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The third phase of the co-design methodology involves organizing a series of co-design workshops. The primary objective of these workshops is to foster collaboration between service providers and users, ensuring that user needs are at the heart of the solution. Workshops can focus on clarifying user needs, but they can also serve a variety of other purposes, such as building working relationships with potential partners, addressing integration issues with infrastructure providers, or exploring new uses for existing services, for instance.
Given the diverse range of purposes and action strategies that may be required during this phase, five key considerations are critical when organizing co-design activities:
1) The co-design workshops must be structured as to move forward gradually in resolving the issues identified by the diagnosis phase: not all problems will be solved at the same time in a single workshop. The diagnosis phase should serve as a guide to structure the sequence of co-design workshops.
2) Since each workshop should be focused on a specific problem identified during the diagnosis, the protocols followed during these workshops should be adapted to these specific problems. Typically, this action phase can be built on as many different protocols as there are workshops. However, whatever the protocol to be built, three critical aspects of any workshop should be considered and adapted during the preparation of any workshop:
A carefully crafted agenda is essential to facilitate constructive dialogue and ensure that the specific objectives of the workshop are met.
Close interactions with participants should be organized to guide users in articulating their needs effectively. This requires thoughtful preparation in advance to ensure that the environment fosters openness and comfort. For instance, facilitators can pre-define participant subgroups based on shared characteristics or interests to encourage compatibility and enhance collaboration.
Well-prepared templates are necessary to provide a clear, common, and unambiguous framework that supports productive dialogue and interaction throughout the session.
Independent from the structure of co-design workshops and the specific protocols used, three key insights must be kept in mind:
‘Designing the co-‘ is at the very heart of co-design workshops. This recommendation emphasizes the collaborative aspect of the co-design process, where multiple stakeholders actively engage in shaping relationships and solutions together. At its core, this approach involves progressively building up localized collectives that gather pinpointed actors within the considered ecosystems. These collectives are not about including every possible actor, which could quickly become overwhelming; instead, they focus on pinpointing those individuals or groups with the highest capacity to trigger transformations within their sphere of influence.
Fixation effects should be prevented and avoided. Fixation effectsoccur when participants become focused on a unique idea, solution, or thought process, which can limit creativity and prevent exploration of alternative, innovative approaches. These effects are common in collaborative settings where preconceived notions, dominant voices, or early ideas influence the group’s thinking.
The workshops must be structured as to support a “resilient-fit” instead of a “quick-fit”. A ‘quick-fit’ approach focuses on rapid problem-solving, where solutions are designed to address immediate needs but may lack long-term viability or adaptability. In contrast, a ‘ resilient-fit’ approach emphasizes solutions that are adaptable, durable, and capable of evolving over time to withstand changing circumstances and unforeseen challenges.
Worksheet 3.0 — Guiding principles to build a co-design protocol.pdfWorksheet 3
Guiding principles to build co-design workshops
This document focuses on Phase #3 of the co-design process, which corresponds to the organization and implementation of co-design workshops. It provides guiding principles for structuring, facilitating, and documenting these workshops in a way that ensures continuity with the previous diagnostic work and alignment with the strategic objectives of Destination Earth (DestinE).
Building on the insights gathered during Phase #1 (Approaching Users) and Phase #2 (Co- design Diagnosis), this phase represents the operational core of the co-design journey. It transforms analytical understanding into collaborative action, where service providers, users, and platform representatives jointly shape and refine service concepts, prototypes, and integration strategies.
The document outlines both the technical and relational challenges that workshops should address, emphasizing the need to structure sessions according to the specific issues identified during the diagnosis. It highlights the importance of progressively tackling these challenges through a series of workshops, rather than attempting to address all issues in a single session.
Worksheet 3.1
Usefulness Workshops
Usefulness Workshops help identify and clarify user needs and progressively translate these insights into structured service requirements for DestinE. These workshops are positioned early in the co-design process, after mapping the user ecosystem and before significant resources to the development process. They ensure solutions are shaped based on open and thorough assumptions, are robust across diverse user contexts, and form a solid foundation for subsequent phases of co-design.
The workshops bring together stakeholders to create a shared understanding of daily challenges, workflows, and information gaps. Structured exercises such as role profiling, workflow exploration, and need-to-requirement conversion, ensure that insights are captured in concrete, operational terms.
Through consensus-building and integration considerations, the workshop outputs a clear specification sheet that consolidates requirements, adoption conditions, and success indicators.
Worksheet 3.2 — Operability Workshops.pdfWorksheet 3.2
Operability Workshops
The Operability Workshop addresses how DestinE services can be realistically deployed and sustained in operational environments. It focuses on aligning technical feasibility with integration within the users’ tools and processes, and long-term governance.
Structured around two modular blocks, Dataset and Infrastructure Review and Data Governance & Roadmap Validation, the workshop should be run either as a single extended session or divided into multiple meetings, depending on context and participant’s profiles. It should bring together service providers, data providers, technical specialists, and user representatives to explore issues of data access, interoperability, security, and adoption. Exercises document technical requirements, identify bottlenecks, and clarify responsibilities for service continuity.
The workshop outputs a Data Management Plan and an agreed development roadmap that specify technical architectures, integration conditions, and governance mechanisms. By doing so, it bridges the gap between conceptual service design and practical deployment, ensuring that co-designed solutions are not only useful but also reliable, scalable, and resilient.
Worksheet 3.3 — Usability Workshops.pdfWorksheet 3.3
Usability Workshops
The Usability Workshop is designed to evaluate how the developed services perform in practice when tested directly with end users and are integrated into their practices and tools. It ensures that prototypes are not only functional but also intuitive, efficient, and aligned with real users’ workflows.
The workshop combines structured prototype testing with user reflection and adoption discussions. It mobilizes three modular exercise blocks: prototype testing, feedback and reflection, and adoption and workflow integration. Participants explore clarity, usefulness, integration into daily practices, and barriers to adoption. Facilitators guide sessions through cycles of individual testing, subgroup discussions, and plenary exchanges, ensuring diverse perspectives are captured while maintaining focus.
The outputs include synthesised user feedback, prioritised improvement areas, and conditions for adoption. This process transforms raw testing data into actionable insights, supporting iterative development and ensuring that services are not only operable but also genuinely usable in the field.
Worksheet 3.4 — The Data-Use-Need Matrix.pdfWorksheet 3.4
The Data-Use-Need Matrix
The Data-Use-Need Matrix is a practical tool designed to bridge the gap between user needs and technical solutions within Earth Observation services. It enables stakeholders to systematically capture, evaluate, and prioritize user requirements alongside relevant technical components, including datasets, models, services, and protocols.
The matrix supports iterative co-design processes by highlighting component relevance, maturity, availability, and critical gaps, facilitating informed decision-making and strategic planning. Through six structured steps—formulating needs, listing components, evaluating relevance, documenting details, organizing clusters, and developing a design path—the matrix identifies both common technical foundations and specialized clusters.
This approach helps establish scalable platforms while addressing specific needs, supports the prioritization of development actions, and encourages collaboration with critical partners. By providing a clear, visual, and actionable framework, the Data-Use-Need Matrix allows teams to transform diverse user insights into coherent, feasible, and user-centric service designs.
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