Interviewee: F5, PBA
Role: facilitator
Date: —
Interviewer: —
Interview Summary
Personas
Key roles in any partnership span three levels: strategic leadership to endorse the overall direction, operational experts to deliver on commitments, and facilitators or support staff to keep communication flowing and handle administration. When there’s no team, the partnership architect fills all the gaps — including the unglamorous ones.
Facilitator role
I prefer the term “partnership architect” over facilitator or broker. A facilitator is often seen as someone who helps people communicate in the room, while a broker suggests making connections or reselling — neither fully captures what I do. A partnership architect sets up the structure for the partnership itself. My role is to help organizations come together around a shared objective. In my current role at ISO, I also act as a broker — proactively identifying relevant partners based on the organization’s strategic priorities, mapping their partnering capacity, and structuring a portfolio of partnerships that serve different objectives without creating conflicts between them.
Facilitator s relation to decision makers project leaders
Strategic decisions belong to the partners — they have to own the direction, otherwise they won’t stay in the partnership. My decision-making role is different: I bring a framework and good practice for how to partner effectively, and help partners make their own choices within that. For instance, whether to sign an MOU or keep things informal depends on the situation — but you have to make a deliberate choice either way. On capturing best practices: there’s a role for the architect to share experience and set guardrails early on, but the most meaningful good practices come from the partners themselves working through real problems together. Both matter.
First phase start
It starts with translating the initiating party’s goals — often framed in their own language and interests — into something all partners can agree on and contribute to. An NGO and a multinational will look at the same objective very differently, so part of the work is finding the version they can jointly own, with each bringing complementary strengths.
Second phase understand
The biggest investment of time and energy is in the setup phase. Once the framework is in place — shared objectives, clear roles, agreed ways of working — it becomes a management process, which can be hosted in different ways. The least effective model is when one of the partners hosts and controls the whole thing, as the power imbalance tends to undermine genuine collaboration. Governance and alignment are ongoing, not just a start-up activity. It begins with having the right people involved — not just the right level, but the right individuals, since personal compatibility matters. From there, it’s about clear expectations, shared responsibilities and risks, and a structured rhythm of check-ins where everyone knows in advance what will be discussed. Surprises undermine trust. The process itself also needs to be clear: will there be a secretariat, is it a fixed group or growing, is it bilateral or multilateral? Get those things settled early — but make the partners feel like they own the answers.
Fourth phase experiment cocreate
No response recorded.
Fifth phase transfer
No response recorded.
Sixth phase finish
On what makes innovation partnerships succeed: the innovation itself is rarely the problem — scaling it is. Most innovations stall because not enough effort goes into scaling. Bringing in impact investors early, particularly those who also provide business advice, can help bridge that gap.
Tools used
The framework I use covers six areas: intent, architecture, execution, growth, assessment, and capacity. Every partnership needs to work through each of these, though the answers will differ — no two partnerships are the same, but the questions you ask always are. In theory, you move through them in order; in practice, partnerships sometimes start from an existing relationship and work backwards. That can work, but it’s not ideal.
Monitoring progress
Progress is monitored both quantitatively, through KPIs, and qualitatively — including internally, by assessing whether your own organisation is actually getting what it needs and whether there are any unintended consequences, like doors being opened or closed.
Collaboration
Capacity is a continuous consideration — both how many partnerships an organisation can sustain, and how many people are needed within each one. If the people who need to deliver are overloaded, the partnership won’t function. On information and communication: a shared folder is rarely enough. What makes partnerships really work is human interaction — regular meetings, open channels, active information management. Tools like Teams, WhatsApp, and email are useful, but you can’t just depend on them.
Specific painpoints
A key pain point is language: innovators can be so deep in their subject that it becomes hard for potential partners to engage. Another is that entrepreneurs naturally want to move fast and independently, which is fundamentally at odds with the pace and shared ownership that partnerships require. And in certain contexts — like working with governments or the UN — procurement rules add another layer of complexity, requiring creative solutions just to enable the right conversations.
Room for improvement
Partners change over time, and that’s something many organizations overlook — they write open-ended contracts when they should be time-bound or tied to specific objectives. That way, when a more relevant partner comes along, or when the work is done, you can part ways without animosity while keeping the relationship intact. What’s still missing is a smarter way to scope for partners. If you have clear criteria for what you’re looking for, being able to quickly identify the most relevant organisations is a real gap — and one where AI and new technology could make a meaningful difference.
Platform requirements
You also have to be ready for change throughout. Personnel turns over, and external events can shift the direction entirely. Good documentation is essential for continuity — when a new person steps in, there should be a clear record of what was agreed, what’s been done, and why. For digital tools, the most useful categories are: tools to assess an organisation’s overall partnering strategy, tools to evaluate individual partnerships, and information management tools. One area still underserved is partner scoping — using criteria to identify the right organisations, which is where AI could add real value. The real need isn’t more theory — there are already plenty of models and frameworks out there. What’s actually needed is the practical work: taking objectives, finding the right partners, and facilitating their collaboration. In that sense, both words — broker and facilitator — capture something real. Brokering is about finding organisations and convincing them to work together; facilitating is about making that collaboration actually function. Those are the two core needs.