The Intersection of Imagination, Science Fiction, Strategy and Creativity.

we wandered into something I keep circling back to: the idea that strategy is a kind of science fiction. Not in the “space battles and robots” sense, but in the deeper way that science fiction gives us permission to imagine futures—plausible or not—and then build toward them. Jarrett and I talked about design not just as a tool for solving problems, but as a mode of inquiry, a way of asking better questions and shaping new cultural narratives.

We both share this instinct that branding, design, and strategy aren’t just reactive—they’re speculative. They make bets on the kind of world a product or company wants to inhabit. They tell stories about futures that don’t exist yet, and then use those stories as scaffolding for action. That’s what excites me about this work: it's not just about “making things,” it's about materializing possibilities.

There's also this important undercurrent about imagination as a form of intelligence. We don’t talk enough about that. Creativity isn’t some whimsical add-on—it’s central to how organizations find direction, how they differentiate, how they respond to change. And good strategy? It needs to evoke, not just calculate.

This episode was a reminder that strategy and design, at their best, operate in the realm of the imaginary. They’re speculative tools. And maybe the real work is helping people see that imagination is infrastructure.

Jarrett Fuller is a designer, writer, educator, editor, and podcaster. He is an assistant professor of graphic design at North Carolina State University and hosts the design podcast Scratching the Surface.

https://jarrettfuller.com/

http://scratchingthesurface.fm/