Happiness Quality Index (HQI)
Client
Enterprise Holdings, Inc.
Services
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Strategic foresight research
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Design-led research
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Game design
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Workshop design and facilitation
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Speculative artifacts
Question
What if we measured productivity by employee happiness, versus employee output?
Method
Enterprise Holdings, Inc., a global portfolio of car rental agencies, wanted to explore the future of mobility. Through design-led research and various foresight activations, we pivoted—realizing that for Enterprise Holdings, Inc. to stay relevant, people must first experience a continued desire to work there.
The speculative futures exploration led to the creation of the Happiness Quality Index (HQI), a calculation leveraging employee wellbeing as the key determinant of company success. The HQI encompassed an HQI Survey, collecting data on employee satisfaction; the HQI Dashboard, a speculative data platform tracking happiness trends; and the HQI Happy Kit, sharing prototypes of utopian, speculative artifacts. Encompassing a keyboard that powers plants, a necklace that serves as a personal cooling and heating device, supplements that deliver cozy memories, and other artifacts, the HQI Happy Kit represents a world in which employees are excited to arrive at work.
Results
What they asked for
An exploration of the future of mobility.
What they gained
An exploration of the future of mobility workforce, one where employee happiness coincides with corporate success.
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Bespoke speculative artifacts and/or experiences.
5
Multisensory designs: taste, touch, sound, sight, smell.
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Designers participated in a two-day design futures workshop.
How might we identify potential consumer preferences in 2050 using community-driven design processes?
Bigwidesky, a communication and foresight consultancy, wanted to help their community explore speculative design as a tool for strategic foresight. We collaborated on a five-month engagement to host a community-driven, three-part interactive webinar series focused on futures literacy and speculative design. The series introduced Bigwidesky’s five-step foresight process—probleming, researching, imagining, gathering insights, and strategizing—while guiding participants in co-designing artifacts and products from 2050. Deliverables included speculative design artifacts, narratives, and a takeaway futures starter kit.
Between sessions, our team conducted sociocultural research to refine the community’s speculative concepts, ultimately producing the Human+ 2050 product catalog featuring three finalized, future-forward artifacts. Visual renders and narratives brought these artifacts to life, immersing participants in a plausible 2050 future and demonstrating how speculative design can inform business strategy. This project exemplified participatory futures literacy, with each artifact grounded in sociocultural signals of change and shaped by the collective imagination of Bigwidesky’s community.