TAQA · delivered through XWORX Design Services · 2023

Turning COP28 ambition into an innovation challenge

A focused innovation challenge for TAQA that helped multidisciplinary teams move from broad COP28 ambitions to structured, developed concepts.

EnergyUAE

Quick read

How the challenge turned COP28 ambition into developed concepts

My role: Principal Designer
Key decision: The central trade-off was breadth versus depth: preserve enough space for original ideas while adding decision gates that moved teams toward concepts sponsors could understand and assess.
Evidence: The TAQA COP28 Innovation Challenge and its bootcamp were delivered in the lead-up to COP28.

At a glance

TAQA COP28 Innovation Challenge designed and facilitated
Multidisciplinary cohort guided through a structured innovation process
Teams coached from broad opportunity areas toward developed concepts
Challenge delivered in the lead-up to COP28

Project snapshot

Programme cohort photographed together in front of an innovation challenge banner — The bootcamp cohort.

Scope and attribution

Engagement summary

My role: Principal Designer
Duration: Focused innovation challenge · 2023
Mandate: Design and lead the TAQA COP28 Innovation Challenge, giving teams a practical structure for turning broad sustainability ambitions into developed concepts.
Team and collaborators: TAQA sponsors and participants, working with the XWORX delivery team.
What I owned: Challenge framing, bootcamp and workshop design, facilitation, innovation coaching, concept-development structure and design critique.
What others owned: TAQA sponsors owned the strategic priorities, concept selection and any implementation after the challenge; participants owned their team proposals.
Constraints: A fixed COP28 timetable, a multidisciplinary cohort and broad sustainability themes required enough structure for momentum without narrowing the solution space too early.
Status: The innovation challenge and bootcamp were delivered; downstream concept selection and implementation remained with TAQA.

Evidence and confidentiality

The cohort photograph is from the TAQA COP28 Innovation Challenge. Confidential challenge material, team concepts and client decisions are not reproduced.

The challenge

COP28 created urgency and visibility around sustainability, but broad ambition alone was not enough to help teams generate useful proposals. TAQA needed an innovation challenge that could focus a multidisciplinary cohort, support genuine exploration and produce concepts clear enough for sponsor consideration.

The approach

I structured the challenge around progressive decisions: frame the opportunity, examine stakeholder and system needs, generate alternatives, develop concepts, test the logic and communicate the strongest proposals.

I designed and facilitated the bootcamp with support from industry specialist Alison Cavey, coached teams through ambiguity and used critique points to keep concepts connected to the challenge rather than drifting into generic sustainability ideas.

Outputs delivered

Innovation challenge briefBootcamp curriculumWorkshop canvasesConcept-development frameworkFacilitation and critique guides

Organisational outcomes

The cohort completed a shared innovation process and developed concepts for TAQA sponsor consideration within the COP28 timetable. The engagement produced three concepts that subsequently went on to be presented at COP28 to an international audience.

Business / customer evidence

The TAQA COP28 Innovation Challenge and its bootcamp were delivered in the lead-up to COP28.
The work demonstrates concept development and presentation within the challenge. It does not claim downstream implementation or commercial results, which remained with TAQA.

Decision / trade-off

The central trade-off was breadth versus depth: preserve enough space for original ideas while adding decision gates that moved teams toward concepts sponsors could understand and assess.

What I learned / next

Time-boxed innovation works best when facilitation creates momentum without pretending certainty. Clear challenge framing and critique points made the short format more useful than an open-ended ideas workshop.

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How I work

Facilitation that creates decisions

See the behaviours behind leading teams through ambiguity and towards shared decisions.

Deeper case

A benchmarked transformation in 11 weeks

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