Darcy Ummels

General discussion | 149 7 activity tracker in healthcare is not vastly different from what healthcare professionals are used to’ and ‘implementation in daily practice is challenging but important’. Involving stakeholders is the key to success Involving stakeholders is important when creating an innovation. To illustrate this, when developing the app for the MISS Activity, it was assumed that swiping was too complicated for older adults and that pressing buttons would be an easier way for them to navigate through the app. During the initial pilot testing of the app, all older adults began swiping to navigate through the app. Despite the involvement of older adults in the look and feel of the app, this team did not ask their opinion on the navigation options of the app. This example illustrates the need to always involve stakeholders in every stage of the research. The active participation of relevant stakeholders enhances implementation in daily practice, including the relevance and generalisability of a product. 8,9 Innovative ways to retrieve information and include stakeholders are co ‐ creation methods, of which several have been used in this dissertation. These co ‐ creation methods are frequently used by designers but are also applicable in research. 27 Beyond retrieving information, these methods are enjoyable to perform and provide an opportunity for participants to get to know each other’s ideas and find common ground regarding terminology, which is essential for a successful interdisciplinary collaboration. 28 To identify all relevant stakeholders in this dissertation, ‘stakeholder mapping’ was used. 29 Stakeholders can participate in all stages of the research and in different roles, which can vary at each stage. These roles can range from only informing stakeholders to giving them full control. 30 To define which role suits which stakeholder best, the ‘participation matrix’ was used. 30 Within this dissertation, the stakeholders participated to the full extent of the participation matrix. Other co ‐ creation methods that were also used in this dissertation included the MoSCoW method, the business model canvas, prototyping and the six thinking hats. 31–34 To choose and perform the right methods, researchers need adequate support and training. 9,35 This PhD trajectory was part of the Brightlands Innovation Programme ‘Limburg Meet’ (LIME), a programme that facilitates smarter measurement methods and more efficient data collection for better care and health. 36 Part of this programme was a co ‐ creation team, with two co ‐ creation experts, that supported the research teams. Moreover, a collaborating network of researchers, entrepreneurs, civilians and educators was developed within the LIME programme. This allowed us to collaborate with several different disciplines throughout the course of this dissertation. For example,