Co-Create with Customers
What is co-creating with customers?
Co-creating with customers is a mindset shift from validation to collaboration, where product teams engage with customers early and often to integrate the customer perspective into team decisions. Rather than building solutions and then validating them, teams invite customers to participate in the messy middle of the design process.
Successful products are the result of technology expertise applied to real customer needs. Co-creating allows you to ensure that you're building something customers want or need by working together to identify opportunities and solutions. This doesn't mean customers tell you what to build—it means you collaborate with customers, integrating their perspective into your team perspective.
How does co-creation differ from validation?
A validation mindset means you solve problems first and then validate with customers that you got it right. You finish production-ready designs and then ask, "Does this design work?"
A co-creation mindset means you engage with customers while you're still in the messy middle of iterating on your design. You show customers three or four design ideas you're playing with and ask, "What do you think of these options?"
This shift requires making product decisions every week, which means engaging with customers every week. You can't finish production-ready designs every week, but you can and should be iterating on last week's work and getting feedback along the way.
What does co-creation look like in practice?
Teams can use tools like the opportunity solution tree to collaborate with customers directly. For example, you might draw an opportunity solution tree with a customer, inviting them to clarify their success metrics, add or remove problems and opportunities, choose target opportunities, and identify potential solutions together.
You might show customers multiple design options during early sketching, asking for feedback on rough concepts rather than polished mockups. The key is inviting customers to participate in team decisions throughout the process, not just at validation checkpoints.
Learn more:
- Stop Validating & Start Co-Creating
- Product Discovery Basics: Everything You Need to Know
Related terms:
- Continuous Discovery
- Customer Interviewing
- Opportunity Solution Tree
- Prototyping
Last Updated: October 25, 2025