# 10 Ideas generation by users (co-production)

What is it?
Making use of service users to improve existing services and develop new products and services tailored to their needs.

Increasingly service or product users are becoming co-creators, co-designers and co-producers of products and services, particularly within the private sector and increasingly in the public sector.  Many private companies use market research agencies to conduct large-scale interviews and focus groups with potential users to determine what the requirements they look for in a product. Focus groups are also used to evaluate the effectiveness of new products and services throughout the design process. Other companies go one step further and involve users in product development. In the public sector many national agencies are doing market research to gauge customer satisfaction.   

How could I use it?
Local authorities can engage users by: carrying out surveys; holding focus groups; creating a forum for ideas to be expressed (either physical or virtual); or working with community and voluntary groups.

Where has it been used?
1.    Patient opinion is a website that allows patients and carers to share their experiences of care received at local hospitals, hospices and mental health services. Comments posted on the site are forwarded to the relevant hospital or Primary Care Trust, allowing the service to address any issues and provide feedback. There is evidence of improved services, such as the appointment of a Bereavement Services Manager in Mid Cheshire Hospitals Trust.

2.    I want great Care is a website that allows patients and carers to find reviews for doctors across the UK by name, speciality or region. The site provides information on how much their patients trust them, feel listened to and if they would recommend them. The comments of patients are feedback to the reviewed doctor.

3.    Kafka Brigade
The Kafka Brigade is a research and intervention team that works to improve the public sector in the Netherlands. Citizens submit details of problems they're having with the government to the project website. The Kafka Brigade then follows these up, interviewing the end service user who made the complaint and then any relevant civil servants. They then work with the organisation in question to resolve the issue on at a structural level. The purpose is not to just resolve the tensions in one particular case, but to take a holistic approach so the processes and systems that caused the problems are fixed. The method used allows public servants to critically reflect on the services they provide in a safe environment. It also provides space for them to creatively identify ways in which to improve the problem area.  

4.    Tenants and residents' associations
Many local authorities fund tenants and residents' associations to promote community cohesion, build social networks, provide a consultation forum and to feed new ideas into housing and wider services. Although these sort initiatives can be reactive, or even confrontational, they can also be a valuable source of ideas and inspiration for new ways of meeting tenants’ needs.