Ideation workshop brought new insight into the business value of co-creation

What is the added value of co-creation from the perspective of developing new business models, and what is the most effective way to communicate this value to different stakeholders? These were some of the questions discussed in an ideation workshop that brought together participants from the public and private sectors as well as from NGOs.

The ideation workshop was organized on 17.9.2019 in Helsinki by Laurea student Suvi Seikkula from the Master's Degree Programme in Service Design. The workshop is part of a design process where the goal is to develop an efficient model for showing the business benefits of co-creation. The workshop used the H2020-funded project CIRC4Life as a case project, but the aim is to create a model suitable for different types of focus groups beyond the project.

The workshop brought together Laurea students and staff members, as well as representatives of the City of Helsinki, NGOs and other organizations, to ideate around the theme of co-creation benefits. The results of the workshop bring interesting insight into the value of co-creation from the business perspective and into the best ways to communicate it.

The first part of the workshop focused on the benefits of co-creation and the business advantage it can create. To recap the discussions: Co-creation can help businesses reduce the need for resources, e.g. by increasing self-governance via common goals. It is an effective way to share best practices, get new perspective into doing things, create winning ideas and develop innovative solutions. However, finding the right partners, gathering the right team, using the most suitable methodologies and defining the common goal are all crucial for the overall success of co-creation. Also, preparing the process well from the start makes the way much smoother. All in all, co-creation is a way to get big results with small effort, as the business efforts are shared and the way to business results is ideated together.

The second part of the workshop focused on ways to communicate the benefits effectively. The main findings include: There should be an element of interaction to increase motivation. The method should be traditional, so as to be recognizable enough, but with a surprising element to make it more attractive. Including a co-creative element can further increase the effectiveness, as it is a way to show the benefits in practice.

The results of the ideation workshop were used as a basis in a prototype ideation session on 25.9.2019, during which a group of service design students from Laurea brainstormed and discussed more defined ways to communicate the benefits of co-creation to different stakeholders, and further developed the interactive aspect of the model.

For more information on the benefits of co-creation in developing new business models, subscribe to the CIRC4Life newsletter at www.circ4life.eu

The design process and the workshop are part of Suvi Seikkula's thesis work commissioned by Laurea.