Process Design: an Explorer’s Guide
Solving complex problems with innovative solutions isn’t easy, and just like an explorer embarking on a new journey, one should depart prepared with the right equipment. The main purpose of this guide is to equip readers with basic process management skills and ultimately to become more confident in thinking about the means and ends of a project.
What is process design?
As described in this guide, process design, or design processes, refers to the use of an approach to structure engagement, interactions and the steps leading to design outcomes. The concepts and knowledge in this guide are therefore intended for both formal designers and project managers, or anyone associated with designing goods, environments or services. Process design and process management are indispensable for dealing with complex, multi-actor projects in which you may know where you start, but not where you’re going to end.
Special focus of this guide
This guide focuses on Nature-based Solutions (NBS), a movement offers great opportunities to counter environmental pressures that humans, and particularly urban areas, exert on the planet. There are plenty of technical opportunities for NBS, but they are often limited by three issues: complexity, collaboration and community. Furthermore, NBS can involve a range of expertise and knowledge, mixing natural sciences, human sciences, economics and finance with a focus broadly on policy, project development and down to technical detail. This renders NBS projects challenging by default.
The Double Diamond process is seen as an excellent approach for addressing this complexity through collaboration and engagement, founded on community building in order to implement NBS. This guide is the result of developing and testing the Double Diamond approach with enterprises and entrepreneurs across the world through the EU-funded Connecting Nature project (2017-2022). It brings together an adapted version of the Double Diamond process and tools that have been applied to develop NBS projects across Europe and beyond. NBS is an excellent example of the versatility of the Double Diamond process and how useful it is for dealing with complex, stakeholder-oriented projects.