Co-production in research is not only encouraged but rapidly becoming a required consideration in health research funding. The challenge in defining co-production continues and the misapplication of co-production has led to growing calls for an emphasis on operationalising the values and principles of co-production in research. This commentary considers Rycroft-Malone and colleagues' key messages about co-production being more than a set of activities, and reflects on the challenges within the academic sector when applying co-production. The Co- producing Meaningful Principles and Sharing Standards (Co-MPASS) tool offers a way to consider co-production values in the early stages of collaboration. Rather than a stand-alone tool for co-production, it is intended to be used with established methods and published toolboxes to emphasise co-production principles through reflection, conversation, documentation, and learning.