Creating Collaboration and Specialisation: A Matrix Model for CoProduction
In a recent conversation with a friend in the voluntary sector, we found ourselves reflecting on one of the most persistent challenges in collaborative environments: how to get people to coproduce effectively—sharing ideas, avoiding duplication, and building something greater than the sum of its parts—while also allowing individuals or groups to specialise and go deep in specific areas. The answer we kept circling back to was simple, elegant, and proven: the matrix structure.
This article outlines how a structured matrix can support coproduction through vertical specialisation and horizontal integration—allowing small, dynamic teams to operate with both autonomy and awareness of the wider system.
1. The Matrix Model: Vertical Themes, Horizontal Communication
Imagine a grid.
Vertically, you have Workstreams or Themes—specific areas of focus such as:
Housing and Homelessness
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Youth Engagement
Environmental Sustainability
Digital Inclusion
Each of these themes holds its own series of meetings where a small, focused group delves deeply into issues, opportunities, and actions relevant to their domain. These groups act as specialist silos, allowing for deep work and dedicated focus.
Horizontally, there is a system of crosscutting communication and information sharing, coordinated at regular intervals through structured meeting rounds. After each round:
All minutes and key takeaways are collected centrally.
These are then collated, summarised, and redistributed to every participant across all workstreams.
2. The Cyclical Rounds of Communication and Learning
Each meeting round follows a consistent pattern:
Round 1: Each theme meets independently and discusses its priorities and ideas.
PostRound 1: Minutes from all theme meetings are collected and shared with everyone.
Round 2: Each theme reconvenes, now fully informed about what every other team discussed in Round 1. This creates a foundation for interdependency awareness, aligning efforts and avoiding duplication.
PostRound 2: Updated records are again collected, collated, and redistributed.
This process continues through Rounds 3, 4, and 5, building a cocreated, coherent strategy with shared understanding and alignment.
3. Oversight, Administration, and Flow of Information
This model only works effectively with two key support functions in place:
a. Central Oversight or Steering Group
A lighttouch governance layer ensures:
Themes stay aligned with the shared purpose.
Emerging gaps or overlaps between themes are addressed.
Resources or blockers are escalated and resolved.
b. Administrative Backbone
An admin or coordination team handles:
Minutetaking, collation, and distribution.
Scheduling and synchronising meetings across themes.
Ensuring version control and accessibility of shared documents.
This backbone is essential for enabling agility without confusion and for turning the matrix from a theoretical model into a working reality.
4. The Outcome: CoProduction with Integration and Specialisation
By the time teams reach Round 4 or 5:
Each workstream will have developed a strong, focused plan grounded in deep thematic expertise.
Each team member will also be aware of how their plan aligns, connects, and supports the work of others.
The result is a holistic, integrated strategy that combines:
Specialist focus (vertical)
Collaborative alignment (horizontal)
This enables small teams to stay nimble while still being connected to the big picture.
5. Why This Works
It avoids large, slowmoving committees by keeping teams small and focused.
It ensures collective intelligence by circulating knowledge.
It enables realtime learning and adaptation, as each round builds on the last.
It reinforces a culture of transparency, trust, and cocreation.
Conclusion
This matrix model is a powerful structure for any organisation or coalition aiming to balance collaborative coproduction with thematic specialisation. With careful facilitation, administrative support, and a commitment to shared learning, it becomes a simple yet scalable way to generate integrated, inclusive strategies that work across silos while respecting the depth of each domain.
It’s a living system—agile, informed, and joinedup—and it might just be the framework your next collaborative project needs.