What is co-design?
Wicked and complex problems persist today because of a power imbalance in how solutions (policies, programs, and resources) are defined, developed, and implemented. Co-design is a rigorous and meaningful opportunity for those disproportionately impacted by a problem to leverage their shared lived experiences and participate in more equitable decision-making structures.
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Unfortunately this form of design never lived up to the hype. The primary reason is that design was offered up as a one-size fits all bootcamp that tended to be more about how many post- its you used than about a focus on challenges and the people impacted by them. Worse yet, this form of design had been taught and practiced without recognizing that all design is created and experienced within community contexts that include historical trauma, power disparities, and racism. Design without context assumes that all stakeholders can take equal risk in the design process (which is not the case for those living inequalities of race, age, gender, ability, income, and/or geography). In short, design thinking and HCD without a fierce equity focus, has become a tool that can concentrate power and reinforce inequitable systems.
Design Has an Equity Problem
How Co-Design is Different
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Unlike design thinking and HCD, co-design is not a static set of tools, it is a structure or way of collaborating directly with, and investing in, community members most disproportionately impacted by the challenges, with emphasis on those that are not accessible through other engagement methods. Co-design is the space and authentic opportunity for community perspectives, hopes, fears, and values to be a central part of the design and decision-making process, resulting in deeper and more effective engagement, development, and implementation. Our approach to co-design focuses on these 8 core principles:
Investing in People:
For us, collaboration is not just talk. A quarter of our co-design project budget is directly invested back into the community in the form of co-designer compensation.Support Without Dependency:
Our approach supports community and builds capacity for advocacy and change, not creating a dependency for consultants.Organic & Dynamic:
No one community or problem is the same, our approach is responsive and celebrates diversity instead of trying to control it.Productive Tensions:
Our approach identifies and supports diverse teams in balancing visionary thinking and pragmatic action.People Trust People:
Our approach looks beyond engaging the “usual suspects” and supports community co-designers as conduits to community perspectives and experiences that would be impossible to reach any other way.Building Relational Networks:
Our approach builds social networks that offer unique opportunities for community members to access social capital they did not have access to in the past.Shifting Power Dynamics:
Our approach not only ensures that we hear from key community stakeholders, but also offers direct opportunities for the community to influence decisions on planning, design, implementation, and evaluation.Iterative Structure:
Our iterative approach allows diverse teams to collectively navigate highly complex issues by learning their way forward in small and safe ways without over investing in flawed ideas or assumptions.
Time tested co-design structure:
We utilize a unique approach to community-driven engagement, design, and implementation that is rooted in the “design studio” education and practice model (the structure of design) which is an iterative approach that allows for authentic collaboration and power-sharing throughout the process.
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Identifying and appropriately scoping efforts starts with a review of existing research and previous community engagement efforts along with key stakeholder interviews to identify opportunities that are both important to the community and have a real opportunity to influence policy, program, and service outcomes. Well-scoped efforts will be broad enough to allow for unexpected insights to emerge throughout the co-design process but narrow enough to be tangible and meaningful to community members.
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The proactive and strategic recruitment of co-design participants starts with identifying communities that are disproportionately impacted by an issue and whose experiences and perspectives have been traditionally missed or excluded. Outreach to potential co-designers occurs through trusted relational channels with Community Based Organizations, formal and informal social networks, and other nonprofits.
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The equitable co-design structure is an iterative sequence of community design sessions followed by community co-designer exploration sprints. In the design sessions, a diverse group of community co-designers (who are all professionally compensated as designers and researchers) come together and collectively interpret information and insights from their community conversations (sprints) as well as co-develop promising solution concepts to test with community members in subsequent sprints.
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Development and Implementation includes the development (in collaboration with co-designers) of small-scale prototypes to evaluate policy, practice, and/or service concepts that can be rapidly and safely tested with key stakeholders. Once prototyping has offered ample feedback, concepts are scaled up for full implementation and include the development of evaluation strategies that align with community priorities and values outlined in the equitable co-design phase.
Community Engagement
Traditional approaches such as surveys, listening sessions, and focus groups generate valuable insight, but they often reach those already connected to institutions and relies on the same people to identify those insights. They inform decisions without meaningfully shifting who holds influence. As a result, behavioral interventions frequently reflect institutional assumptions more than the realities of everyday life.
Community Co-Design
Co-design intentionally recruits those most impacted by the issue and treats lived experience as expertise. Community members serve not only as participants, but as designers and conduits to broader networks often missed by traditional methods. Decision-making is shared across problem framing, solution development, and implementation, shifting influence alongside insight.
Services
ByDesign helps organizations plan, design, implement, and sustain community-scale solutions that work for everyone.
Equitable Engagement Planning:
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▪ Assessing organizational preparedness
▪ Assessing existing research & engagement data
▪ Planning & scoping co-design initiatives
▪ Stakeholder mapping
▪ Stakeholder recruitment & outreach
Co-Design Facilitation & Support:
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▪ Facilitating co-design initiatives
▪ Co-design project management
▪ Supporting & coaching community co-designers
▪ Recording & synthesizing co-design process
▪ Facilitating lived experience exploration
▪ Building structures for community relationships
▪ Outcome prototyping & implementation
▪ Communicating co-design outcomes
▪ Evaluating co-design initiatives
Co-Design Education & Coaching:
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▪ Board education
▪ Leadership education
▪ Facilitator education
▪ Systems thinking & co-design Integration
▪ Individualized training modules and delivery methods
▪ Practice-based learning experiences
▪ On-demand coaching & support
▪ Community engagement, research, and co-design integration
Schedule a Free Consult
Schedule a free 30-minute consult to learn more about what co-design is and how it can facilitate equitable and impactful collective action.