How do we involve beneficiaries in programme design and evaluation?

We design all our programmes internally and then consult with communities once things are pretty much finalised. I know that’s the wrong way round but we’re always working to tight funder timelines. We did a focus group at the end of our last project and got really useful feedback that would have changed how we designed things — but it was too late to act on it. How do other organisations actually build in beneficiary participation from the beginning without it slowing everything down?