Consulting / Co-design
Co-design:
Creating solutions with lived experience.
Our co-design practice is led by our director, Mel Lambert, who has over 20 years’ experience as a co-design practitioner and leader.
Mel and the team will work with you to clarify the problem you are trying to solve and engage the key voices and perspectives to find and test solutions. Our approach emphasises collaborative and participatory methods to address complex issues.
We can support you at any stage in your co-design maturity journey and emphasise capacity and capability-building to ensure you gain deeper knowledge and skills within your organisation as a result of our partnership.
Co-design consulting
What co-design involves
Our co-design methodology starts from the first conversation you have with us when we will deeply listen to what you seek to do and why you seek a co-design approach. We’ll be honest with you about what we think will help you move forward: sometimes it’s a co-design approach, and sometimes it isn’t. So whether you seek in-house training and mentoring or an end-to-end project, from concept to implementation, we’ll design the work to meet your needs and budget.
A Think Human co-design project follows the following phases:
- Scoping: we work with you to define the problem to be solved, identify your desired and undesired outcomes and define the partners you need around the table.
- Engagement: we design and deliver diverse engagement activities to elevate voices of lived experience, enable equitable participation and test solutions. We encourage you to be actively involved where possible and undertake iterative cycles of learning.
- Synthesis: we draw together the insights from engagement, involving you as contributors to the process, to help you make sense of what’s emerging and adapt in real time. We continue to support you to work alongside lived experience to design and test solutions.
- Reporting and implementation: we capture the learning and insights in engaging and practical ways, meaning you have a smooth pathway from co-design to implementation.
Key benefits
How co-design can benefit your organisation
Real-world solutions
Co-design brings diverse perspectives and experiences to the table, working together to design better, more practical and achievable solutions. Direct input from end-users ensures that the final product or service meets their needs and expectations.
Long-term savings
The involvement of diverse perspectives in the co-design process, including end users, can reduce the need for costly and time-consuming revisions down the track. By focusing on what people truly need, you avoid wasting resources on interventions that don’t work.
Greater ownership and buy-in
When people are involved in the design process they are more likely to support and engage with the outcomes of your work. Co-design fosters stronger relationships between the business and the people it serves, leading to increased engagement.
Enhanced problem-solving
Building co-design capability in your team will enable them to apply their ‘design-thinking’ to other problems and challenges in the workplace. Co-design offers your people a toolkit they can draw on every day to test and try new solutions.
Our co-design success stories
From community movements to government services, our co-design services will help you create positive change, guided by clear design principles and collaborating with lived experience.
Co-designing pathways into life beyond work.
“At the Mindset for Life workshops I discovered it wasn't just me who was feeling a bit lost and disappointed with the retirement experience. I came away with more understanding of what I needed to do to make it a success.”
Lived Experience Network - Mentoring support
“Working alongside Mel was a really rich learning experience for me as a group facilitator. Mel skilfully provided safety for members to express their diverse views and ensured the wellbeing of the group as a whole.”
Contact us
Change starts with a conversation. Let’s chat…
A website can only tell you so much. We’d love to have a chat if you think we can help you. Let us know what you’re trying to do and we’ll get in touch as soon as we can to talk, human to human.
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Explore our other consulting services
Strategic planning
Define your vision, goals and objectives
Our strategic planning approach is tailored to your needs, timelines and budget. We integrate diverse voices, including customers and frontline staff, to create effective and inclusive strategies that are workable in the real world.
Facilitation
Engaging people in decision-making
Our facilitation approach focuses on creating inclusive and engaging environments to bring out the best in your people. Our methods ensure you’ll have productive discussions with everyone from local communities to government ministers.
Our people
Thinking human in all we do
Meet the team of real humans behind ‘Think Human’. With skills and experience internationally and in Australia, in government, private and ‘for-purpose’ sectors, and a pretty awesome group of people to boot, have a browse to find out more. And of course, feel free to reach out for a chat any time, human to human!
Mel Lambert
Director
Paul Lambert
Director
Emily Farrell
Senior Consultant
Kelly McLean
Consultant
Carolyn Curtis
Associate
Dana Shen
Associate
Insights & inspiration
Backyard Regeneration
Australia is in the midst of a major ecological shift. What can we do in our own backyards?
Redesigning a Historic Trust for the 21st Century
Co-designing contemporary opportunities with people living with disability In 2020, the Department of Human Services (DHS) commissioned Think Human to lead the HFI Trust Beneficiary Engagement Project, a landmark initiative to determine the future of the Trust that owns Highgate Park (formerly the Julia Farr Centre). This project was deeply rooted in co-design principles, placing […]
Developing a ‘Mindset for Life’
Mindset for Life was co-designed over the course of a year with people who were transitioning out of work. This participatory approach ensured the program reflected real-life challenges and aspirations.
What is ‘Life Navigation Lab’?
Life Navigation Lab is the coming together of my long-term passion to support people to navigate their way into the second half of life with intention, confidence and purpose.
Hospital discharge for NDIS participants
A Ministerial Roundtable to improve human and system outcomes. In July 2022, Think Human was engaged to facilitate a high-level Ministerial Roundtable convened by South Australia’s Ministers for Human Services and Health. The roundtable addressed the critical issue of delayed hospital discharges for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants—a challenge with significant human and system-level […]
FREE BEER!
What is the value of your attention? Enticing titles and images of puppies! Increasingly, in popular literature and life, we are hearing about the how the modern world is designed to attract and capture our attention. Through clever digital algorithms, catchy marketing or a myriad of other tricks of behavioural psychology, some now consider attention […]
Supporting the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital ICT Program
Understanding Future OPEX Costs When the Women’s and Children’s Health Network (WCHN) began planning for its new hospital, one of the pressing challenges was understanding what it would cost to run the new facility, particularly in relation to the newly scoped information and communications technologies (ICT). With a complex service model and evolving digital infrastructure, […]
We need to talk about ‘old’.
Why we need to normalise growing older. We need to talk about the word ‘old’. The use of the word ‘old’ has become shorthand for ‘infirm’, ‘mentally incapacitated’ and ‘past it’. If we are serious about tackling ageism in our communities and ensuring older people are seen and treated as valued citizens, of equitable value to […]