Addressing sustainability challenges requires collaboration and the inclusion of diverse actors in decision- and policy-making. Knowledge co-production holds potential to bring diverse actors together to jointly develop pathways for change-making. Yet, legitimacy and effectiveness concerns prevail: whose knowledges, interests, goals, and values shape pathways development, and can such processes lead to action and thus close the implementation gap? To address these concerns, this PhD thesis sets out to transparently unpack knowledge co-production with a focus on process design and evaluation. It aims to better understand the emergence of changes at individual and collective levels (e.g., competency development, trust- and relationship-building) and their role for change-making. While The Design Paper and The Learning Paper focus on a knowledge co-production process on the island of Öland, Sweden, The Walking Paper and The Living Lab Paper put insights from the Öland case in conversation with knowledge co-production processes in other multifunctional landscapes. The Design Paper outlines activities for moving from understanding water scarcity issues on Öland and actors’ different interests, goals, and values towards developing strategies centering collective change-making. The Learning Paper traces actors’ relational learning and the development of competencies in sustainability. The Walking Paper presents walking workshops as a method for better dealing with plurality in knowledge co-production by outlining activities for surfacing, sharing, and making sense of place-embedded knowledges, care, and agency. The Living Lab Paper documents effects of framing and process design elements on connecting knowledges and developing feasible strategies with implementation potential. A key contribution of this thesis is its insights into activities for grappling with complexity, dealing with plurality, handling tensions, and connecting with agency. It also leverages nurturing relations as a driver of change at both individual and collective levels. To further inform the theory and practice of knowledge co-production, this thesis suggests ideas for embedding knowledge co-production in real-world laboratories, bridging organizations, and the work of public agencies.