Over the last few months we've been sharing snippets of the PAKU Tiheru project and asking for feedback from our community. What we've received back has been incredible and as designers, one of the questions we're often asked is:
"What happens next? How do all of those comments actually influence the design?"
So we've decided to make this mahi public by sharing exactly how we move from community kōrero to a design brief, design drivers, and concept generation.
As well as detailing the process in this post below are links to
- The full 25-minute process video
- The Rāranga Whakaaro Canva board
- The Design Brief
- The Concept Generation Canva board
This is the stage where we'd particularly love your input.
Which opportunity statements resonate? What ideas do they spark? Jump into the canva boards and get in the comments
Step 1 — Capture Everything
The first stage is deliberately simple.
Every comment.
Every observation.
Every conversation.
Every idea.
Gets written onto a note, no filtering or judging. In fact duplicates are encouraged, when multiple people independently arrive at the same observation, it's often a signal that something important is emerging.
Step 2 — Sort it out!
Once all of the notes are collected, we begin grouping them.
Some themes emerge immediately while others require a bit more discussion and interpretation. This process isn't really about organising comments, it's about finding patterns.
For the Tiheru project, themes like transporting play, open-ended function, multiple environments, simple design, sets and sizes, and cultural grounding emerged very quickly.
Step 3 — Pātai
Rather than jumping straight to solutions, we start asking questions.
Questions about behaviour, use, culture, relationships, materials and play. The goal isn't to answer them immediately. The goal is to understand what the project actually needs to solve.
Step 4 — Opportunity
As those pātai are refined and grouped, they begin to reveal opportunities.
Things like
- Adapt naturally across different environments, materials, and forms of play.
- Encourage transporting between locations.
- Support collaborative and intergenerational play.
- Create space for unexpected behaviours and alternative uses.
- Explore contemporary interpretations of traditional forms.
Step 5 — Design Drivers
At this point there is usually a long list of opportunities the project could pursue. One technique we find useful is adding the phrase: "My product must..." to the beginning of each opportunity statement. This forces you to challenge every idea and ask:
Does the project really need to do this?
Most projects can't do everything well. The goal is to identify the small number of things that, in your opinion, the product absolutely has to achieve.
These become the design drivers, the criteria that will guide decisions throughout concept development and help evaluate ideas as they emerge.
For the Tiheru project, these became:
- Move naturally between environments
- Made for transporting play
- Support different ages and stages of play
Alongside these sits a Cultural Gatekeeper:
- Reference traditional forms without becoming a reproduction
Unlike a design driver, the gatekeeper is not something to optimise or trade off against other features, it sits above the entire project.
Every concept, design decision, and future iteration must pass through it.
This helps ensure the Tiheru remains culturally grounded through its form, use, behaviour, and relationships rather than relying on symbolic decoration, styling trends, or superficial cultural references.
Step 6 — Concept Generation
This is where we are heading next.
Using the design drivers and opportunity statements as prompts, we'll begin exploring concepts through a range of different methods The goal isn't to find one answer. It's to explore many possible answers before selecting a direction.
Join The Process
So again, we've decided to make this mahi public - add comments directly to the Canva boards, leave thoughts on social media or simply send us a message.
- The full 25-minute process video
- The Rāranga Whakaaro Canva board
- The Design Brief
- The Concept Generation Canva board
A lot of the thinking in this project has already come directly from community kōrero.
We're hoping the next phase does too.