Purpose: Surviving cancer during childhood imposes a number of difficulties later in life. Peer support has been recognised as an important contributor to health and well-being but empirical evidence that could guide development of peer support programs for school aged children is scarce. The process presented here is focused on generic exploration of children’s needs and expectations related to peer support innovations to promote health and wellbeing of children with cancer. The purpose of this study is to establish a participatory innovation process that grasps the underlying behaviours and goals of children that will affect the design of a digital peer support service.

Methods: Focus group interview is a child-friendly technique that promotes participation and access to children’s perspectives, insights and experiences related to their health. Healthy children 8–12 years of age were recruited from a local elementary school. Focus groups (n = 5 groups) were carried out in two sessions for each group (n = 4 children per group) with an interval of 1–2 weeks. Adjustments were made between each focus group to adapt the meeting structure to a level commensurate with the children’s experience, age and abilities and to focus discussions on innovation incentives related to a digital peer support service.

Results: The adaptation process involved adjustments of the focus group structure to match children in the selected age group and to the aims of the innovation process. A mixture of informative and creative techniques (open questions, brainstorming, drawing, photography) assisted the children in talking and expressing themselves. The children were pleased to participate and wanted to meet again in this kind of study group. The adapted focus group sessions are now being used in the research and innovation process with children (8–12 yrs) with experience of cancer treatment.

Conclusion: The final focus group structure capture children’s perspectives for the design of a digital peer support service.