About
FreeUp is a co-creation consultancy founded by Liesbeth Scholten
As co-creator, facilitator and researcher my playground is the field of people-centered innovation. I am fascinated by the interplay between people and their contexts. I team up with clients and partners for projects, and I keep the creative process flowing as we develop meaningful innovations, places and events; Tackling innovation challenges in which a variety of stakeholders, needs and interests have to be connected in an effective and meaningful way; Or giving direction to technology development so that it makes sense to users. My ability to unravel complexity and to reach clear insights and engagement from stakeholders ensures a strong foundation for co-developing concepts, prototyping, experimenting, evaluating and implementing solutions.
Since 2010 I work as an independent co-creation consultant. Before that, I worked with pleasure at Philips Design (1995-2010). It was an inspiring journey with different kinds of customers, innovation challenges and research into probable, possible and preferable futures. I was involved in the groundwork for what is now commonly called ‘design research’ and ‘design thinking’.
What FreeUp offers
‘We co-create’ rather than ‘I co-create’. Projects are carried out together with others, often with team members from clients’ organizations. FreeUp works with a network of partners, covering a broad spectrum of design disciplines, research, art, technology and business competencies.
The core activities that FreeUp brings into projects:
We facilitate co-creative processes, which usually take the form of one or more workshops. We help to open up space for exploration and creativity, even under pressure.
We engage stakeholders to effectively co-create, develop and evaluate solutions together. Through stakeholder interviews we identify the different motivations and interests. We design practical collaborative tools and ways of working, with specific tools for creating transparency in teams and working towards a shared vision.
We do contextual research (a.k.a. design research or experience research), which may involve observing, shadowing, interviewing and interactive sessions.
We involve end-users in different stages of solution development. We identify motivations, needs, issues and desired ‘experience qualities’, for (re)designing environments and developing appropriate solutions in co-creation with users.