This technical submission was created collaboratively, by a group of researchers united by shared interests and experiences in conducting research online using the Change Laboratory methodology. Our current contribution seeks to inform and engage colleagues, setting out a collaborative response to a relatively unsophisticated yet reflexive and timely question: Why do an online Change Laboratory?

To us, it seems that this question could be interpreted in multiple ways: why should people become involved in an online Change Laboratory, as discrete from an onsite Change Laboratory; why should people become involved in an online Change Laboratory, as discrete from using other online options; or why should people become involved in any type of research-intervention at all. As individual researcher-interventionists, who meet regularly to share our experiences and interests in online Change Laboratories, we also interpret this question in multiple ways, and we hope that our collaborative response reflects our diversity of thought (a closing section of this paper described how we worked in its production). We seek to encourage colleagues to further explore these and other questions about online Change Laboratories, and we call for others to join us in purposeful conversations to advance the methodology.