Individual commitment is key to successful service co-design.

Why It Matters

This insight highlights that while structured co-design processes are important, the human element of individual passion and commitment can be a critical differentiator for achieving impactful outcomes in service design projects. Designers must recognize and cultivate this individual drive.

Key Finding

Co-design initiatives in service development often struggle to integrate into an organization's core activities, with their success disproportionately depending on the engagement of specific individuals rather than systemic adoption.

Key Findings

• University-led co-design projects often remain peripheral activities with limited influence on core organizational design decisions.
• The effectiveness of co-design is significantly dependent on the commitment of individual participants.
• Twenty barrier-enabler couples were identified across collaboration, organization, processes, implementation, and methods.

Research Evidence

Aim: What are the primary barriers and enablers that influence the success of co-design activities in service development within cross-disciplinary networks?

Method: Qualitative research through follow-up interviews.

Procedure: Researchers conducted follow-up interviews with participants of six university-led service co-design projects involving healthcare, education, and technology partners to identify encountered barriers and enablers.

Context: Service development in public sector and corporate organizations, specifically focusing on cross-disciplinary networks.

Design Principle

Cultivate individual champions and integrate co-design into core organizational processes for sustained impact.

How to Apply

When initiating a co-design project, invest time in understanding the organizational culture and identifying individuals who are passionate about the project's goals. Develop strategies to make their participation feel integral, not additional, to their existing roles.

Limitations

The findings may be specific to university-led projects and the particular sectors (healthcare, education, technology) studied. The reliance on individual commitment could also introduce variability.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: For co-design to work well in designing services, you need people who really care about it, not just a plan. It's often hard to get these projects to change how a company actually works.

Why This Matters: Understanding what makes co-design succeed or fail helps you plan better design projects and get better results, especially when working with others.

Critical Thinking: To what extent can organizational structures and processes be redesigned to inherently support and benefit from co-design, rather than relying on the goodwill of individual participants?

IA-Ready Paragraph: Research indicates that the success of co-design in service development is significantly influenced by the commitment of individual participants and the integration of co-design activities into core organizational processes, rather than being solely dependent on structured methodologies. Projects often face challenges in embedding co-design outcomes into actual design decisions, highlighting the need to cultivate individual champions and ensure co-design is perceived as integral to organizational activities.

Project Tips

• When planning a co-design activity, think about who will be involved and how you can keep them motivated.
• Consider how your co-design work can directly influence the final service, not just be an extra step.

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when discussing the challenges of implementing co-design in your own design project, particularly if you encounter issues with stakeholder engagement or integration into existing workflows.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of the practical challenges of co-design, such as organizational resistance or the need for dedicated individuals, in your project evaluation.

Independent Variable: Factors influencing co-design success (e.g., organizational support, individual commitment, process structure).

Dependent Variable: Impact of co-design activities on actual design decisions and core activities.

Controlled Variables: Type of organization, sector (healthcare, education, technology), university-led nature of projects.

Strengths

• Focuses on practical barriers and enablers encountered in real-world projects.
• Provides a detailed list of barrier-enabler couples for practical consideration.

Critical Questions

• How can designers proactively mitigate the identified barriers to co-design?
• What strategies can be employed to foster sustained individual commitment in co-design initiatives?

Extended Essay Application

• An Extended Essay could explore the development of a framework to assess and enhance the organizational readiness for co-design, addressing both structural and individual factors identified in this research.

Source

The Barriers and Enablers of Co-design for Services · Aaltodoc (Aalto University) · 2016