The Trend Curve: Addressing the Constant Changes Impacting Your Business
PDMA Minnesota | November 19, 2025
Description
Learn how the best innovators keep track of trends through using the Trend Curve - a strategic tool that recognizes business patterns.
In 2025, the pace of progress seems only to be accelerating. With AI becoming a standard tool, progress is only continuing to speed up. Add in war, social sentiment, the economy, and political changes, and the world can leave us feeling like there is so much turmoil. The military even has an acronym to describe the world - VUCA - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. That pretty much encapsulates it. While predicting the exact future is still not possible (yet), we can get more attuned to recognizing patterns and making strategic calculations to reduce risk and create more growth opportunities in our businesses. So how can we make sense of all of the constant moves and shifts?
One effective tool is the Trend Curve. Multi-billion-dollar businesses regularly use the trend curve to keep tabs on outside forces that impact them in big ways. The Trend curve provides a way to qualitatively and quantitatively assess and track actions that can either positively or negatively impact your business.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand the Trend Curve and how to use it to innovate
- Review case studies on how companies leverage the Trend Curve
- Practice applying the trend curve to the forces impacting your business
- Leave with a template you can begin applying to your business
About the Speaker
Chris von Dohlen
Chris is an award-winning designer, start-up advisor, corporate strategist, and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in designing new products and physical/digital experiences. Having led innovation work and teams at Target, Marvin, and Fitch, he started his own innovation consulting studio, The Von Collaborative, in 2022. In order to help others both learn and practice human-centered innovation, Chris created the Innovation Breaks Toolkit, which builds on successful mindsets and methodologies used by the world's best innovators. He holds over 20 design and functional patents in a variety of industries. In addition, Chris has a habit of finding and devouring the best donuts whenever and wherever he travels.