Remote Society of the Future

An ‘Eyes and Ears Open’ Research Approach

Quicksand was tasked with building a holistic understanding of how the fields of work, entertainment, and the metaverse were starting to adopt remote technologies. This included mapping hotspots and trajectories of trends and innovation that can be identified within these realms.

Remote technology has a vast ambit. However, through a series of initial conversations requested with our client, we were able to define the scope of our research more specifically. Sony defined remote technology as encompassing two main aspects: information-based communication and task-based operations. The former involves sharing information across distances, including explicit communication (e.g., Zoom, WhatsApp) and implicit communication (emotional and psychological elements). The latter consists of conducting physical actions from afar, such as operating objects (e.g., opening a car door with a remote key) and interacting with people (e.g., hugging a loved one). This broad definition helped guide us on what kind of examples and patterns of adoption of remote technology across work, entertainment, and the metaverse we included in our study.

A key object of the study was also to explore how Covid-19 had significantly altered people's thinking, perception, and use of technology. We were particularly interested in looking into how the pandemic had brought to light various issues and accelerated the widespread adoption of remote technologies in communication, medicine, public services, and work, despite some societal pushback.

Some main goals for this research were identified:

• To understand and explore megatrends that are unique to India
• To learn if and how the insights from their annual report manifest differently in India
• To explore what might be the suppressors or promoters of the spread of “remote technologies” in India, and understand this through different sociological and geographical backgrounds
• To curate case studies and examples of unique uses and spread of “remote technologies” that exhibit a variety of what is happening in areas of work, entertainment and metaverse.

Combining Desk Research with Expert Engagement

A complementary approach of desk research and expert interviews was chosen. While our desk research gave us a broad overview of the current state of ‘remote’ in India, simultaneous interviews with key experts from sociology, entertainment and metaverse, provided us with a futures lens, guiding out-of-the-box provocations right off the bat. For a strong point of view on Indian futures, we felt it was valuable to bring in the experts early on in the project.

Key areas of research were identified to understand the latest trends and signs of change along with a few factors that may influence the uptake of remote technologies.  Research then included case studies, examples of companies’/entities’ activities and expert insights for the future. We conducted a close reading of the resources shared by our client to understand their core interests and then drew up a list of megatrends from this reading and allotted different topics to each expert. This became the key to our interview guides.

The experts included a sociologist, a founder of a tech policy think tank, and a creative director of an XR studio. We also undertook desk research to understand our experts better. This helped in ensuring that our questions were thought-provoking and relevant.

Extensive desk research was conducted by reviewing reports by organisations such as KPMG, Digital Empowerment Foundation, and Tandem Research, as well as learnings from Quicksand’s previous work in two areas: Entertainment and Metaverse. This included our research work on e-socialising remote entertainment solutions for a global beverage brand and our flagship conference, EyeMyth Media Arts Festival is built on the foundations of discovering and curating cutting-edge creative tech in India in spaces such as gaming and metaverse.

Apart from this, we also drew on the tacit knowledge of friends/ subject matter enthusiasts. For instance, there wasn’t a lot of good knowledge on the topic of Metaverse in India on the internet. Therefore, many experts within our network were consulted informally first, we followed several breadcrumbs on social media, combed through Twitter profiles of reputed and emerging tech journalists, and parsed through newsletters, and other platforms. In short, we kept our eyes and ears open as we delved deeper into each theme.

Leveraging a Diverse Network of Experts

Research for trends work reports conventionally relies heavily on secondary sources and literature reviews. But for this study, Quicksand’s approach focused on leveraging a diverse network of experts to map a range of insights and learnings about the past, present and future. For instance, we were able to speak to technologists and policy experts, but also bring in a sociologist who was able to paint a picture of what were the socio-economic implications of a smartphone in the hands of a village-dweller or respond to questions of futures not from a technology lens but by looking at migration patterns and agricultural shifts. For instance, one of our experts shared several examples to dispel the myth that our migration patterns are linear. In recent years, we have observed how people return to their villages if they don’t find dignified jobs in the city. This means their life choices are not only determined by money or financial growth, pride or atma-samanta matter too. We needed to understand how these cultural traits affect work-life to forecast better.

Thorough research on the domain expertise and practice of each of these experts was done prior to engaging with them. This informed a tailor-made research guide, based on some mega-trends that we had begun to identify after our literature review. We initially focused on a broad line of questioning about the state of things in India and then zoomed into more pointed specific themes. For instance, while enquiring around workplaces, we delved into questions of mental health at the workplace, and the question of work-life balance, before jumping into the use of technology.

These experts, with their decades of experience, were able to tell us the wind is blowing. They were able to point to what was happening in their respective industries, as well as have a finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist and were, therefore, able to share some niche, edge case examples that were helpful for us to add a new dimension to understanding the mainstream.

Triangulating Insights

Our process of synthesising research included a thorough process of tagging, colour-coding and linking all the nuggets of information and insights we mapped through our expert interviews, desk research, and literature reviews.

The process allowed us to make interesting and unlikely linkages that revealed recommendations and points of inspiration that Sony could take forward. We focused on providing a wide breadth of examples — good and bad, top view and ground level, and even some examples and insights that may have contradicted each other.

The emphasis was on building an understanding of the future, yet our approach was also to learn from the past to forecast the future. This was supplemented with an extensive list of reading materials, replete with links, recommendations, and vetted resources.

With Quicksand’s prior experience of working on trends reports, we have found that trends mapped are only as good as the examples you can provide. It was further important to contextualise these examples in a wider context. For instance, India’s experience of the pandemic could not be represented as uniform or homogenous. The pandemic had altered life in different ways for different people, and therefore their leanings towards technologies also differed. Since it was difficult to set up a separate space for work at home, women in particular are stretched thin because their family can demand time during office hours. Previously, in going to work, they could experience and express other aspects of their identity. Therefore, technologies that help people maintain boundaries between work and domestic life may be useful. A simple example is headphones that signify you are busy.

Bridging a Cultural Gap, Cushioning it with Nuance

Project outcomes included a comprehensive report, a tagged repository of desk research, and a series of long reads on the macro factors that affect tech adoption in the realms of policy, energy and retail to name a few. There was a concerted effort to link identified trends to broader cultural questions, including ideas, customs, and social behaviours.

For example, we started our final presentation by explaining how Indians are highly aspirational about education. They lost out on schooling during the pandemic and are therefore more likely to opt for technology solutions that help them catch up. We also spent some time talking about the position of women in society, and how our gender and caste biases are either challenged or reinforced on social media.

The study reaffirmed our belief in the importance of building cultural nuance and context when it comes to trends forecasting work, especially when catering to an international client. We have found that it is equally important to be a cultural mediator alongside trend forecasters, by bridging gaps in understanding and imagining certain themes and values. This involves working through biases and assumptions through several rounds of open dialogue, and iterations. Our task is then not only to cast a wide net to gather diverse insights but to also tie them together in a digestible format to help a client derive value so they can apply it in their context and to their products and services.