Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Sanya Rai

How to approach onsite co-creation between clients and designers

The nature of our work as designers is changing. We are no longer just service providers or makers of things — we are often strategic partners. Projects now need a much closer collaboration with our clients — co-working, collaborating, facilitating and empowering clients to think differently and shape impactful concepts and strategies.

The latest co-creation trend is to move to a new office space and work together onsite for weeks to months. A group of designers and a group of corporate professionals working together in one space might sound like the start of a series of awkward moments… but it doesn’t have to. If done right, it can be the birth of a fun, productive and inspiring partnership.

The burning question is — how do we get there?

So I asked experts across all our 14 offices at Designit — What happens when we spend more time working onsite with clients? And how can you take your next collaboration from good to legendary?

I think these three quotes sum up the onsite co-creation process pretty well.

“We understand why things take time, what’s behind the scenes.”

“There is a thin line between too much planning and too little structure”

“Sometimes, I feel more like a Client than a designer.”

Close collaboration often reveals the hidden challenges that both sides have to juggle with at their ends. Working together as one team with so many varied perspectives helps you understand how the others work, why things take time and what really goes on behind the scenes. This not only promotes a better workflow, but can also help in future projects. These new perspectives are in fact, opportunities.

There is a limit to what your team can anticipate and prepare for in advance. Working intensively for weeks means that the best-laid plans can change, the project can take unexpected turns and the participants might all progress at different speeds with different needs. Uncertainty is unavoidable and thus, we need to stay flexible.

The more time we spend together, the blurrier the line between client and designer gets. Switching between the cultural values each identity comes with, is both tiring and confusing. If we respect and embrace the nuances of where each of us is coming from, it will be easier to cultivate a new culture of our own. And a unified cultural identity will lead to better teamwork.

Perspectives, Uncertainty and Identity — things to consider. (Gifs by EVDBJL)

Keeping these in mind, here are six basic principles to help you build the foundation for an awesome, inspiring and fulfilling co-creation.

#1 Stay Open

Different perspectives are all around you — use them. Co-working gives both sides the unique opportunity to get a behind the scenes view of how things work in different places — let’s take advantage of this, learn from each other and value curiosity over judgement.
We are not on an island — invite other perspectives. No matter how solid the project team, external inspiration always helps. Keep your doors open for your usual teams or others to drop in for a coffee or chat. It will not only inspire you and challenge your ideas but also prevent things from getting monotonous.

#2 Embrace the Approach

The process is part of the product. The creative collaboration process was designed to enable all participants involved to learn from methods. The criteria for our success is not solely achieving deliverables defined in the project brief, but about teaching and learning new ways of working and thinking, and applying them to whatever we do next.

#3: Plan for Flexibility

The project might not follow the phases you meticulously planned for. Scrambling to find the right tools in a new work environment can be stressful. Before co-working begins, configure a toolbox of potentially relevant co-creation methods, templates and inspirational material. Just knowing you have everything covered will save your team on-site stress, give confidence and cater to spontaneous needs.
Bring in fresh crew to boost the team. After weeks of co-creation, the core team can get worn out. Based on skills needed at a later stage, plan for new participants to join the team a few weeks in — they will challenge you, boost your team’s productivity and uplift the tired spirits with their energy.

#4 Create an Identity

Embrace your identity crisis. A change in mindset from us and them to a We is crucial to a new team’s success and well-being. There might be an identity crisis or two involved but that’s normal. Your true identity is the culture you bring with you.
Before starting to work, create a team manifesto where you all align on a team name, vision and set of team values — this gives the team an identity and sets the foundation for better decision-making. Keep these visible in the team space, but use it as a framework to guide you, not a bible.
Find some things in common. Sharing a project vision is a good start but to work in synergy, connect with your new team members beyond work. Be it yoga, food, cartoons or a really bad sense of humour — spend some time speed-dating to find some common ground and break the corporate ice.

#5 Cultivate Rituals

Build your own team rituals. We are all creatures of habit but teams are creatures of rituals. To give your team an inherent sense of belonging, create rituals with your onsite team. Keep them simple, flexible and fun.
Respect existing rituals. It is quite easy to forget that everyone has a parallel life with it’s own set of rituals which are also key to helping them tick. Making room for these is both a sign of respect and trust — it does wonders for the team morale.

#6 Be Human

Make it OK to f*** up. You can’t be at your best performance 24/7. At times you will feel lost in your declared field of expertise and have no idea what tool to proceed with. When it happens, don’t freak out or point fingers at others. Ask for help. On the same note, support your teammates when they raise a flag.
Me-time is not an obstacle, it’s a catalyst. While we spend most of our time working together, it is important to understand that each of us may have some non project-related micro tasks, and at times we will also need to take some time to reflect on our own to re-orient/energise.
Having fun should be part of the project plan! Team beers, surprise dance sessions, cooking together or even going for walks are some activities you can do together. They will give your team a platform for stress-release, team-building, inspiration, bold thinking, celebration and much more.

Wrapping up

I strongly believe a client-designer collaboration cannot truly bring change if we keep the following the existing hierarchies and silos. But if we can find ways to promote mutual respect, a shared goal and a collaborative mindset where designers work with clients instead of for them — there is a lot of good stuff waiting to happen.

Let’s get rid of designer-client silos. It doesn’t matter who’s paying whom, and who’s more creative. What matters is that some very unique, versatile and motivated minds are joining forces to reach a common goal. We should make working together as simple, inspiring and interesting as possible.

These co-creation principles are based on personal instinct, hands-on experiences and animated conversations with minds much brighter than my own. Many might sound pretty obvious, but trust me, are often easily overlooked. Give them a glance when you embark on your next collaboration and let me know what helped. Even better, tell me what else worked for your team — I’d love to learn from you.

And before I forget, thank you for giving this article the time you just did.

You rock! 🙏 ❤

Better together. was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Better together.

Cool stuff, every week

More Articles