Formative development method (FODEM) is a multithreaded design approach that was originated to support the design and development of various types of educational technology innovations, such as learning tools, and online study programmes. The threaded and agile structure of the approach provides flexibility to the design process. Intensive stakeholder feedback is a vital aspect of FODEM. As a formative method that emphasizes research-orientation and evaluation through the entire development process, this article proposes that FODEM is fundamentally also a research and development method. FODEM provides tools to conceptualize the development process via its distinguishing feature, namely a dynamic thread structure. FODEM can be used to manage, analyse and visualise the overall design process at different stages. FODEM can also be used to create different conceptulisations of a design process in order to identify successes and failures.