coconception

Coconception is a collaborative design approach in which users, stakeholders, and designers participate together from the early stages of a project to conceive, frame, and evaluate concepts for a product, service, or policy. The goal is to align user needs with technical feasibility and organizational goals, reducing the risk of late-stage changes and increasing acceptance of the final solution.

The process typically involves participatory design activities such as workshops, co-creation sessions, interviews, empathy mapping, rapid prototyping, and scenario development, conducted iteratively to explore multiple concepts and test assumptions. It emphasizes bringing diverse perspectives into the ideation and early decision-making to shape the direction of the project.

Applications include digital products, public services, healthcare, urban planning, and other initiatives that benefit from broad input early in the design cycle. Benefits include deeper user insight, shared ownership, and more relevant solutions; challenges include coordinating diverse participants, ensuring representative participation, managing power dynamics, and the resource demands of facilitation and documentation.

Coconception is closely related to co-design, participatory design, and design thinking, and is often viewed as the early or ideation phase within user-centered design processes. It aims to create solutions that are usable, acceptable, and feasible by incorporating stakeholder and user input from the outset.