cocreated

Cocreated is an adjective used to describe outputs or processes produced through collaboration between two or more parties, typically a company and customers or other stakeholders, with the aim of generating value that neither party could create alone. Cocreation emphasizes joint problem framing, idea generation, design, and deployment, with ownership and benefits shared among participants.

The concept draws on participatory design and open innovation and rose to prominence in business literature through Prahalad and Ramaswamy, who argued that customers can be partners in value creation. While co-creation is often used as a noun, cocreated describes the resulting products, services, or experiences that emerge from collaborative effort.

Common practices include participatory design workshops, living labs, crowdsourcing platforms, open innovation programs, and user testing that engages customers throughout development. Intellectual property governance and participation rules vary by program, reflecting different balances between collaboration, ownership, and control.

Benefits include better alignment with user needs, higher adoption and loyalty, faster learning cycles, and access to diverse expertise. Challenges involve coordinating multiple stakeholders, managing expectations, handling intellectual property rights, and ensuring quality and scalability across iterations.

Notable examples exist in consumer products and digital platforms, such as online design challenges and platforms that invite user input into product concepts, as well as health, urban planning, and education initiatives that involve patients, residents, or students in service design and policy development.

See also co-creation, participatory design, open innovation, user-driven innovation.