Co-creation (buzzword, but a good one)

Featured image for Co-creation (buzzword, but a good one)

Email to Fergal (not his real name):

Hi Fergal,

I’ve been meaning to say to you, the last [Virtual Reality Health App Project] meeting went really well…

I loved that we followed a co-creation process where everyone contributed and lots of post-it notes were involved. I loved that it was a cross-functional team (I’ve italicised  tech industry/academia buzz words I’ve used in this email to indicate they are not just weird terms I’ve made up.) I loved that is was a cross-functional team comprising service users, a medical professional – yourself, a software developer and a project manager/facilitator type person (I forget the exact job title she gave herself.)…

I loved that we did paper-prototypes and that there were lots of post-it notes, stationary and arts/crafts materials. Apparently that was my idea. I must admit I don’t remember making the suggestion in the past, but I’m glad I did, it’s the sort of thing I recommend. Doing paper-prototypes and generally scribbling on paper before writing any computer code were heavily advocated in my MSc in Human-Centred Computer Systems at University of Sussex – and I can see why – I thought it went very well.

So I’m much more optimistic about the project and I applaud you for having the courage to drop some of the previous work and to iterate, make a course correction, and be agile. All buzz words they use in industry but industry rarely actually do.

… a pleasure to be involved in this research and development project, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Best wishes,

Louie Christie