

TOOLS
TOOLSTools for co-creation and systems thinking approach
Find tools for your innovation process
Food loss and waste is a serious problem that can not be solved with technical solutions alone. It requires co-creation and a systems thinking approach.
The tools below are selected to help projects with that in every phase of their innovation process.
You can select tools based on the goal you want to achieve or the stage you are at in the innovation process.
Types of goals:
- Map & Engage Stakeholders
- Interrogate Existing Knowledge
- Create New Knowledge & Ideas
- Think Ahead and Find Solutions to Challenges
- Plan & Implement/Apply Knowledge
Stages:
- Preparation & Setup
- Prototyping
- Demonstration
- Commercialisation & Scaleup
Time and effort
For each tool, the effort and time span needed are indicated with a symbol.
Effort needed to implement a specific tool:
🌶 Little effort
🌶🌶 Less effort
🌶🌶🌶 More effort
Time needed to implement the tool (excluding preparation and processing time):
⧗ (1-2 hours)
⧗⧗ (3-4 hours)
What do you want to achieve?
Select tools
Goal: Map and Engage Stakeholders
Identifying all stakeholders that are relevant for your solution and understanding their role is best done in an early stage but can be repeated later on as the project evolves.
From this mapping it is important to decide which stakeholders to engage with and on what level. Many tools have the engagement of stakeholders not as their main objective but as welcome side effect.
Select tools according to the stage in your innovation process:
This stage involves identifying the exact FLW issue that you want to solve, mapping it and understanding the issue at hand as well as it’s connection to the broader system.
Based on that analysis a conceptual solution is developed.
Select tools:
- Tomorrow Headlines 🌶 ⏱
- Focus Group 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Actor Mapping 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱⏱
- Future Scenarios 🌶🌶 ⏱
During prototyping the conceptual solution is translated into a first test in a controlled environment, a prototype.
Select tools:
- Focus Group 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Sabotage 🌶 ⏱
- Multi Criteria Decision Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Future Scenarios 🌶🌶 ⏱
There are not tools in this stage.
Only after the final product or service is ready and tested in an uncontrolled environment, it can be brought to the market at a larger scale.
Now the focus is on reducing the production costs by optimising the processes and increasing quantities.
Select tools:
- Focus Group 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Multi Criteria Decision Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Actor Mapping 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
Goal: Interrogate Existing Knowledge
The SILLs are composed of very complementing and experienced partners.
Extracting the knowledge that exists in the team or with a broader set of stakeholders is an important goal to develop a workable FLW innovation.
Select tools according to the stage in your innovation process:
This stage involves identifying the exact FLW issue that you want to solve, mapping it and understanding the issue at hand as well as it’s connection to the broader system.
Based on that analysis a conceptual solution is developed.
Select tools:
- Visualisation Tools Techniques 🌶 ⏱
- Focus Group 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Force Field Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Iceberg 🌶🌶
During prototyping the conceptual solution is translated into a first test in a controlled environment, a prototype.
Select tools:
- Visualisation Tools Techniques 🌶 ⏱
- Focus Group 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Sabotage 🌶 ⏱
- Systemic Innovation Readiness 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Iceberg 🌶🌶 ⏱
Learnings from the prototype building are the basis for further developing the solution into marketable end product or service.
This usually happens through multiple iterations of demonstration, adapting and testing in (semi-)controlled environments.
Select tools:
- Visualisation Tools Techniques 🌶 ⏱
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systemic Innovation Readiness 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Force Field Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
Only after the final product or service is ready and tested in an uncontrolled environment, it can be brought to the market at a larger scale.
Now the focus is on reducing the production costs by optimising the processes and increasing quantities.
Select tools:
- Visualisation Tools Techniques 🌶 ⏱
- Focus Group 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
Goal: Create New Knowledge & Ideas
Combining existing knowledge in a new way and looking at the same issue from different perspectives to gain new insights.
Select tools according to the stage in your innovation process:
This stage involves identifying the exact FLW issue that you want to solve, mapping it and understanding the issue at hand as well as it’s connection to the broader system. Based on that analysis a conceptual solution is developed.
Select tools:
- Brainstorm 🌶 ⏱
- Tomorrow Headlines 🌶 ⏱
- Visualisation Tools Techniques 🌶 ⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Future Scenarios 🌶🌶 ⏱
During prototyping the conceptual solution is translated into a first test in a controlled environment, a prototype.
Select tools:
- Brainstorm 🌶 ⏱
- Visualisation Tools Techniques 🌶 ⏱
- Systemic Innovation Readiness 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Future Scenarios 🌶🌶 ⏱
Learnings from the prototype building are the basis for further developing the solution into marketable end product or service.
This usually happens through multiple iterations of demonstration, adapting and testing in (semi-)controlled environments.
Select tools:
Only after the final product or service is ready and tested in an uncontrolled environment, it can be brought to the market at a larger scale.
Now the focus is on reducing the production costs by optimising the processes and increasing quantities.
Select tools:
- Brainstorm 🌶 ⏱
- Visualisation Tools Techniques 🌶 ⏱
- Competitor Mapping 🌶 ⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
Goal: Think Ahead and Find Solutions to Address Challenges/Problems
During the entire innovation process there will be challenges arising and different choices to make on how to tackle these challenges. Additionally some of these tools stimulate foresight so that you can anticipate certain issues rather than solve them after they presented themselves.
Select tools according to the stage in your innovation process:
This stage involves identifying the exact FLW issue that you want to solve, mapping it and understanding the issue at hand as well as it’s connection to the broader system. Based on that analysis a conceptual solution is developed.
Select tools:
- Brainstorm 🌶 ⏱
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Actor Mapping 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Force Field Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
During prototyping the conceptual solution is translated into a first test in a controlled environment, a prototype.
Select tools:
- Brainstorm 🌶 ⏱
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Systemic Innovation Readiness 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
Learnings from the prototype building are the basis for further developing the solution into marketable end product or service.
This usually happens through multiple iterations of demonstration, adapting and testing in (semi-)controlled environments.
Select tools:
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Systemic Innovation Readiness 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Problem Tree Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Force Field Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
Only after the final product or service is ready and tested in an uncontrolled environment, it can be brought to the market at a larger scale.
Now the focus is on reducing the production costs by optimising the processes and increasing quantities.
Select tools:
- Brainstorm 🌶 ⏱
- SWOT 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Problem Tree Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Actor Mapping 🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Competitor Mapping 🌶 ⏱
- Causal Loop Diagram 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Systems Mapping 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
Goal: Plan & Implement/Apply Knowledge
Translating good ideas and new knowledge into actionable plans will be needed at the end of each iterative round of demonstration and testing as well as in the commercialisation and scale-up phase.
Select tools according to the stage in your innovation process:
This stage involves identifying the exact FLW issue that you want to solve, mapping it and understanding the issue at hand as well as it’s connection to the broader system. Based on that analysis a conceptual solution is developed.
Select tools:
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Future Scenarios 🌶🌶 ⏱
During prototyping the conceptual solution is translated into a first test in a controlled environment, a prototype.
Select tools:
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Multi Criteria Decision Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Theory of Systems Change 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Collaboration Model 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Future Scenarios 🌶🌶 ⏱
Learnings from the prototype building are the basis for further developing the solution into marketable end product or service.
This usually happens through multiple iterations of demonstration, adapting and testing in (semi-)controlled environments.
Select tools:
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Theory of Systems Change 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Collaboration Model 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Problem Tree Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱
Only after the final product or service is ready and tested in an uncontrolled environment, it can be brought to the market at a larger scale.
Now the focus is on reducing the production costs by optimising the processes and increasing quantities.
Select tools:
- Scenario Planning 🌶 ⏱⏱
- Fish bowl 🌶 ⏱
- Multi Criteria Decision Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Theory of Systems Change 🌶🌶🌶 ⏱⏱
- Collaboration Model 🌶🌶 ⏱
- Problem Tree Analysis 🌶🌶 ⏱

Contact
Lisa Van den Bossche
Scientific researcher ILVO
Lisa.vandenbossche@ilvo.vlaandere.be
+32(0)477310615
Download all tools with just one click!

Here you can download all tools (PDF) with just one click (80 pages).
Latest news


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