11 Extremely practical Trends research tricks that changed everything for me

How to build a trend spotting practice that actually works

By 2026, the ability to read weak signals will be as fundamental as data literacy is now. We’re moving into an era where cultural fluency determines who leads and who follows. When it comes to observing trends, back in the day I have started the same way, saving Pinterest and Instagram posts following the ‘vague’ feeling that “these feel different”, “something was happening” but no idea what to do with that intuition. Now, my job is to predict what’s next. The difference wasn’t talent - it was building a system that turned sporadic observation into reliable pattern recognition.

That’s what today’s letter is all about. These are some of trends research tricks I’ve been using for few years, that I’m now building into a framework and a course. The result is I can walk into any brief, any strategy session, any pitch and speak with authority about what’s emerging and why it matters - because I’ve been tracking the pattern for months.

1. Build a trends watch practice. To notice the change you have to be consistently across the current context. Tapping in and out of trends research with weeks or months gaps won’t work, I can tell you this right now to save your time. Trends forecasting is a consistency sport not only because things change on a daily basis, but also because you need to build up your historical context. With time spend observing culture and trends, you will start developing call it radar or intuition, a sort of sensitivity to subtle signals of change. If you were paying attention to culture and trends for one whole year consistently, then now you have a one whole year of context to work with.

2. Having multiple Social media accounts. I run multiple curated feeds across platforms (5 total) to avoid algorithm bias. Each one serves a specific research purpose and keeping them ‘clean’ is an art form I’ve refined over years. For example one of my Instagram accounts is all about Graphic design, branding and visual communication. I don’t save or like anything to do with fashion, architecture, celebrities, politics, none of that.

3. Organising my resources well. When I first started being interested in trends and realised I had somewhat natural talent in spotting weak signals of change, I haven’t had a practice or resources set up well at all. So my research attempts were sporadic and it took me a really long time to get in the flow and find that one website I wanted to reference, I was looking at two weeks ago. My bookmarks kept growing, but lack of systematic organisation led to inefficiency. What has really changed the game for me is doing an audit of all my resources and categorising them in a way that works for me, so now whenever I start on a trends research or just doing my weekly trends watch I know exactly where to start, what resources to visit. Building a form of a “digital garden” really helps. You can use my template here.

4. Fall in love with data. Google Trends dash, Pinterest trends search volumes, TikTok hashtags dash. Yes, these are not often straight forward but they are great way to get a sense of the collective shifts in real time and often, daily, weekly, monthly. Google trends specifically have graphs and you can compare certain micro trends with others.

5. Paying attention to “the weird”. Working with creative teams and creatives of different skills sets and levels, it is clear to me that “bias” is one of the biggest blocker when it comes to one’s ability to forecast trends. It does not matter if you like it or not, that is not the point! It seems obvious, but trust me, in practice it’s a hard one to navigate. Get comfortable with saving things that look weird, out of place, “not cool” , not entirely clear. Most of these are the weak signal of trends being formed.

6. Paying attention to the “memes”. Good news for someone like me who gets a lot of pleasure from a well crafted meme. Memes are also extremely helpful in understanding the current conversations, worries, collective moods. Often when you’re observing a trend in the making , memes can help verify where the trend is in its lifecycle.

7. Understanding industry cross-pollination. After 4+ years of tracking cross-pollination patterns, I’ve noticed something most people miss - trends worth your time are travellers. They don’t stay put in one industry or sector, they move. When I see the same signal pop up in completely unrelated places, that’s when I know it has legs. You might notice rhetoric about ‘living off the grid’ in a Substack newsletter on slow living, then spot it again in a Real Estate report on demand for rural properties, then see it woven into a direct-to-consumer brand’s messaging. This cross-pollination is your confirmation it’s not just a micro-moment - it’s a cultural shift.

8. Master working with keywords. Here’s the practical move that changed everything: when I spot a signal, I don’t just save the image - I note the language around it. What keywords are people using? What’s the aesthetic actually called? Then I use those exact terms to search across different sectors. Custom GPTs are brilliant for generating related search terms I might not think of. I’ll take those keywords into trade publications, Google Trends, Pinterest search volumes to verify: is this conversation happening in interiors? In film? In tech branding? The keyword is your thread - follow it across industries.

9. Reddit rabbit holes for reality checks. Being the last island of humanity on the internet, Reddit is my favourite reality-check tool because it’s where people speak without performing. I use it to test signals, if I think something is emerging, I’ll dive into relevant subreddits to see if real people are actually talking about it and more importantly, how they’re talking about it. The language, the skepticism, the enthusiasm, the complaints - this unfiltered feedback is gold. When there’s a disconnect between what’s trending on Instagram and what Reddit users actually think? That gap is valuable data.

10. Sort signals by time - Now, Near, Next. The biggest mistake in trends research is treating everything as equally urgent. I use a time-horizon framework to sort what I’m seeing: NOW (already mainstream), NEAR (emerging, building momentum), and NEXT (speculative, could reshape things). This simple sorting mechanism stops you from drowning in information and helps you know what matters today versus what to keep on your radar. There are deeper layers to this framework I use in my work, but even this basic structure will change how you organise your research.

11. Trends are made by people. After all the feeds, data tools, and Reddit rabbit holes, the most important research happens offline, talking to real humans. I ask people what they’re worried about, excited by, currently obsessed with. I notice patterns across conversations. I pay attention when someone outside my industry mentions something I’ve been tracking online. This looks like: non-work chats over lunch, questions in group chats, IG story polls, actual party conversations. In-person dialogue especially lands differently - you catch tone, hesitation, energy shifts that text can’t convey. We all need more real conversation and healthy disagreement in our lives. Your feeds show you signals, real people show you why those signals matter

Most importantly stay open and curious!

If these 11 tactics resonated with you, I want to be honest: this is just the foundation. The harder part and the part I’m still figuring out how to teach is knowing which signals actually matter, how to analyse them without overthinking and how to turn all that research into something you can actually use.

That’s what I’m building Trends School course around. Not just spotting, but the full thing: validation, analysis, implementation. I’m working on it now and genuinely want to know if this is something you’d find useful. Join the waitlist here if you’re interested - I’ll keep you posted as it takes shape, and early people will definitely get better pricing.

In the meantime, thank you for reading PLAYIN. It genuinely means the world to me. If you want to start building your research system now, my Notion template includes a Trends Registry database to track everything you’re seeing - and it’s free for PLAYIN readers for a limited time.

If you have a moment, reply and let me know: what would you most want to learn in Trends School?

Til next week

M x