How to Spot Trends Like a Strategist.

June 3, 2025 | 12:02am EST

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Overview

Spotting trends like a strategist isn’t about chasing what’s popular — it’s about noticing the irrational, the unexpected, and the quietly emerging behaviors that reveal where the market is heading long before the mainstream catches up. The earliest signals rarely look logical. They show up as work-arounds, hacks inside subcultures, emotional outbursts in comment sections, or outlier brands “breaking the rules” and still winning.

Strategic trendspotting begins where logic stops. As Rory Sutherland notes, magic often appears in the gaps where traditional thinking fails. When something doesn’t make sense yet, that’s your cue to pay attention. Those anomalies often point to shifting needs, hidden demand, or entirely new categories waiting to be shaped. The founders who train themselves to see these early patterns gain an advantage that compounds over time.

Strategic Advantage

  • Early signals — especially irrational ones — reveal unmet needs and emerging cultural shifts before your competitors notice them.

  • Tracking outlier behavior, friction points, and cross-industry cues helps you anticipate demand rather than react to it.

  • Strategists who develop protocols for spotting weak signals build companies that innovate faster, adapt sooner, and capitalize on trends while others are still asking if they’re real.

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About The Eveline Agency

The Eveline Agency is a private intelligence and strategy firm for women building legacy companies. We help founders scale with clarity, ethical leadership, and long-range strategy — offering the tools, insights, and briefings needed to lead with precision and conviction. To book a 90-minute strategy session, contact us at hello@evelineagency.com.

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