Setting Up Co-Designers to Facilitate Interviews

Prepare codesigners to independently conduct interviews with their own community.

Stats

Suggested Time

90 Minutes

Level of Difficulty

Easy

Materials Needed

Pens, paper, post-its

Participants

Design team


Process Phase

Description

Co-designers are community members that we partner with to collectively advance the design of a solution. Having co-designers conduct research or test concepts within their own communities is an excellent way to strengthen your design process. Community co-designers usually have good insight on how to recruit research participants, and where and when to conduct interviews. They’ll also have an existing sense of what it is their community needs, so they will be able to ask critical questions that build on what’s already known. It’s helpful to have established relationships with a cohort of co-designers when using this method.

Steps

  1. Build out a facilitation guide for co-designers to use in the field. The guide should include a version of the following content: Project Objectives & North Star / Impact, Participant Recruitment Principles (incl. compensation), Getting Informed Consent,Facilitation Guidelines, Interview Learning Objectives, Introductory Script, Discussion Questions, & Activities
  2. Once you’ve written a first draft, review the content with co-designers and refine it with their input. Take care to fine tune the tone and word choice in interview questions; and ensure the guide feels relevant and accessible.
  3. Support each co-designer to develop their plan for recruiting participants, and setting their schedule and other operational details for running their interviews.
  4. At the end of each week that co-designers are conducting interviews, schedule a meeting with them to debrief on interviews, identify key themes, and make any necessary edits to the facilitation guide.