Experience-based Co-design
What is Experience-based Co-design (EBCD)?
EBCD is an inclusive method used in service design to improve a program, service or product. When you use EBCD, you engage and collaborate with the users of a service to understand their experience and improve it.
Rather than relying on metrics, statistical data or pain points identified by professional staff, EBCD focuses on understanding the experience and needs of lived experience folks to design service models that align with their preferences and directly meet their needs.
In this blog we'll outline the key elements of EBCD, point you in the direction of three resources that will help you get started and give you some insight around how we've used EBCD here at Beacon Strategies.
Key elements of Experience-based Co-design
Experience-based co-design (EBCD) is a process that involves lived experience folks and staff working together to improve services. Key elements include:
Gathering experiences: collecting detailed feedback from lived experience folks and staff about their experiences with the service. This is usually done in a way that prioritises the needs and experiences of those with lived experience.
Observational research: observers spend time in the service setting to understand interactions and processes. This is less common but can be a valuable way to understand how consumers interact with a service.
Feedback sharing: information from experiences and observations is shared between patients and staff.
Improvement events: joint patient-staff events are held to discuss feedback and identify areas for change.
Co-design groups: small groups of patients and staff work together to design solutions to identified problems.
Implementation: the co-designed solutions are implemented within the service.
Evaluation: the impact of the changes is measured and the process may be repeated to refine improvements.
Leading resources to guide how you use Experience-based Co-design
Before you begin your experience-based co-design process, we recommend familiarising yourself with a few resources.
The resources below are comprehensive and will give you a mix of what you need to know, plus some practical tips and resources to guide your EBCD process.
Experience-Based Co-Design Toolkit
Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association and Consumers Health Forum
About this kit:
The Experience-based Co-design Toolkit is a comprehensive resource compiled by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association in collaboration with the Consumers Health Forum. It integrates well-established methodologies from the UK and New Zealand, supplemented with pertinent Australian case studies, to assist health services in understanding and implementing EBCD. The toolkit offers an informative backdrop on the principles and practices of EBCD with a focus on practicality.
It includes a suite of templates that can be adapted for various projects, providing structure and guidance for those new to the co-design approach. The included case studies illustrate the application of EBCD in real-world healthcare settings, offering insights into the approach's adaptability and impact.
Experience-based Co-design Toolkit
Point of Care Foundation
About this kit:
The Point of Care Foundation's Experience-based Co-design Toolkit offers a comprehensive guide for healthcare professionals aiming to integrate patient and staff input into service improvement. Beginning with an exploratory section on the nature and fit of EBCD for healthcare services, the toolkit lays the groundwork for understanding the approach's core principles.
Progressing through a sequential, step-by-step guide, the toolkit covers the entire EBCD process. It instructs on building a project team, conducting observations, interviewing staff and patients, and creating impactful patient films. The toolkit emphasises the collaborative aspects of EBCD, detailing how to facilitate feedback events and co-design groups where solutions are jointly developed. It concludes by guiding users through evaluation, adaptation to budgetary constraints, and planning the future of EBCD projects, ensuring a sustainable approach to service design.
Experience-based Co-design of Health Services Institute for Healthcare Improvement
About this kit:
This is an essential resource for healthcare leaders and frontline staff in the United States, offering a detailed approach to adopting Experience-based Co-design within their systems. The guide is informed by the practical experiences of three health system teams that have actively worked to implement, tailor, and integrate EBCD into their services. While the EBCD methodology was developed in the UK, this guide focuses on its application within the US context, complementing the foundational knowledge from the original UK case study.
Designed for health system leaders, care providers, and point-of-care teams eager to collaborate with patients and community members, the guide offers a structured pathway to co-designing care delivery. It provides practical steps and considerations for each stage of the EBCD process, supporting healthcare professionals in creating more patient-centred services.
How Beacon Strategies uses Experience-based Co-design
At Beacon Strategies, our vision is to 'create a more impactful social purpose sector' and consider EBCD a powerful way to help us achieve it. Over the years, we've delivered numerous projects with core principles of EBCD.
Our team values the depth of understanding achieved from prioritising lived experience voices. The insights from people with lived experience are the cornerstone of our co-design projects, ensuring that the services we help design are not just fit for purpose but empathetic and responsive to genuine needs.
We prioritise lived experiences by placing them at the centre of the conversation, which is why EBCD is so effective and rewarding for us.
In crafting solutions, we lean on the structured guidance from EBCD toolkits. They offer a wealth of templates and case studies that we adapt to the unique context of each project. By doing so, we not only adhere to proven strategies but innovate to meet the specific challenges and opportunities presented by each engagement.
Key Elements of EBCD
Observation and Interviews: The initial phase involves observing the current service delivery and conducting interviews with both patients and staff. The aim is to understand their experiences, both good and bad.
Shared Storytelling: Following this, the experiences are collated and distilled into a series of narratives or 'touchpoints', which highlight the critical elements of service interaction that need addressing.
Co-Design Workshops: Patients and staff are then brought together in co-design workshops to discuss these touchpoints and collaboratively brainstorm solutions.
Prototype and Test: Solutions are prototyped and trialled. Feedback is solicited to refine these solutions further.
Implementation: Finally, the co-designed solutions are implemented and their impact is monitored over time.
A Health Sector Example: Improving Hospital Admissions
Let's take a look at a real-world example from the health sector. Consider a hospital where patient satisfaction during the admission process is low. Applying the EBCD model would look something like this:
Observation and Interviews: We'd start by observing the admission procedures and interviewing both patients and admission staff.
Shared Storytelling: Through the interviews, it might be revealed that patients are often confused by medical jargon used during the admission process. This becomes a touchpoint.
Co-design Workshops: Workshops might include role-playing exercises or discussions focused on simplifying the language used during admissions.
Prototype and Test: A new script or set of guidelines using simplified language would be created and tested.
Implementation: After a successful trial, the new admission process is rolled out hospital-wide.
By employing EBCD, not only does the service improve, but both staff and patients feel heard, involved, and empowered.
EBCD: creating human-centred services and programs
EBCD serves as a guidepost for our work at Beacon Strategies. It’s more than a methodology; it's a way of understanding the nuances of service provision in a real-world context. We've found it particularly useful in the health sector, helping us to create services that are both effective and human-centred.
We’re committed to honouring the lived experience voice and translating it into meaningful service improvements across health and social services.
To explore how we can bring these co-design principles to life for your service, visit our Co-Design homepage. There, you'll find detailed insights into our approach, our past projects, and the real-world impact we’ve achieved through genuine collaboration. Let’s work together to create services that truly resonate with those they're meant to serve.
