Voices from the ACTIVATE Research: What We Learned from Our First Focus Groups
In the ACTIVATE project, we believe that the best tools are those built directly with the people who will use them
. In Month 3, we put this philosophy into practice during our Validation phase, where we moved the draft of our „Artisan Green and Digital Transformation Roadmap” out of the partner meetings and into the hands of real professionals.
15 Artisans, 3 Countries, One Vision
To ensure our roadmap is truly effective, we organized three focus groups—one in Italy, one in Lithuania, and one in Bulgaria. We sat down with a total of 15 participants (5 per country), ranging from traditional wood restorers and blacksmiths to photographers and building craftsmen This diverse group of artisans and self-employed workers provided the critical feedback needed to ensure our work is seamless, usable, and relevant to the daily realities of the workshop floor.
What the Community Told Us? Using questionnaires and report templates developed by our technical partner, NIKANOR, we gathered insights that are now shaping the final version of the roadmap. Key takeaways from these „Voices from the Workshop” include:
- The Need for Clarity: Artisans are often overwhelmed by technical jargon; they need digital and green transition steps explained in inclusive and accessible language.
- Practicality is King: Training must be short, fast, and on-topic to respect the busy schedules of self-employed workers.
- A Navigational Starting Point: Many participants expressed that while they want to be more sustainable and digital, they simply aren’t sure where to start.
Our roadmap addresses this by mapping out standard tasks like billing, marketing, and supply chain shortening.
Built for the Community, By the Community
This validation process ensures that the ACTIVATE project is not just a top-down initiative, but a collaborative effort. By listening to these 15 voices, we have moved beyond „generic information” to create a standardized yet adaptable guide that reflects the actual needs of the European crafts sector. As webegin collecting these results to produce the final version of the roadmap, we are confident that the final product will be a tool that artisans can trust because it was shaped by their own peers.