The concise workbook provided a practical, step-by-step approach that participants found accessible and meaningful. Participants who were new to research — including Lived Experience staff, honours students and service workers — reported that the structured approach gave them greater confidence that they could learn research skills and complete their projects. Many preferred the concise workbook for everyday use, while the full toolkit and workbook provided important background context.

The greatest impact from the pilot came not from the concise workbook alone, but from combining it with research mentoring (one-on-one and group) and research skills workshops delivered by a Lived Experience researcher. Three workshops were provided covering grey literature searching, peer reviewed literature searching, and synthesising literature. Without this accompanying support, the workbook's impact was limited, particularly for Lived Experience participants integrating their discipline perspective with research skills for the first time.

Research projects that engaged people with Lived Experience from conception produced more meaningful, collaborative and ownership-driven outcomes than those that brought Lived Experience involvement in at a later stage.

A recurring theme across all pilot projects was that research teams frequently do not consider Lived Experience involvement until a project is already underway. The workbook exercises explicitly challenged researchers to centre Lived Experience from the very beginning — including clarifying what type of Lived Experience was relevant to the project, identifying which voices might be missing, and ensuring the research question was validated as important to the community it concerned. This early framing was described as a game-changer for team culture and project direction.

Participants — particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and emerging researchers — required clearer signposting, digital links and visual markers to move between the concise workbook and the full toolkit.

The pilot identified that readers frequently moved between the full toolkit and the concise workbook to access context and definitions. Without clear navigation pathways between the two documents, this was difficult to do efficiently — particularly for those for whom English is a second language. Participants recommended digital hyperlinks, pop-out boxes and visual markers to improve ease of use. The concise workbook should also include prompts that explicitly encourage flexible use, making clear that teams do not need to complete every exercise or follow a strictly linear sequence.

Participants valued that the workbook explicitly named and defined Lived Experience practices, values and terminology that are often assumed or passed over in research settings.

Both Lived Experience and non-Lived Experience participants found that the workbook's inclusion of key concepts — such as the Lived Experience Intention and Impact Statement, definitions of designated Lived Experience roles, and the spectrum of Lived Experience — provided clarity and a shared starting point. This was especially valuable when working with teams that included people from different professional, personal and cultural backgrounds. The definitions were described as tangible, strengths-focused and grounded in real-world application.

Engagement of organisational leaders in workbook exercises produced meaningful personal realisations about the value of Lived Experience perspectives, and demonstrated the toolkit's potential to drive cultural change beyond research teams.

Feedback from Wellways' Executive Sponsor highlighted that the workbook exercises — particularly the Lived Experience Intention and Impact Statement — prompted genuine reflection about organisational values and the practical steps needed to embed them. This confirmed that the toolkit is not only a research tool but a vehicle for broader organisational and cultural transformation, with potential applicability to service design, delivery and management.

Feedback from across the pilot — including from the CEOs of the Collaborative Centre, a Lived Experience leader, and intersectional experts — highlighted that the program's key concepts, definitions and ways of working are important across the broader mental health ecosystem, including service design, delivery, management and practice. A co-created 12-month to 5-year implementation plan was recommended to support public launch, dissemination, and connection with university, state and national grant bodies.

Across multiple projects, the Lived Experience Intention and Impact Statement (Workbook Exercise 1/Action 1) was consistently identified as one of the most valuable tools. It helped project teams clarify key concepts, identify whose voices were missing, and ensure research design genuinely centred the needs and priorities of those most impacted. It was described as setting the tone for the rest of the research process and supporting teams to move from assumption-based practice to intentional, purposeful inquiry.

Participants identified that efficient signposting and digital links between the concise workbook and the full toolkit/workbook are essential, particularly for people who speak English as a second language or are new to research. Feedback also recommended reordering the research stages: several Actions from Stage One (Connect and Identify) should be moved into Stage Two (Power and Decision-Making) to more accurately reflect how Lived Experience expertise, intersectionality, accessibility and team wellbeing are intrinsic to power-sharing rather than preliminary steps.