Growing knowledge across boundaries: Lessons from a multi-actor design project

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that projects that seek to address complex socio-technical problems benefit from a deliberate mix of individuals, whose complementary expertise and skills can be leveraged in service of the project goals. Three ways through which this team diversity can be achieved are through industry-academia collaborations, through combining various disciplines, and through the inclusion of individuals with different levels of proficiency in their field. This chapter takes a critical retrospective look at a recently concluded collaborative project, which integrated these dimensions of interest. Ostensibly, that project aimed to design devices for smart and connected cycling. However, in this chapter, it is taken as a case study for a post-project review by its team members. We provide a detailed description of this multi-actor team, the design brief, work process and outputs, alongside the findings from a reflective questionnaire. In doing so, we aim to contribute to informing best practices for future heterogeneous collaborative projects through the lessons we learned here.