Trend forecasting helps brands spot, make sense of and seize change to their advantage. But how does the work really get done? And what defines a trend versus a passing fad? Emily Flannery, our leading expert in Trends & Foresight, is breaking it all down: “We’re using lateral thinking to fuel if this, then that analysis,” she says. “We try to stitch together the relationship across diverse pieces of data, so we can get a better sense of patterns of change over time. Those patterns are, effectively, trends. That becomes a forecast we can use to drive a business forward.”