Climate change adaptation research seeks to identify and evaluate policies, measures, and strategies to reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity to climate change impacts.1 The importance of engaging communities and decision makers in this work is now widely recognized.2, 3, 4 On normative grounds, this is part of good governance, and on instrumental grounds, it is believed to be necessary for effective adaptation policy implementation and programming.5, 6 Indeed, adaptation has been described as a ‘wicked problem,’ involving complex interactions among societal and natural factors, where facts are uncertain, values in dispute, and decisions urgent.7 In this context, there are rarely single adaptation solutions; rather, adaptation involves multiple trade‐offs and spans multiple institutions and scales, with diverse perspectives on what constitutes ‘good’ adaptation.7, 8, 9 Central to addressing such problems is the production of knowledge in the context of its application, taking into account different forms of understanding, building upon knowledge of local conditions and decision‐making processes, and involving multiple disciplines and a variety of stakeholders.10, 11, 12 This process is essential for creating ‘usable science’ or ‘practice‐orientated research’ that is explicitly designed to inform adaptation decision making and policy, and to identify and support effective adaptation strategies.13, 14, 15, 16