8 Conclusions

This book demonstrates that data can enrich every step of the codesign process, from the diagnostic stage, to the testing and validation stage, and the evaluation stage. Although related scripts have been presented sequentially, the process should be seen as iterative, rather than linear, as described for example in the DEED (Describe, Explain, Explore, Design) cycle (Giller et al. 2008; Falconnier et al. 2017).

Negotiation is at the center of this process. The role of quantitative analysis (e.g., methods presented in this book) is to make on-going negotiations more explicit, creative and equitable. This implies a nonpartisan posture from researchers towards particular technologies and implies that the main function of living labs may be to serve as negotiation platforms (Moruzzo et al. 2024).

We hope this book can help scientists and practitioners make more use of data and data analysisin their codesign work. Additional analytics/chapters could be added in a next edition. For example, the selection of project site(s) could be guided by the delineation of spatial domains (Muthoni et al. 2017). The selection of innovations to be trialed could be informed by the identification of determinants of crop and livestock productivity (through e.g., stochastic frontier analysis) (Baudron et al. 2024) and/or the analysis of resource flows (nutrients, energy, labour, etc) within representative farms (Chavarría, Baudron, and Sunderland 2018). These innovations could also include practices used by ‘positive deviants’ (Mutsamba-Magwaza et al. 2025).