The initial phase of the project involved engaging with key stakeholders and subject matter experts intimately involved in the development of the best-in-class resources, as well as conducting a secondary research via a thorough review of relevant documents and outputs from previous engagements focused on improving access to these resources, in order to frame the challenges impacting them, identify key informants both to interview and engage with in facilitated workshop environments, and develop a research plan, discussion guide, and workshop agendas designed to elucidate actionable information for developing a prototype for a tool or resource that will aid in improving access to and implementation of these resources.

Primary research was conducted via hour-long, virtual in-depth interviews (IDIs) with key stakeholders and subject matter experts involved in developing and maintaining the best-in-class resources. These conversations helped develop an understanding of the resources, the challenges that they were developed to address, and the efforts to-date for improving accessibility and implementation of the resources. These conversations also helped to inform the design of two virtual facilitated workshops with stakeholders representing the developers of these resources as well as implementing organizations who are the target users of them; workshop participants were based in the United States, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Kenya. The workshops were designed to unpack the challenges, reframe them as opportunities, and provide participants with the opportunity to co-design potential prototypes as well as the monitoring and evaluation approaches to quantifying the impact of the tool being developed.

Insights from the key informant interviews and facilitated workshops were synthesized in order to identify key themes to inform the development of a "road map" tool that will guide potential users to the most appropriate resource based on their self-identified need(s). These insights and themes were distilled into a design brief that outlines the core needs, details, and expectations for the prototype. Learnings from the project were presented to the project teams, following which the noodle team engaged with its counterparts at Quicksand to transfer knowledge and co-develop potential approaches for developing the "road map" prototype.