> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.co.school/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Co-design partnerships - URL: https://www.co.school/services/co-design/ - Published: 2025-08-11T21:16:03.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T22:15:18.000Z - Description: Co-design for social innovation in Canada. Through hands-on co-creation partnership, let's make real change. - Author: Kevan Gilbert - Tags: Services Collaborative design processes to help define and build new products and services. --- The toolkit of co-design help us move through "what's possible" and arrive at "what we're doing next," in focused modes like: - **Sprints:** A focused, deep-dive over the course of a week to make rapid progress on a challenge, build out testable solutions, and test with your community in a tangible way. - **Projects:** Map the system, engage your community, and return with a fully-realized understanding of the current reality. - **Partnerships:** Go deeper into problem solving. Co.school can serve as your backstage partner to help you steer the process, grow your capacity, and lead to a good result along the way. ## Tell me more about the approach of co-creation **Co-creation** is all about collaboratively partnering to create what has yet to be envisioned or built. It is distinct from theory, different from solo work, and separate from independent development. Co-creation is often: - **Project-based:** It's about *making* something. A service, a brand, a product, a document, an organization. It's not just "thinking about it" or academically *exploring the idea of something*. The emphasis is on *creation*. - **Collaborative:** It's easier than ever to make something on your own, with AI-assisted tools. Building it in partnership with others, with the intention of testing it with real humans, helps get you out of that isolating cycle. That's the co. ## **What does co-design need, to be effective?** - **A facilitator:** To listen to the perspectives, and synthesize them well, and help the plan keep making progress - **Leaders:** Engaged team members, able to make decisions, in your domain. - **Community members:** Whether "users" or folks close to the community's core, the humans and relationships at the heart of this are a key ingredient for co-design - **Tangible outputs:** Pencils and paper, napkin sketches, physical room layouts, clickable web mockups, cardboard cut-outs. Making the imagined become physical is a key part of prototyping. - **Tests:** Knowing what you're looking for, matters. How will you know if the work is effective? What feedback do you need? - **Time:** If you only have a week, that's fine; if you have a season in which to grow, even better. ## Co-design case studies and stories [Co.school x Canadian Cancer SocietyWorking with Canadian Cancer Society to re-map Wheels of Hope![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/78/bc/78bcdb42-e603-41c4-9fc8-2411afdffe5a/content/images/icon/2-Co.school.Logo.Avatar.Rnd.Black--1--ccefbc10-d385-4241-ab35-a467908e137e.jpg)Co.school is a human-centered design studio (BC, Canada).Kevan Gilbert![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/78/bc/78bcdb42-e603-41c4-9fc8-2411afdffe5a/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_1748-2023e31d-5cfc-4006-b10a-d75afae52105.jpg)](https://www.co.school/work/canadian-cancer-society/) [Supporting the launch of the BC Disability CollaborativeHow Co.school’s facilitation helped co-create the BCDC![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/78/bc/78bcdb42-e603-41c4-9fc8-2411afdffe5a/content/images/icon/2-Co.school.Logo.Avatar.Rnd.Black--1--8c807950-d442-4293-8139-c7e2092bf2d8.jpg)Co.school is a human-centered design studio (BC, Canada).Kevan Gilbert![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/78/bc/78bcdb42-e603-41c4-9fc8-2411afdffe5a/content/images/thumbnail/6b96f6274a1eb91f61b7936184bba5b1-541f9030-a726-4fb3-8f55-ec8bb64e703c.png)](https://www.co.school/work/a-new-organization-to-advocate-for-disability-rights-in-bc/) [Citizen-centric rapid-prototyping in five days with a city governmentA Sprint Story: Domain7 with the District of North Vancouver![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/78/bc/78bcdb42-e603-41c4-9fc8-2411afdffe5a/content/images/icon/5d8de952517e8160e40ef9841c781cdc14a5db313057fa3c3de41c6f5b494b19-a24249e9-2de9-4e39-b5ea-a511ce5c41c1.png)Sprint StoriesKevan Gilbert (he/him) | Co.school![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/78/bc/78bcdb42-e603-41c4-9fc8-2411afdffe5a/content/images/thumbnail/1-x-88Gx0W0-leURHN9z37hw-729678d0-405c-427d-95d8-db6bffd9f141.png)](https://medium.com/sprint-stories/citizen-centric-rapid-prototyping-in-five-days-with-a-city-government-7d09fefcb819?ref=co.school) 💡 "This was my first time participating in an innovation workshop, and it was such a refreshing experience. It changed how we are approaching this project. We've gone from things feeling a bit open-ended to having real clarity, from patchwork systems to a more integrated and patient-focused approach. Co.school helped us take a heartfelt idea and turn it into a clear, doable plan, and now we're moving forward with real momentum." ****Elina**, CCS Project Manager ### **Getting started** [Book a free intake call](https://calendar.app.google/FsEwVcz11kE4BSEz8?ref=co.school): get to know Kevan, learn more about our approach to collaborative design.