When the impatience with how things work, the urge to find better solutions and the inspiration kicks in, it’s time to act and do something about it. It’s time to projectify the challenge and gather people who can look at problems from unusual angles, are knowledgeable and can offer real life insight – it’s time to set the team and get going.
Discover: The first phase of the Double Diamond model, represents the start of the project development and is a divergent process, where the project team explores the problem, conducts a pre-research, gather new insights in order to expand their approach and understands and empathizes with users. It takes alternative perspectives to be able to see new things and allow for fresh ideas and new understandings to emerge.
This is done through preliminary research, gathering insights and seeking inspiration for fresh ideas, new approaches or technologies – perhaps from other areas or industries that could be applied in the area of interest. On the one hand alternative approaches to the problem and ideas are explored and elaborated. One the other hand the existing knowledge and experience within the area is reviewed in order to know the current state-of-the-art and innovations within the field. The result should be a rich resource of inspiration, insights and knowledge of the nature of the problems or needs, that can act as reference and inspiration for the whole team, including an outline of possible approaches, initial ideas for solving the problems or creating unexpected new opportunities.
Define: The second phase of the diamond is a convergent process where insights, findings, and pre-research from the first phase is reviewed, analysed, synthesized and interpreted in order to make sense of all the findings. All the ideas and possibilities are evaluated. What matters most? What are the constraints of the project? What do we believe is feasible within our timeframe? What fits with the needs of the organization and actors involved. In case the project is a response to a call for projects, the priorities, scope, goals and expected deliverables of the project should be the focal point of these considerations.
The different possible approaches are considered and narrowed down to an actionable task, outlining the scope and goals of the project. A clear project brief is drawn up, framing the fundamental challenges of the project, including a (theoretical) framework and methodology for the project and an outline of expected activities in the project.
Forming a consortium. Based on the concept note, the project instigator looks for relevant partners, for example to match the thematic and empirical scope of the project and to complement the knowledge and resources base of the project. Another important aspect of a consortium or associated partners is the ability to disseminate the results of the project through relevant networks, associations and potential users of the project output.
It is crucial for a good project to form a consortium early on in the project, to allow enough time for the establishment of a strong team through the clarifying of resources and the matching of expectations. Perhaps the most important thing in international projects is to find out whether the consortium is capable of establishing a team that can collaborate and thrive across cultures at a high level, in order to be able to take on challenging and intensive creative and innovative processes together.
The project application is the final outcome of the first diamond. This should outline and substantiate the background for the projects and the scope, selected approach (theoretical basis) and goals of the project as well as anticipated activities, organisation, staffing, timing, budget, expected outcome and specific deliverables and dissemination of the results, as well as the sustainability of the project after it is terminated. If one is responding to a call for a project, the application should reflect the priorities, scope and expected outcome as well as deliverables specified in the call, and other requirements and criteria.
Jens Boegetoft 
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