Yasmim Seadi · Strategic Foresight
Available for projects

Imagining futures for people

Portrait of Yasmim Seadi, seated among large tropical leaves Signal mapping · since 2016
Strategic foresight · Behavioural research · Product strategy

Yasmim Seadi

I help organisations see change before it becomes obvious. For more than a decade I have read weak signals in technology, policy and human behaviour and turned them into scenarios and product strategy, for development agencies, multilateral forums and global companies.

10+

years translating signals into strategy

20+

published radars, reports and essays

3

days from idea to a live platform reuniting children with their families

29

courses and certifications, from AI in government to brain-machine interfaces

GIZ✦UNESCO✦Paris Peace Forum✦EIT Manufacturing✦R/GA✦L'Atelier✦Cappra Institute✦Envisioning✦Aerolito✦EY✦Sicredi✦
Point of view

The future is something you can rehearse.

Most organisations meet the future too late, as a trend report or a crisis. I help teams get there earlier, while there is still time to choose.

  1. 01

    Signals before trends

    By the time something is a trend, the window to act is closing. I look earlier, at odd data points and small changes in behaviour or policy.

  2. 02

    Futures, plural

    Forecasts fail when they pretend there is only one future. Scenarios let teams test their decisions against several.

  3. 03

    People at the centre

    Technology matters through what it changes in people's lives: who gains, who is left out, and why.

  4. 04

    Rigour over hype

    Imagination needs a method, and every insight should trace back to evidence.

What I do

Four ways I work with teams

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Strategic foresight & scenarios

Several possible futures that leaders can test their strategy against, so they spot risks and openings early.

  • Scenario sets
  • Futures workshops
  • Strategic roadmaps

Technology & trend intelligence

Radars and reports that map emerging technologies by maturity and impact, from gender equality to supply chains.

  • Technology radars
  • Signal mapping
  • Trend reports

Behavioural research

Qualitative research and user discovery that reveal what people do, not only what they say.

  • User discovery
  • Interviews
  • Insight synthesis

Product strategy & systems

Turning insight into products: positioning, information architecture and design systems that scale.

  • Product strategy
  • Information architecture
  • Design systems
Method

From signal to decision

  1. 01

    Scan

    Map signals across technology, policy, behaviour and culture.

  2. 02

    Sense

    Cluster signals, assess maturity and impact, separate noise from change.

  3. 03

    Imagine

    Build plural scenarios and question the assumptions we hold about tomorrow.

  4. 04

    Decide

    Translate futures into priorities, roadmaps and products teams can build.

Selected work

Work with lasting impact

All projects →

Impact and recognition

Testimonials

In the words of colleagues

Thinking

Recent writing & ideas

All writing →
About

“To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

I started in information architecture, moved into UX and product, and found my field in foresight, where the job is noticing what others overlook. Today I combine all three at R/GA while studying International Relations.

I speak Portuguese and English fluently, have intermediate French, and am learning Arabic.

About · Off the record

Hello, I'm Yasmim.

I study the future for a living and people for fun. When I’m not reading signals or building scenarios, I’m singing, on the jiu-jitsu mat, or making a playlist for a feeling I haven’t named yet.

Yasmim Seadi sitting on a window ledge in Paris, a shell clip in her hair
ياسميم سعدي
Close-up of a shell earring and a shell choker
A line I live by
“They call me observant. That's not particularly true. People are so easy to read – we bleed emotions even in the way we drink our coffee. No one seems to notice though. They're all too busy drinking their own damn coffee.”
Outside the brief

The things that make me, me

A few things that don’t fit on a CV, and shape how I see everything else.

Currently learning

مشوار طويل

Learning to answer my roots in their own language.

Singing

I sing.

Music is how I think when I'm not thinking.

On the mat

Brasilian jiu-jitsu

It's strategy under pressure, in real time, and the best training I know for staying calm in a room.

Favourite series

The Handmaid's Tale

Speculative fiction does what foresight does, only darker: it tells a future as a warning so we can choose differently.

How I see

Everything I know about the future, I learned by paying attention.

I believe that the way I perceive the world, design strategies, and anticipate the future is a direct result of all the layered experiences that shape who I am. Raised in Brasil with deep Lubnani roots, I grew up navigating cultural intersections. Living in France for eight months further expanded this global lens through daily interactions with people from all over the world—from North Africa and the Levant to across Europe and the US—deepening my empathy and sensitivity to diverse social and geopolitical landscapes.

This background breathes through my daily rituals and artistic inspirations. Artists like Saint Levant and Beyoncé are central to how I explore ancestry: listening to Saint Levant’s trilingual album Deira sparked my desire to connect through multiple languages and dialects, while Beyoncé’s visionary work—especially in The Lion King: The Gift—teaches me about discipline, detail, and bringing ancestral roots into contemporary spaces.

My approach to reality is also guided by synaesthesia, allowing me to process sounds, rhythms, and textures in a distinctly sensory way, paired with an endless curiosity that spans from curating Spotify playlists to practicing strategic focus on the Brasilian Jiu-Jitsu mat and deconstructing dystopian narratives like The Handmaid’s Tale. Ultimately, this singular blend of personal perspectives and radical curiosity forms the bedrock of my professional practice, enabling me to translate complex signals into human-centered, high-impact digital strategies.

الله يحميكي

“I don’t need much I hold it down and protect my space. I leave it to God, to lead the way and direct my energy. I’ll be making sure my lineage proud, I know that my baby gonna wear this crown. I'm gonna fight and we won’t back down.”

“Allah Yihmeeki” · Saint Levant
The work side

What I actually do

My work combines behavioural research, emerging technology and socio-technical change. I take signals about AI, digital governance and how people behave, and turn them into scenarios, product strategy and roadmaps.

Foresight

Strategic foresight, signal mapping, scenarios, trend intelligence

Research

Behavioural research, user discovery, qualitative synthesis

Product

Product strategy, information architecture, data governance

Design

UX and UI, Figma prototyping, front-end logic in HTML and CSS

Experience

A decade of practice

Each of these roles added something to how I work.

  1. Strategy Manager

    Clients
    Tier-one global technology
    Bringing together
    Research, foresight & product

    Leading qualitative research and user discovery, and building trend intelligence frameworks that connect human behaviour to long-term product positioning.

  2. Senior Product Strategist & Systems Designer

    Sector
    Digital products
    Layer added
    Systems at scale

    Led product strategy and UX, raised design maturity across engineering and product, and turned complex constraints into scalable architectures.

  3. Data Strategy & Trend Intelligence Consultant

    Sector
    Data & AI
    Layer added
    Data strategy

    Trend and behavioural data analysis for global enterprise clients, turned into business intelligence and predictive strategy.

  4. Lead Product Strategist & Behavioral Researcher

    Sector
    Fintech education
    Layer added
    Behavioural research

    Led UX and product strategy for a high-traffic fintech platform, built a design system from scratch and redesigned App Quiz, a gamified learning app.

  5. Strategic Foresight & Tech Intelligence Researcher

    Sector
    Technology foresight
    Layer added
    Signal mapping at global scale

    Foresight, signal mapping and intelligence strategy for global companies, multilateral forums and development agencies.

  6. Emerging Tech & Future Trends Analyst

    Sector
    Emerging technology
    Layer added
    Foresight & scenarios

    Mapped scenarios across AI and biotechnology and turned technical shifts into strategic frameworks, alongside data-driven growth campaigns.

  7. Digital Product & UX/UI Designer

    Sector
    Internet of Things
    Layer added
    UX/UI & front-end

    Owned UX/UI and responsive web architecture for IoT platforms in Figma, with front-end layout logic and technical documentation.

  8. Operations & Information Architecture

    Sector
    Law
    Layer added
    Information architecture

    Designed a colour-coded visual system for document control that sped up workflows, and led digital transformation workshops.

Education and volunteering

Education

B.A. in International Relations, in progress (2028). Specialised courses in AI Applications in Federal Government, Brain-Machine Interface: Neuroscience and AI, and Trend Analysis in the Fashion Industry, plus 26 other certifications.

Volunteering

English language partner for young people in Gaza (2026). Co-creator of Achamos Sua Criança (2024). Foresight research for the Paris Peace Forum (2021). Global coordination for UNESCO's Futures Literacy Summit (2020).

Languages
  • Brasilian PortugueseNative
  • EnglishFluent · C1
  • FrenchElementary · A2
  • SpanishBeginner · A1
  • Arabic العربيةLearning, for my roots
← Selected workCase 01 of 02

GIZtechDetector

Technology, measured by what it does for people. A platform co-developed by Envisioning and GIZ, Germany's development agency, to analyse the impact of emerging technologies on sustainable development.

Technology radar · Impact portal · Editorial programme Visit the case ↗
The approach

A radar built around sustainable development

techDetector connects new technologies to the challenges of sustainable development. It used a methodology Envisioning and GIZ created together, which looked at technology in a way international rankings did not.

Around the radar, an editorial line and a publishing schedule added case studies, interviews, future scenarios and even science fiction, all written with sustainability at the centre.

From 2020 to 2024 the platform added workshops and updates on futures literacy and technology foresight. They paid particular attention to effects on sustainability and gender equality, in line with the SDGs.

Timeline

2019 – 2024Launch, then five years of updates and workshops

Partners

Envisioning × GIZCo-created methodology and metrics

Reach

Thousandsof organic readers every month through strong SEO

Recognition

Paris Peace ForumDistinction, October 2021

What we did

Five layers of one platform

01

Technology research

A custom methodology showing how emerging technologies depend on each other, with Technology Readiness Levels and historical data for each one.

02

Custom metrics

Gender and sustainability impact metrics co-designed with GIZ and reviewed with its teams and external experts.

03

Data architecture

Technologies classified into domains, applications and methods, a structure that organised the whole website.

04

Workshops

Sessions with stakeholders that spread the research, fed the metrics and opened new collaborations for GIZ.

05

Editorial & launch

Case studies, interviews and scenarios, plus launches in Berlin and online, newsletters and talks at conferences.

The question behind the platform

Who gains and who is left out when a new technology arrives?

How it worked

From signal to decision

  1. Step 01

    Map

    Identify emerging technologies and classify them into domains, applications and methods, each with its readiness level and history.

  2. Step 02

    Assess

    Score each technology on gender and sustainability impact, using metrics co-designed with GIZ and aligned with the SDGs.

  3. Step 03

    Contextualise

    Publish case studies, interviews, scenarios and fiction that connect each technology to real-world use.

  4. Step 04

    Engage

    Run workshops with GIZ teams, experts and partners that refine the data and turn insight into collaboration.

Recognition · October 2021

Achieving Equality Between Men and Women

The Paris Peace Forum recognised the techDetector gender assessment for showing how future technologies affect gender equality. It maps the risks and opportunities emerging technologies bring to the lives of girls and women, and helps people working in sustainable development discuss them and make better-informed decisions.

View at the Paris Peace Forum ↗
“Envisioning have consistently demonstrated remarkable flexibility, reliability, and professionalism, serving as invaluable partners who brought in creative and visionary concepts that truly make an impact.”
Vanessa HochwaldSpecialist, GIZ
Related work

More radars

All projects →
← Selected workCase 02 of 02

AchamosSua Criança

Technology built to bring children home. An open-source family reunification platform created during the 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brasil.

Social technology · Open source · LGPD @achamossuacrianca ↗
The approach

Urgency, with responsibility

In May 2024, floods displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Rio Grande do Sul, and many children reached shelters without their parents.

We co-created an open-source platform to connect unaccompanied minors with their families. It had to go live fast, while the emergency was still happening.

Because the platform handled sensitive personal data of unaccompanied minors, legal compliance came first. We worked with legal advisors, the Guardianship Council and the Public Prosecutor's Office so that every record was protected under Brasil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD), shared with care and used only for family reunification.

Timeline

May 2024Built and deployed during the emergency

Context

Rio Grande do Sul floodsSouthern Brasil

Framework

LGPDBrasil's General Data Protection Law

Coverage

National pressO Globo, UOL, CBN, O Assunto, ABC+

What we did

Four commitments

01

Reunification platform

An open-source tool to match unaccompanied children in shelters with the families searching for them.

02

Data protection

Sensitive data of minors handled under the LGPD, shared responsibly and used only for reunification.

03

Institutional coordination

Close work with the Guardianship Council, the Public Prosecutor's Office and legal advisors.

04

Public outreach

An Instagram presence that helped families find information quickly and reached national media.

What guided every decision

Move fast for the families. Move carefully for the children.

In the press

How it was covered

Related work

Technology with purpose

All projects →

Projects

Technology radars, research platforms and programmes for international institutions, development agencies and enterprises.

Writing

Essays, reports and interviews on futures literacy, data, artificial intelligence and the technologies shaping how we live.

Interviews1

Conversations about foresight and imagination.

Have a project in mind?

Let’s imagine what comes next.

LinkedIn ↗