No one has sufficient expertise to design products, services, exhibitions on his or her own. Therefore, we need to collaborate with others. Co-creation is when two or more people with distinctive skills create something that no one can create on their own.  

Because there is no one person that oversees the entire process, the question is how people align their work as they are creating something. This contradicts the popular but erroneous idea of a creative genius, like Steve Jobs, who knew everything and delegated work to others to develop his ideas; one mind who oversees all beforehand and directs others. In the real world, the process is much more agile and fortuitous and actually resembles ping-pong. Someone proposes something, someone else responds, to which the first person responds, and so on. Over time something arises that makes sense to both. When more people are involved, the same mechanism can be observed in a more complex way. The key is that ideas arise and are being developed into concepts between different designers.

This ping-pong effect implicates that new knowledge is created on the go and by doing things, rather than beforehand. The impact this has on the way of working is dramatic. In this way, it is impossible to conceive a plan and then execute it. Instead, people have to iterate for co-creation, proposing things others give feedback on or add things to. Based on these alterations and suggestions you change your proposal and so on. 

Without iterations, it is impossible to co-create. You cannot expect two or more persons to create something new at the first try, simply because they don’t know what the others are thinking. Even if they make explicit to each other what they are thinking, without iterations, it will be unclear what the impact of the individual contributions are on the collective work. The three ways to iterate and make progress are:

• Workshops
  In workshops, you literally work side-by-side and have discussions on the go. Not only do you learn what you are creating together, but also what the line of reasoning is of other team members and what they consider to be of importance;
• One space
  By working -preferably at the same time- in a shared environment that allows you to see what others are doing, such as in Google docs;
• Show & Share
  By working individually, concurrently, and by hosting show & share meetings on regular intervals to discuss what the developments are and what needs to be changed by whom.