnosis
Require structured time to focus on learnings
 
"Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house."
—Jules-Henri Poincaré