co:dify /ˈkəʊ.dɨˌfaɪ/
“To reduce to a code, to arrange into a code.
To collect and arrange in a systematic form.”
co:dify is a consulting boutique and a multidisciplinary network of experienced innovation researchers and practitioners with a focus on ‘change by design’. Our experts analyze the innovation approaches and practices from the most progressive companies in the world and co:dify them into learning formats and innovation programs. This enables us to provide our clients the latest thinking, frameworks, tools and facilitation for a sustainable self-help in developing their innovation culture.
Our story started in 2015 and even before, when Jan Schmiedgen, Ingo Rauth, Kira Krämer, and a group of experienced design thinking afficionados and innovation scholars from different networks and universities (mainly HPI Potsdam, Chalmers, and Zeppelin University) started working together on a wide variety of innovation projects. Some of the early project teams we assembled, grew together and ran fantastic projects full of fun and client impact. Most of the time our loosely coupled teams were hired and compiled for being the ‘experts’ a.k.a. ‘secret weapons’ for design thinking and Lean Startup-related challenges (e.g. introduction, legitimization, scaling, and running pilot projects). As such they often worked with educational providers and consultancies (corporate-internal and external ones) that had no such expertise in-house yet.
Over the years however we realized two things: 1) our intermediaries often did only share aspects of our thinking and working philosophy. Thus we found ourselves in lot’s of innovation theater and the promotion of quick-fix recipies as well as managment fashions. 2) Furthermore, the organizations we were deployed to rarely had innovation support structures in place to make both training as well as project work a success for the long term.
So we decided to switch gears: we reduced working with intermediaries to only the ones that are really close to our philosophy of systemic innovation; we also focused on helping non-quick-fix-oriented organizations to co:develop the neccessary ‘basics of innovation strategy and management practices’ before they would rush headlong into another series of design sprints, premature innovation training programs and the like. This is also were we made the decision to create a brand that reflects our aspiration: accompanying and supporting bigger organizations in experimenting with new ‘agile’ ways of working; analyzing how these fit best with the well-functioning practices they already have (as opposed to roll-out one management fashion after another); and then co:difying the best of two worlds into a tailored innovation approach that acknowledges where they come from and fits their (industry) context.
A boutique in size — a network powerhouse in expertise and impact capability.
Today, »we« means our core team of partners: Jan Schmiedgen, Christian Rudolph, and Elias Barrasch. We in the core team give our best, to lay the ground with our clients, before we deploy any of our network experts into their innovation project teams — as they are far too valuable to be consumed in innovation theater and poorly structured programs. It is still a long journey … Onwards!