Discussion guide 01 · 8 pages · PDF
Co-design: more than asking people what they think
A practical discussion guide to sharing influence, designing with people, and knowing when you are really co-designing. Consultation can be useful. Co-design can be useful. The trouble starts when we call one the other.
What the guide covers
The short version. Each one is a page in the PDF, with a discussion question for your team.
Co-design is about influence, not sticky notes
Co-design means working alongside people affected by an issue to understand it, shape what needs to change, develop possibilities and test what happens next. The quickest test: if participants disagree with your original idea, can the project meaningfully change direction?
Not everything needs to be co-designed
A simple spectrum: inform, consult, involve, co-design, community-led. Higher participation is not automatically better. Calling a short feedback session ‘co-design’ does not make it more ethical. It mostly makes the biscuits work harder.
Discover. Define. Develop. Deliver. Together.
The Design Council’s Double Diamond, with one question added at every stage: who gets to shape this? And a reminder that iteration is not failure. It is the process doing its job.
The power test
Seven questions that reveal whether influence is real. Who set the question? What is genuinely undecided? Who gets paid? Who can say no? Who is missing? Who makes the final call? Can people see what changed?
What makes co-design possible
The workshop is the visible bit. The conditions matter more: clarity, access, payment, relationships, multiple ways to contribute, iteration, decision transparency and feedback.
Good co-design is visible in the decisions, not the photographs
A wall of Post-its can be part of co-design. It can also be a wall of Post-its. The point is not agreement. It is better understanding, better choices and shared influence over what gets made.
If participants disagree with your original idea, can the project meaningfully change direction? If not, it probably is not co-design.
Who it’s for and how to use it
Team exercise · page 7
A 15-minute co-design health check
Choose one project that you currently call co-design. Mark each statement yes, partly or not yet. The point is the conversation, not the score.
☐ People affected were involved before the solution was decided.
☐ They can influence the problem definition, not only comment on options.
☐ We are clear about what is fixed and what is genuinely open.
☐ Participation is accessible and appropriately paid or resourced.
☐ We have more than one route for people to contribute.
☐ Participants stay connected to testing, decisions and what happens next.
☐ We can point to at least one decision that could change because of their involvement.
Then ask: what is the smallest change we could make now to give people more meaningful influence?
Good for
Anyone who has been told to ‘co-design it’
Service designers, participation and engagement staff, commissioners writing a brief, and leadership teams deciding how much influence they are genuinely prepared to share.
Works as pre-reading before a project starts, or as a 45-minute team session halfway through one.
Download the guide (PDF) →Related tools
Tool 02
Is this actually co-design?
A two-page reality check for projects using the word co-design.
Download →Tool 07
The tokenism test
Ten warning signs that participation may look better than it works.
Download →Co-Design Hub
Process and methods
The five stages, a library of 42 methods, and a simple way to check what changed.
Open the page →Need help designing the process?
A Co-Design Sprint builds the process with you and runs it with care experienced people. Or book Co-Design 101 for your team.
Sources and further reading
Design Council: The Double Diamond ↗ Design Council: Framework for Innovation ↗ Scottish Government: National Care Service co-design ↗This is a ProjectChange discussion guide, not a universal accreditation standard. The right participation method depends on the decision, the people affected and the power genuinely available.