Warning: If You Don’t Master This Mindset, AI Might Replace You - Anticipatory Thinking | Donna DuPont (Futurist)
A practical playbook for product people to anticipate change, reframe limiting beliefs, unlock purpose, and shape better product decisions—before the AI wave makes those decisions for you.
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Donna DuPont is a futurist, systems designer, and founder of Purple Compass. She helps organisations in complex industries—like healthcare, defence, and mining—develop foresight capabilities to lead through uncertainty. But in this episode, Donna goes deep on the inner work: how our mindset toward the future impacts our personal growth, product decisions, and career trajectories.
We explore what it means to build an anticipatory mindset, how to break out of a reactive life or career cycle, and how to use the Futures Triangle to surface insights that your backlog (and brain) might be ignoring.
If you’re a product professional feeling stuck, disillusioned, or directionless—this episode is a reset button.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
1. What the “anticipatory mindset” is and why it matters in product
2. Why your belief system can either shrink or expand opportunity
3. A practical walkthrough of the Futures Triangle
4. How to reframe career stagnation as a signal for growth
5. Ways to reconnect to purpose during burnout
6. What the mining industry taught Donna about innovation
7. Why human skills—not technical ones—are the future of product work
8. How to balance fear and optimism in the AI era
Recommended for:
Business Analysts navigating their next move
Product Owners facilitating strategy conversations
UX designers seeking clarity in complex orgs
Anyone feeling like they’ve outgrown their current direction
Leaders creating space for innovation in their teams
Key takeaways:
1. Your mindset is the invisible roadmap.
How you see yourself—and your future—shapes what you build, ship, and even believe is worth working on. Donna urges product people to audit their mental models like they would any other framework.
2. The Futures Triangle is a game-changer.
This foresight tool helps you map:
The pushes of the present (pressures or signals creating change)
The weight of the past (beliefs or behaviours holding you back)
The pull of the future (your personal or team north star)
3. Burnout is often a signal, not a flaw.
Feeling disengaged, bored, or lost? Donna says that’s your inner system asking you to reconnect with a vision that excites you.
4. We are addicted to comfort.
Most of us resist change not because of laziness, but because uncertainty triggers fear. Recognising that fear—and questioning its root—is how you build courage.
5. Start with awareness, not action.
Before you change roles, products, or habits—ask: What’s my orientation to the future? Are you operating from fear or curiosity?
6. AI doesn’t kill jobs—disconnection does.
Donna encourages product professionals to lean into the AI conversation instead of avoiding it. Focus on where your human value shines: creativity, empathy, systems thinking.
7. Constraint-free zones create innovation.
If Donna had a superpower, she’d abolish judgment, fear, and politics in meetings for 24 hours—just to see the untapped ideas that emerge when everyone feels safe to speak.
8. Transformation takes space.
You can’t redesign your future while drowning in your calendar. Donna suggests carving out time for “mental wandering” to explore your evolving direction.
Referenced:
The Futures Triangle (Slaughter, 1999)
World Economic Forum: Top 10 Skills for the Future of Work
Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk: “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
Purple Compass: https://purplecompass.ca