D4.1: Guidelines for co-creation of codezero solutions

The co-creation process of CodeZERO will be organized around a series of three co-design workshops in Oslo, Utrecht, Antwerp, and Milan, involving consumers, retailers, transport operators, and local authorities. To prepare these workshops, Task 4.1 developed a co-design process to be replicated in the different cities. This deliverable reports on this first task of WP4.

The report starts by exploring the concept of co-design in the context of stakeholder engagement. It identifies co-design as one step of the co-creation process that is focused on solving a problem with a team of co-designers. Four key principles are at the core of the co-design process: sharing power, prioritizing relationships, using participatory means, and building capability. These principles ensure the group of participants in the co-design exercise can follow a democratic process leading towards innovative and meaningful solutions. Despite its benefits, the application of co-design to propose solutions in last-mile urban freight transport is extremely limited. This deliverable, therefore, proposes a new approach to integrate stakeholders in the transition of the last mile.

Given that the focus of the co-design process is on solving a problem, the approach starts by developing the tools proposed by design-thinking. Among the different frameworks available, the Double Diamond was found to be used already in several co-design processes, especially within the health sector. The Double Diamond organizes the process into four phases: discover (diverging), define (converging), develop (diverging), and deliver (converging). We adapted the framework further to make sure the principles of co-design are well integrated. The two loops of divergent and convergent thinking are particularly useful for the participants to engage in deep reasoning while ensuring a generative design. The Double Diamond will be preceded by an additional initial phase dedicated to building the right conditions for the team to co-design together.

Once the structure of the co-design process is established, the possible tools to be used to guarantee a participative approach across the five different phases are identified. Based on this non-exhaustive library of mechanisms, a detailed agenda for the animation of the three workshops to be replicated in the four pilot cities is proposed. Given that facilitation is more than just following an agenda, the local facilitators hosting the workshop in each of the CodeZERO cities will be trained in a dedicated workshop prior to running the co-design workshops.