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Table 5 Design principles for product development

From: Does the process of developing products for knowledge mobilisation from healthcare research influence their uptake? A comparative case study

The following questions offer a practical contribution to anyone considering the proposal or development of products from healthcare research and are framed around the Design Council’s Double Diamond.a Please note that these questions have not been validated.

Discover: understand, not assume

 • Is there a need for a product on this topic?

 • If so, what kind of product would be useful for end-users?

 • What are alternative, or additional ways, of mobilising knowledge from this research?

 • Are there existing resources that already cover this topic which you might build upon, rather than developing a new one?

Define: define the challenge

 • Who are the end-user(s) for your product?

 • What message is the product trying to convey?

 • Is the research from which it is derived suitable to be packaged into a product?

 • What do you want people to do once they have accessed the product?

 • Are there other ways in which you can support them in doing this?

 • Will end-users require support in addition to the product to put the findings into practice?

Develop: answer a clearly defined problem

 • Have you got a clear project plan for developing your product?

 • Who has overall responsibility for delivering this plan and finalising the product?

 • Does this person have the skills required to foster relationships with stakeholders, or is additional help needed from team members or elsewhere?

 • Are your plans for engaging with stakeholders and delivering the product realistic?

 • Are you proposing stakeholder engagement because it has to be done, or because you think it will be valuable and lead to a more effective product?

 • What kind of stakeholder engagement will you carry out?

 • How will you identify and engage stakeholders to collaborate on product development?

 • Have you set boundaries for what the stakeholder engagement aims to do, and what is out of scope?

 • Have you planned time and resources to accommodate stakeholder engagement?

 • Have you planned how you will assimilate and apply input from stakeholders and feedback the influence they have had on the product?

 • Have you considered collaborating with national, networked organisations, in the development and dissemination of the product?

 • How might your funding agency and higher education institution support in the development and dissemination of the product?

Deliver: testing

 • Have you planned any end-user testing for your product?

 • Is this realistic?

 • Are you proposing end-user testing because it has to be done, or because you think it will be valuable and lead to a more effective product?

 • Will you be in a position to make changes to the product after soliciting this end-user feedback?

Legacy: dissemination, evaluation and sustainability

 • Where will the product be hosted?

 • How will you publicise the product?

 • How will you keep it up to date beyond the end of the project’s funding?

 • Is further funding required to help to keep it up to date?

 • How will you evaluate whether anyone is accessing it?

 • How will you evaluate whether anyone is putting the ideas you present into practice, after having accessed the product?

 • How will you consolidate the learning from your experience of developing this product to inform future product development for yourself and other colleagues?

  1. aThe Design Diamond, The Design Council, 2019, https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/double-diamond-15-years [Accessed 10 Nov 2021]