Participatory approaches are intended to be a useful tool in understanding complex systems, while at the same time trying to favour the development of processes linked to social problems.
For their part, co-creation methods linked to visual thinking tools facilitate the pooling of different perspectives provided by different stakeholders around a common challenge. The different experiences from which this methodological proposal arises have made it possible to verify how the follow-up of a structured procedure provides further indicators and empirical evidence that favour decision-making in the generation of public policies around energy transitions and sustainability
problems.
This paper structures the methodology used over five years of application within the Transitions Hub project. Despite the existence of elements that can undergo variations of different types, especially due to differences in the context of application, the aforementioned methodological structure constitutes a standard that can be replicated in different environments that have in common the existence of a problem or challenge that can be faced from different fronts. The participatory processes carried out from 2014 to the present 2019 show a refinement of the process to constitute such a standard. The Visual Thinking techniques that have been applied in the workshops during these five years, given the incipience of the discipline, will be expanded in the future, as well as the modalities of data analysis and information dissemination. Nevertheless, the conformation of a methodological pattern supposes a milestone for the establishment of this approach to complex problem solving.