I’d like to get you a present. Something I know you’ll really like. But there’s one big problem—I don’t know that much about you. I don’t know what you like and dislike, or what other things you’ve gotten before and loved. What’s worse, I know I only have one shot. There are plenty of other people waiting in line to get you the perfect gift and become your best friend.
So, when the stakes are this high, how do I know what I should get you? Should I try spying on you, researching your behavior, and making an educated guess about what you really want?
Or should I just ask you?
When it comes to our personal relationships, the answer is probably pretty clear. So why then, when it comes to developing a customer experience strategy—arguably the most important bit of relationship building you can do with your clients—do most organizations seem so allergic to it?
Traditionally, organizations approach customer experience design by heavily relying on institutional knowledge and internal understanding of customer needs. They develop prototypes, test these prototypes with customers, gather feedback, and iterate. Some organizations even go above and beyond, and set up mechanisms to continuously collect customer insights to drive ongoing improvements.
But if you really want to wow your customers, this kind of guess-and-check won’t cut it. The most powerful customer experiences today are not merely created for customers—they’re created with them.
What is co-design and how does it work?
Co-design represents a significant shift from traditional CX methods. Instead of bringing customers into the conversation only to review near-final products, co-design treats customers and internal stakeholders as partners from the very beginning.
This collaborative method starts by identifying and defining problems alongside customers, then ideating solutions together. It involves checking the feasibility of these solutions and co-developing early prototypes. This creates a richer, more targeted experience, precisely because customers and frontline employees are helping to shape the process from the start.
How to co-design a great CX
Effective co-design follows three main phases: understanding the current state, envisioning the ideal future state, and building an implementation roadmap.
Understanding the current state
Traditionally, businesses rely on internal reports or periodic surveys to understand how well their customer experience strategy is performing. They present their customers with an experience they’ve designed, and they gather feedback once it’s already in motion.
But co-design pushes organizations further. The process begins by convening a diverse stakeholder listening group that includes actual customers, as well as representatives from internal teams and customer support staff. Using collaborative interviewing techniques and open dialogue, these groups explore together what’s genuinely working about the current experience and what isn’t, highlighting emotional friction points clearly.
The key features of a successful co-design group are openness and honesty. Of course, not all participants will feel comfortable talking about negative experiences with the people who are responsible for them. It’s up to the moderators who are running the co-design session to create an environment that sets participants at ease. In many cases, it can be most helpful to have an external third-party lead this process, so that all participants are on an equal playing field and feel comfortable opening up.
Once the participants have laid out the highs and lows of the current CX, it’s the job of the moderators to capture this information and bring it together into a comprehensive customer journey map that vividly shows every touchpoint and the emotional weight carried by each interaction.
Envisioning the ideal future state
With the current state now clearly understood, it’s time to reconvene the co-design group to explore the ideal state.
Most people’s natural inclination would be to start with the current experience as a reference point and ideate ways to improve it. But this can be unintentionally limiting. Here, the objective isn’t incremental improvements. It’s an ambitious, creative reimagining of the customer experience.
Moderators can use a series of design-thinking-based exercises to put participants in a more expansive and creative headspace. The goal is to take them outside of the current context of your service and get them thinking about things that may or may not even be possible. For example, have participants reflect on exceptional experiences they’ve encountered in other sectors—like retail, healthcare, or hospitality—and imagine how similar principles could apply to this customer experience. Give them each a budget of fake dollar bills and have them allocate funding to potential solutions. You want them to create an exhaustive list of their deepest desires for how an experience will treat them. The more tactile and creative these exercises are, the more your participants will step out of their usual corporate thinking and into the headspace of innovation.
Once the stakeholder group has come up with an ample number of potential touchpoints, have them prioritize based on their potential impact, feasibility, and how significantly they improve the customer experience. This provides clarity about which solutions can drive immediate wins and which require longer-term planning.
Building an implementation roadmap
With these prioritized solutions in hand, it is now up to the internal team to build a practical, achievable roadmap for implementation. With the help of the external moderator, bring your internal teams together to evaluate the existing organizational resources and technological capabilities. Understand clearly what you already have, what can be easily leveraged, and what will require new investments or capability-building.
From this foundation, sequence your initiatives into a realistic timeline, beginning with the most impactful quick wins that can deliver immediate improvements to customer sentiment. Implement these rapid initiatives first, establishing early successes and building momentum.
It’s important to incorporate a robust feedback loop into your roadmap from the outset. This will enable you to keep contact with your customers and continuously collect insights to ensure your team remains agile and responsive as you refine and improve the customer experience.
With this implementation roadmap in hand, you’re ready to start making your customers’ dreams a reality.
Why don’t most organizations use co-design?
Despite the undeniable benefits, many organizations shy away from co-design—for a few key reasons:
It can take longer: Co-design means involving multiple stakeholders from day one, which can initially slow down the design process. This slower pace can feel like a problem if you’re under pressure to deliver results. However, spending more time upfront ensures fewer revisions later, improving efficiency and saving resources in the long run.
Risks of increased visibility: Engaging stakeholders organization-wide can inadvertently lead to governance complexities and occasional internal resistance, especially if other teams feel ownership over aspects of the customer experience. To mitigate these issues, it’s essential to clarify governance structures and secure clear leadership support early on.
Hearing difficult truths: Bringing customers into the process can reveal uncomfortable truths that may require significant investment to change. But ignoring customer insights carries far greater risk—potentially alienating your customer base. Although challenging, tackling these uncomfortable insights head-on leads to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, increased revenue.
Co-design your customer experience
As customer expectations continue to evolve, businesses must recognize that exceptional experiences are not merely designed for customers but co-created with them.
Adopting a co-design methodology helps organizations genuinely understand their customers’ needs and expectations. By collaboratively designing experiences, businesses can:
- Build deeper empathy and connections with customers, ensuring that experiences resonate on an emotional level.
- Create clear, intuitive experiences that eliminate unnecessary friction and maximize satisfaction.
- Continuously refine their offerings based on real customer feedback, creating ongoing improvements and sustained loyalty.
Despite the perceived difficulties, organizations that embrace co-design don’t just improve their customer experiences—they transform their relationships with customers, ensuring they are genuinely aligned with their evolving needs and expectations.
But co-design doesn’t have to be a difficult process. For over 40 years, we’ve been helping organizations cut through their own red tape and connect with their customers to design truly connective experiences that lead to revenue.
If you’re ready to make your customers your new best friends, reach out to us. We’ll lead you and your teams through a co-design process that is as fun as it is valuable.