Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Co-Design vs Faux-Design: Navigating the Complexities of Sharing Power in Co-Design

Friday, March 27, 2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Share the love for this talk
Co-Design vs Faux-Design: Navigating the Complexities of Sharing Power in Co-Design
Speakers: Samuel Martin
Link:

Summary

This interactive session takes a step beyond the introductory concepts of power to explore real-world tensions, trade-offs, and systemic barriers that make genuine power sharing a necessity in co-design. Though Power Sharing is not without challenge. Participants will unpack the difference between symbolic inclusion and true ownership, examining how institutional norms can unintentionally reinforce inequality even with 'lived experts' at the table. This session invites professionals, advocates, system designers, and lived experts alike to grapple with uncomfortable questions about who holds power and at what cost. It will equip participants with practical tools to recognize tokenism, navigate conflict, and build processes where lived experts drive true change.

Key Insights

  • Co-design is an approach that builds with, not for, communities by sharing power across the entire engagement.

  • Authentic lived experience must be directly relevant; proxies or near experiences risk diluting design intention.

  • Healing and trust-building are foundational to effective co-design, particularly given historical traumas in marginalized communities.

  • Power sharing requires explicit acknowledgment of power imbalances and establishing structures that allow community decision-making authority.

  • Participatory engagement should accommodate diverse communication and participation styles, including art, conversation, and digital formats.

  • Surveys tend to be less effective for trust-building and deep engagement compared to qualitative, relational methods like focus groups and one-on-ones.

  • Compensation for lived experts must be meaningful and equitable, recognizing their expertise as equally valuable as academic or professional input.

  • Removing participation barriers (e.g., childcare, internet access, food insecurity) is essential to equitable co-design processes.

  • A continuum of engagement—from ignoring to co-creating—helps organizations assess and evolve their community involvement strategies.

  • Innovations from lived experts are often practical and empathetic to systemic constraints, debunking myths about unrealistic demands.

Notable Quotes

"Together we can bridge the gap by incorporating lived expertise and knowledge through access and opportunity."

"If someone doesn’t have that direct lived experience, it’s not just enough to go to the closest thing you can find."

"We have a responsibility to help heal communities and build trust so we can do design with intention."

"Power is more than authority; it involves influence, privilege, and communication styles that shape dynamics."

"The same reason they hire us is the very reason why they fire us, because when things get real, it sometimes gets hard."

"You should never be engaging lived experts without compensating them for their time."

"When you’re doing a survey, think about if it can be done in a way that is much more accessible."

"Lived experts are the most innovative voice in the design process, bringing unique and practical solutions."

"Sometimes limitations mean you can’t fully co-create, but transparency about where you are on the engagement continuum matters."

"We want shared ownership and trust leading to community-led, informed, and sustainable outcomes."

Ask the Rosenbot
Ryan Matthew
Bridging Design and Code: AI-Powered Design System Integration
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Maria Giudice
Empowering change: Reigniting purpose, passion and impact in research
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Dave Malouf
Closing Keynote: Amplify. Not Optimize.
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Mary-Lynne Williams
Exit Interview #4: From Product Design Leadership to Sound Healing
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Bob Baxley
Theme 4: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Dharani Perera
The mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Gina Mendolia
Therapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Russ Unger
Getting Out from Under Everyone: How to Escape the Paralysis of Getting Started
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Laura Weiss
Turn Down the Heat: 3 Ways to Handle Conflict in the Moment
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Bria Alexander
Charting the future of DesignOps: A community workshop
2024 • DesignOps Community
Milan Guenther
A Shared Language for Co-Creating Ambitious Endeavours
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Farid Sabitov
Automatization for Large Enterprise Teams
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Heidi Trost
When AI Becomes the User’s Point Person—and Point of Failure
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Gregg Bernstein
Opportunistic Research with Gregg Bernstein
2019 • Advancing Research Community
Theresa Neil
Just Build Me a Dashboard!
2019 • Enterprise Community
Sean McKay
Whole Product Thinking: Expanding beyond problem and solution space thinking
2024 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Michelle Morrison

"Sharing our playbook with engineering helped push design diversity thinking beyond our own team up to the C-suite level."

Michelle Morrison

Culture Design

May 21, 2020

Audrey Crane

"Shadow design is not about blaming people—it’s about recognizing that design work is happening outside the design team."

Audrey Crane

Shadow Design–Where Else is Design Happening in Your Organization?

April 20, 2023

Robin Beers

"Insights virtually don’t exist if you aren’t able to make them stick by putting them to work."

Robin Beers Sonja Bobrowska Mujtaba Hameed Josh Morales

How to create actionable insight in the face of politics and silos [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

October 12, 2023

Samuel Proulx

"When I pressed enter it said product added to cart, but I had to check if it was actually the right product."

Samuel Proulx Laur Baek

Inclusive Research: Debunking Myths and Getting Started

March 12, 2025

Ari Zelmanow

"Good enough research? Sometimes good enough isn’t good enough."

Ari Zelmanow

Dark Side of Democratization

October 13, 2023

Liz Ebengo

"Uganda is Africa’s largest refugee host nation with over 1.5 million refugees, 60% of whom are children—yet this crisis is often invisible in media."

Liz Ebengo

The Burden on Children: The Cost of Insufficient Post-Conflict Services and Pathways Forward

December 4, 2024

Dorelle Rabinowitz

"Work is your real life. Friendships make the office a safe, happy, fun place to be."

Dorelle Rabinowitz

The Magic Word is Trust

June 15, 2018

Dr. Jamika D. Burge

"Get your questions ready, as we have some great conversations ahead today."

Dr. Jamika D. Burge

Theme 3 Intro

March 11, 2022

Megan Blocker

"It’s a moral obligation for organizations to engage with research and ethics; being mature is not optional anymore."

Megan Blocker Lada Gorlenko Fatimah Richmond Molly Stevens

What UX research maturity looks like and how we get there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

November 9, 2023