Societal challenges are inherently complex societal problems that cannot be solved using traditional innovation management approaches. Instead, collaborative governance is needed to enable the inter-organizational arrangements that are required to address a societal challenge. In this study we explore, applying a design perspective, which governance practices are used and how they are used to foster the necessary collaborations in the context of such complex innovation. Our case study of the societal challenge related to the Swedish traffic safety environment reveals two linked design processes in which the governance practices are used for continuous re-framing and re-designing of the collaboration as well as the societal challenge. We propose a model for collaborative governance in the context of a complex innovation that highlights path-creating, identity creating and meaning making as central practices that shape the dynamic governance process. On this basis, we discuss the implications for managing a societal challenge, and we emphasize a design-based approach for organizing complex collaborative behavior in a societal challenge, also acknowledging a societal challenge as a wicked problem.