Structured Collaboration: Workshopping Skills for Experience Design

Editor's Notes

• #2: Lets boil it down to the bare minimum – collaborating with others with structure applied to help achieve goals effectively.
• #3: 4 years in UX, before in higher ed. Core of the work is the same: advocating for people, designing and architecting information. One of my favorite things to do in experience design is to facilitate workshops, it takes me back to my glory days.
• #4: Workshops are a framework that can you can accommodate to your unique needs.
• #5: Even if you don’t love facilitating workshops like I do, you need workshopping skills to get your jobs done. Being able to design and facilitate workshops is a core competency for UX. Why?
• #6: Nothing else can compete on efficiency and value.
• #7: Levels the playing field by including everyone. Less likely for disparate mental models to exist afterwards.
• #8: We all live our own truths and our own realities. Volume helps good stuff rise to the top.
• #9: People “check out” in meetings and through a more drawn out process. Workshops are novel and more likely for people to be engaged. Everyone gets a chance to contribute when ideas are still rough and easy to change. Again, more ideas lead to better ideas.
• #10: So while it may not be feasible for every project, you should be able to pull your workshop skills out anytime. Good thing is, you likely already have some of the skills you need to workshop effectively.
• #11: You already have the design skills it takes to pull off an effective workshop. know when to use it, what your “user goals” are, etc design the process, this is an experience in itself You’ll also need people skills. You already have these too I hope or no one could stand to be around you. - owning the room is knowing when to check people, when to let the group drive uncovering obstacles, saying what needs to be said, guiding democracy letting go of that power Let’s walk through what these really mean.
• #12: First, you’ll need to make a plan, which you should already be able to do. Type A = architect, type B = designer.
• #13: You really just need the 5 W’s.
• #14: Depends largely on your goals (WHY) and format (WHAT). We should really start with WHY, but I like the alliteration. Regardless, there some rules of thumb.
• #15: Don’t invite everyone related to the project. If you need their buy-in and/or they have insight, get them involved.
• #16: Jeff Bezzos two pizza rule. Too many people can make it more difficult to facilitate, also GROUPTHINK. You can count Big Benitos if you need to. Be sure to break people into smaller groups if you use the Big Benito limit.
• #17: HIPPO = highest paid person’s opinion. Anyone with significant power to influence.
• #18: Sometimes you can’t get away from involving hippos because POLITICS.
• #19: This is a biggie, which we’ll explore in further detail in a minute.
• #20: But at the very least, you need an agenda. Sandwich method.
• #21: Can anyone guess?
• #22: Short answer = when you need to figure something out. Even shorter answer = it depends.
• #24: You need space to move, group up and separate, get creative with materials. And you need walls to document. Otherwise, get creative.
• #25: Like I said, this should really be first. What is the point?
• #26: Ultimately you need one (or more) of these.
• #27: Don’t take on too much.
• #28: Now that you have a plan, you need to design your process.
• #30: It depends. Don’t cram too much into one workshop. Don’t waste time on activities that don’t get you to your desired outcomes.
• #31: Like I mentioned, goals tend to fall into one of these groups. So what might that look like?
• #32: Design jam = diverge/converge in pairs or small groups. Cover story = explore branding, visioning ideas with magazine tear-outs. Around the room = everyone contributes to identify trends, gather unique insights. Empathy mapping = what are users thinking, feeling, etc. Affinity clustering = grouping stickies. Task analysis = whiteboarding concepts. Lean user testing = rough prototypes to gather user feedback. User story mapping = prioritizing stories to uncover dependencies and organize approach.
• #33: Anyone have something unique or interesting to share?
• #34: These are great resources. The internet also works. Gamestorming has an app.
• #35: Now that you have your plan and you’ve designed your process, you have to be ready to actually facilitate. This one is tough to teach.
• #36: It’s really about confidence – body language, communication. Just practice. It helps when you have more than one facilitator.
• #37: There are things you can do to help make owning the room easier. Devices? Speaking to the larger group?
• #38: Give every activity a timeframe. Keep an eye on the clock – use a timer if necessary. Add some buffer time so you can speed up or slow down as needed. Ask the group how they feel about moving on, etc.
• #39: Never dismiss theirs concerns – write it down if necessary. Smaller groups or pairs can help with those too much or not enough engagement. Corner them on break.
• #40: Another major role you play as a facilitator is to build consensus.
• #41: Define how this will work. Dot voting, thumbs up/down voting, silent voting, external rubric. Any other approaches?
• #42: Where are you on a scale of 1 to 10? Provide another opportunity to address the issue.
• #43: Participants did some important work and deserve ownership of the ideas generated. You need a record of the effort. Keep the energy going by sharing outcomes.
• #44: I don’t have to sell you on post-its notes. They’re sticky, and re-stickable. They’re the perfect size for a single idea. You can color code them. They’re easy to take along or leave them up to revisit – you can use the new post it plus app or stick them to paper and roll up.
• #45: Take it digital with these tools. Any others?
• #46: Finally, report on what you do, where you ended up, etc. Ask everyone to reflect and provide feedback, but be sure to hold a post-mortem. Revise if needed.
• #47: That’s really all it takes.