Adapting the Right Methods to Avoid Madness
This guide is built on practice, designed for people who are actively applying these principles within their work. These reflective exercises provide space to exercise co-design concepts, to appreciate prior successes and failures, and adapt proactively.
FROM PRINCIPLE TO PRACTICE
Think back to a recent project—or think forward to an upcoming one. If the process used co-design, that's great—but if it didn't, don't worry: imagine a hypothetical version of the project, in which stakeholders were more involved. For the following exercise you will adapt the Spectrum Line activity to explore a problem and opportunities.
This is not a form: Your responses below are for your own reflection and will not be submitted or saved here. Use the text boxes or print the worksheet to sketch out your answers.
By using co-design in this particular project, my goal is to… (Picking a co-design lens from Module Two may help.)
By using a Spectrum Line exercise with these stakeholders, I want to...
Write a statement to use in this exercise that would warm the room up to the activity.
Write a statement to use in this exercise that would surface challenges or tensions within the project.
Write a statement to use in this exercise that would look toward opportunities within the project.
The best way for me to document this exercise is by…
A problem that may arise while doing this exercise is…
I will mitigate this challenge by…
Another problem that may arise is…
I will mitigate this challenge by…
Another problem that may arise is…
I will mitigate this challenge by…
Next, try your statements out on a safe audience. Enlist a few colleagues to test your Spectrum Line activity, capture their feedback, and revise your statements accordingly.
Reminder: If you’d like to save your answers, copy/paste them to your computer or write them on a printed worksheet.
FROM THE MODULE: HOW TO THINK ABOUT METHODS
As you start getting more specific about execution, you may begin worrying about exactly how you’re going to ask a room full of attendees to think of new ideas together. If you find yourself searching for methods, you’ll likely be wading neck-deep in things that feel almost useful. Methods refer to the way we use tools and need to be personalized to match the context and goal of your co-design project.
For each existing method you’ll need to:
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Define what you hope to achieve by doing the exercise, the inputs you’ll need, and outputs you expect to come from it.
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Make it accessible. You’ll have a lot of people and perspectives in the room—be sure the method is understandable (better yet, intuitive) for these folks.
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Be generous, and plan accordingly. Think through the amount of time you expect an activity will take, and add 25%.
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Have a documentation plan. Even the most generative exercises can fail you if you have no plan for capturing their outputs.
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Have a back-up plan. It’s hard to predict all of the dynamics and comfort levels of a group in advance, or plan perfectly for time running over.
Want a quick refresher on the theory or examples of methods? Check out the whole argument here.