A better solution through Co-creation

What is Co-creation?

Traditionally, a project might have different teams coming in at various stages of the project to perform their ‘part’. Often each area works in isolation, without thinking much about what’s happened before or what’s to come. However, by bringing a multi-functional team together from the start, all players can see the big picture, can clearly see the problems and, most importantly, can create a better solution by working on each relevant element in the Design Thinking toolbox.

Technology can provide a solution to a ‘problem’, but the reality is no problem is experienced in isolation (rather there are many interconnected problems) and design solutions that excel use Co-creation to produce multi-faceted solutions that look at the big picture.

How can you benefit?

Pioneered by Frog Design, Co-creation brings together people with different types of expertise to create the best result possible. It ensures everyone on the project understands the problem and sees the big picture, the interconnected parts. This leads to a better and often more creative solution that truly meets the audience’s needs.

In action

While most of the previous blogs in this Design Thinking series have looked at case studies from our experiences, this time we thought it might be fun to look at something quite different — Lego! In this case study, it’s Co-creation with customers.

Lego’s Lego Ideas website is an online space where Lego fans (of all ages) go to share their ideas for Lego sets. Users can submit their own ideas and/or review and vote for other people’s ideas. If an idea gets 10,000 supporters, Lego reviews the project. If it’s selected, Lego designers set to work on creating the official Lego set. The Lego Ideas blog contains lots of examples of successful projects. Lego Ideas is certainly a great way to get the audience involved in creating new Lego sets, a great example of Co-creation with customers.

As well as being a great design tool, for government agencies Co-creation is also another way to follow the DTA’s Digital Service Standard. Specifically Number 1: Understand user needs and Number 2: Have a multi-disciplinary team.

More info

If you want to find out more about Co-creation, I recommend these links:

• Design Thinking research - studying Co-creation in practice by Christoph Meinel and Larry Leifer, Hasso-Plattner-Institut, Potsdam, Germany and Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. (This is a great 16-page report.)
• Creating value through collaboration and Co-creation, The Marketing Journal.
• Co-designing with users, UX Magazine.

Co-creation will help you deliver the best solution possible, and ensure all team members are across the big picture.

Design Thinking blog series

Reaping the rewards of Design Thinking (#1)

Business Model Canvasses (#2)

User Research (#3)

Empathy Maps (#4)

Value Proposition Design (#5)

Service Design (#6)