primary use

Use the Funding Application Checklist to screen, compare, and assess project applications for PCD readiness and design quality — across problem framing, research, co-design, prototyping, and implementation. It can be applied in either of two ways:

• With selected criteria integrated into your existing application framework
• As a standalone checklist alongside your review process, without creating a separate assessment layer

Funders and donors are uniquely positioned to signal what quality people-centered design looks like across the projects they fund — and to support implementing teams in delivering on it. The PCD Framework can support this across the grant cycle:

• Assess the quality of PCD practice in funding requests — including how, for example, affected communities and users have shaped the problem framing, the proposed solution, and the implementation approach.
• Monitor PCD implementation quality and rigour over time — using the process checklist to assess whether PCD practices are being completed to a high standard.

how to apply it

1. 01 Open the Funding Application Checklist: Switch to "Funding Application Review" mode in the PCD Checklist. This version is structured around the 8 criteria most relevant to assessing an application before a grant is awarded.
2. 02 Screen each criterion against the application: Each checklist item includes the evidence or documentation you should expect to see. Use these as the basis for your assessment — not as pass/fail, but as a structured quality lens.
3. 03 Identify gaps and flag conditions: Where criteria are absent or weak, this can inform grant conditions, capacity-building requirements, or technical assistance referrals — rather than automatic rejection. Please note that, depending on your project context and the framework in place, not all criteria must or can be met.
4. 04 Use the process checklist for mid-term and final reviews: The full end-to-end checklist can be used during implementation reviews to assess whether PCD commitments made at application have been carried through in practice.

primary use

Use the framework either as an end-to-end Process Checklist or as an integrated approach — picking the PCD practices that strengthen the project you already have. The right choice depends on your project's stage, scope, and existing process.

The framework is most valuable for implementing teams when used as a live planning and quality tool — not consulted once at the start and then shelved. At each phase, you can either work through the corresponding section of the end-to-end Process Checklist, or pick the Ingredients & Sparks relevant to that phase and embed them in your existing project. Both routes use the same underlying content:

• Funding applications: Use the Funding Application Checklist — or surface the relevant Ingredients & Sparks in your proposal narrative — to articulate and evidence each PCD step before submission to funders or review panels.
• Before user research: Work through Phase A of the checklist — or pick the relevant Ingredients and Sparks — to confirm PCD governance is in place before research begins.
• During research: Work through Phase B of the checklist — or pull in the relevant Ingredients and Sparks — to ensure the right stakeholder groups are included, participation is ensured, user research plans are documented, and synthesis insights inform decision-making.
• Co-design & testing: Work through Phase C of the checklist — or apply selected Ingredients and Sparks — to ensure solutions are iterated with users, not just presented to them.
• Implementation & scale: Work through Phase D of the checklist — or selected Ingredients and Sparks — to ensure people-centered design informs the adaptation and implementation of the solution as it moves to pilot and scale.
• Capacity-building: Use the checklist criteria alongside the Ingredients & Sparks to build team understanding of what good looks like at each phase — useful for onboarding new team members and coaching partners.

External expertise is one of the most expensive line items in a PCD process — and teams often feel stuck once experts leave. Use expert support where it most affects method quality, and build your own capability everywhere else, so the skills stay with the team after the engagement ends. Every checklist item carries an Expert recommended or Team-led indicator to support this planning. As a rule of thumb:

• Phase A: Expert: designing the kick-off and shared-direction format. Team: convening the PCD Leadership Group, stakeholder mapping, ethics and safeguarding submissions.
• Phase B: Expert: research design, discussion guides, and synthesis methods — where teams most often get stuck. Team: recruitment, interviewing after training, documentation, validation workshops.
• Phase C: Expert: co-design facilitation design, prototype strategy, and test protocols. Team: running sessions after coaching, building simple prototypes, collecting feedback, selection workshops.
• Phase D: Expert: scale adaptation strategy. Team: pilots, implementation planning, feedback channels, governance cadence, continuous improvement.

Build a handover and coaching component into every expert engagement, so each "expert recommended" step also transfers capability to the team.

how to apply it

1. 01 Decide your approach: end-to-end Process Checklist or integrated: Agree as a team which approach fits the project. If you are designing a new intervention with time and resources for a full PCD process, go with the end-to-end Process Checklist. If you are mid-project or working within a fixed program framework, use the Ingredients and Sparks library to pick the practices that strengthen the phases you already have.
2. 02 Plan and track phase by phase: Before each phase, review the relevant criteria or selected ingredients to plan activities, evidence, and stakeholder involvement. Check off items as they are completed and expand each one for the specific evidence artifacts needed.
3. 03 Use Ingredients & Sparks for the how: The checklist tells you what good looks like. The Ingredients & Sparks library explains how — with methods, standards, and examples for each element across all four phases.

primary use

Use the framework to create consistent PCD standards — enabling comparability, coaching, and systematic capability-building across a portfolio.

For program leads managing multiple country teams or grant cohorts, the framework provides a common standard that makes PCD quality comparable, and coachable:

• Standard-setting: Embed PCD criteria in program guidance, call documents, and partner onboarding — creating a shared baseline expectation before projects begin.
• Portfolio review & learning: Use the checklist as a standard rubric for comparing PCD quality across country teams and grant cohorts — and to track and communicate quality improvement over time, both internally and to funders.
• Coaching: Use the Ingredients & Sparks to guide coaching conversations — helping teams understand not just what to do, but how to do it well and what evidence to generate.

how to apply it

1. 01 Embed the framework in program and partner onboarding: Introduce the PCD Framework as a shared reference at the start of a program cycle or grant round — establishing a common language and standard that all country teams and partners understand from the outset.
2. 02 Use the checklist to benchmark PCD quality across teams: Run a baseline assessment with each team at program start — mapping which checklist criteria are met, partially met, or absent. This creates a comparable picture across the portfolio and identifies where support is most needed.
3. 03 Direct coaching to identified gaps: Use the Ingredients & Sparks library in coaching sessions — drawing on specific methods and examples to help teams strengthen the areas where they are weakest, rather than generic PCD training.
4. 04 Revisit at mid-term and end-of-program reviews: Re-run the checklist assessment at key review points to track progress, surface new gaps that emerged during implementation, and document PCD quality improvement across the program cohort.

primary use

Use the framework to assess quality, identify gaps, and prioritize support — giving teams a structured view of where their PCD process is strong and where it needs investment. The expert-recommended / team-led indicators on each checklist item show where your involvement adds most value — and where to coach rather than deliver, so capability stays with the team.

PCD experts are often the bridge between the principle of people-centered design and its practical reality in resource-constrained health programs. The framework gives that bridge structure — making it possible to assess, explain, and improve PCD quality in a way that is legible to both design practitioners and program leads:

• PCD assessment: Run the checklist with a team at engagement start to map what is in place, what is missing, and what the biggest risks are — grounding support in evidence rather than assumption.
• Facilitation guide: Use the Ingredients & Sparks as a facilitation resource — explaining what good looks like at each phase to non-design audiences in accessible, concrete terms.
• Quality tracking: Revisit the checklist at key milestones — after user research, co-design, and before pilot launch — to assess whether PCD quality has been maintained as the project evolves.

how to apply it

1. 01 Run a baseline PCD assessment with the implementing team: Open the PCD Process Checklist and work through it collaboratively with the team — marking what is in place, what is partially addressed, and what is absent. This becomes the shared starting point for all subsequent support.
2. 02 Prioritize where to focus support based on the PCD assessment: With the PCD assessment complete, identify the criteria with the greatest gap and highest risk — these are where expert support will have the most impact. Use this to scope the engagement clearly.
3. 03 Use Ingredients & Sparks to guide and coach at each phase: As the project progresses, use the Ingredients & Sparks as a coaching reference — explaining what good looks like at each step, what evidence to generate, and how to involve the right people at the right moments.
4. 04 Revisit the checklist at each major milestone to track progress: After user research, after co-design, and before pilot — re-run the relevant checklist sections with the team to assess progress, surface new gaps, and adjust the support plan. This creates a documented record of PCD quality improvement over time.