Designing strategy engagement that captured 12,000 voices
The University of Manchester
Services: Engagement architecture, narrative foresight, co‑creation design
Overview
Eight weeks after Professor Duncan Ivison joined as President and Vice‑Chancellor, the University began work on its next ten‑year strategy: Manchester 2035 – From Manchester for the world. I was responsible for creating and delivering the end‑to‑end communications and engagement approach, from the initial framing of the conversation through to workshops, a new digital hub and an immersive pop‑up exhibition and online Ideas Lab.
The process brought more than 12,000 stakeholders into shaping the direction and generated thousands of structured contributions that informed the final strategy.
Case study
A ten‑year university strategy presents a communication challenge: the horizon feels distant, the future can seem abstract and engagement fatigue is common in large institutions. At the same time, this was a pivotal moment – a new Vice‑Chancellor wanted to move quickly to an agreed institutional direction within 12 months.
The University community needed to feel that the strategy was genuinely co‑created, not written behind closed doors and I had eight weeks to design and launch Phase 1 of engagement.
Challenge
The engagement approach needed to:
Make a ten‑year horizon feel tangible and relevant
Reach staff, students, alumni and partners at scale
Cut through survey fatigue and generic consultation formats
Demonstrate genuine openness to challenge and new ideas
Generate structured, usable insight that could inform real decisions
Move at pace, while aligning closely with leadership messaging and public positioning from day one
Approach
1. Use futures thinking to unlock imagination
We began with narrative foresight – for each emerging strategic theme, the University Leadership Team outlined three distinct future scenarios – vivid, sometimes provocative worlds designed to spark imagination and debate.
Participants were invited to consider questions such as: What could the student or colleague experience look like in each future? How might research or culture shift? How far and how fast should the institution move from where it is today? This shifted the tone from survey to collective imagination and grounded long‑term ambition in real possibilities, with thousands engaging across workshops and digital feedback.
2. Design engagement as an experience
Phase 1 combined:
Themed in‑person workshops
A dedicated Manchester 2035 web presence
Online feedback tools
Leadership‑authored viewpoint blogs
Video content to frame the narrative
The website acted as the point of truth, hosting themes, booking links, feedback submission and consistent calls to action. Workshops were structured around dialogue rather than presentation, with senior leaders facilitating alongside participants to signal shared ownership. By the end of Phase 1, more than 6,000 stakeholders had taken part, 1,500 workshop bookings were logged and 2,900+ online contributions were submitted.
3. Move from consultation to co‑creation
Phase 2 needed to demonstrate that feedback had been heard and translated. Within six weeks, I led the design of the Manchester 2035 Ideas Lab – a modular, immersive pop‑up exhibition in the Nancy Rothwell Building.
The exhibition presented emerging “Leaps” and foundational themes using concise, accessible copy and prompts to rank ambition and surface barriers, integrating QR codes. Tablets linked to a digital engagement platform. The same content architecture underpinned both the physical and digital spaces so participants could explore independently, engage with sprint members, vote on ideas and continue conversations online, with managers encouraged to bring teams and student reps mobilising peer groups.
Impact
Across two key phases:
12,000+ participants engaged
Thousands of structured contributions informed the strategy
An immersive exhibition and digital platform were designed and launched in six weeks
Engagement extended beyond traditional surveys to experiential and hybrid formats
Stakeholders could see how their input shaped evolving proposals
The strategy process moved from kick‑off to launch within a one‑year timeline
This process built ownership early – by the time the final strategy launched, the community recognised the language and direction as something they had helped shape.
Why this matters
Manchester 2035 demonstrates how futures thinking, experiential design and structured evaluation can turn consultation into genuine co‑creation in higher education – even under significant time pressure. It shows what is possible when engagement architecture is treated as a strategic asset rather than an afterthought.