Design workshops for innovative cropping systems and decision-support tools

Highlights

• Design workshop is a relevant approach to support disruptive innovations design.
• A cross-case analysis, fed by design theory, drew lessons to manage design workshops.
• Recommendations to prepare and implement a design workshop are suggested.
• Diverse methods that avoid fixation effects and support creativity are identified.
• The choice of the actors participating to a workshop is a key factor of success.
• Ways to consider the systemic nature of agricultural innovations are proposed.

Abstract

Addressing the issues that agriculture is currently facing requires disruptive innovations, which may be stimulated through a process of innovative design, enhancing exploration in specific situations. In the aim to equip this process, several researchers implemented 'design workshops'. Yet, the literature poorly describes the way to organize, implement and capitalize design workshops, in the view to achieve their objectives. We conducted a comprehensive cross-analysis of 12 case studies of design workshops, informed both by data on the preparation, course and outputs of the workshops, and by collective interactions among the workshop managers. Steered by theoretical elements from design science, we identified similarities and divergences across cases, and derived methodological lessons concerning preparation, implementation, and follow-up for future design workshops. Our analysis provides new insights on the key steps for the management of design workshops: key elements to define and share an ambitious but realistic design target were highlighted; the choice of actors participating in the design workshops appeared as a crucial step in the preparation of all the workshops; the initial knowledge basis shared before the exploration had a determinant role on the design process; we identified the need to adapt, to a diversity of agricultural situations, the sequencing, the facilitation of design workshops, and the width of exploration; means to manage, during the design process, the systemic nature of most agricultural innovations were specified; and new criteria, consistent with the diversity of the objectives, were proposed to assess the success of a design workshop. Finally, our research has shown that design workshops promote collective creativity in agriculture, and feed open innovation processes.

Graphical abstract