How can you make UX workshops and meetings more productive and engaging?

Let’s talk about Goals Alignment is essential in the hierarchy of goals - Business Goal (e.g. reduce churn rate) - Workshop Goal (e.g. identify where the user drops off) - Participant Goal (e.g. show and tell possible ideas or sketch) Start with Pre-workshop prep for the actual UX workshop is an excellent way to start the alignment exercise. Continue the discussion open-ended to accommodate multiple goals. Make sure the plans are related. Document with a Template Use a template to communicate goals to the participants. Add a status column so each participant confirms how it fulfills the overall business objective. Time box Specify that the workshop is time-boxed. Avoid packing too many items in a 1-2 hour long session.

Although it depends a lot on whether you're planing to have a problem solving session/meeting or is it a learning workshop. In my personal opinion, it's great and really helpful if you plan the whole workshop/meeting like a journey and share that with the participants. With every checkpoint, make sure you include some thoughts exchanging activities to have more engagement and make it more interactive.

From my experience its always important to preach the audience about the capabilities of UX. And put forward different shoes of UX be it on visionary side of product, a strategist or in defining product feature. Then understanding their requirement and expectations. Most of the time the drifiting occurs due to expectation mismatch. Once you have an alignment rest everything will fall in place.

Also, make sure that every participant knows how to use all tools for activities and exercises. Also it’s very important to be explicit, avoid leaving any room for uncertainty. Clearly define the parameters, whether it’s the number of dots available or the color of notes we are using for a specific exercise.

Sometimes, not all goals can be met in just one meeting. It's often more effective to have several one-hour meetings, each focused on a single goal, rather than a three or four-hour meeting trying to achieve multiple objectives. The latter approach rarely yields the expected results, while the former promotes clarity and focus.

Think about your workshop participants and whether the tools and exercises are well suited for the group. Don't let the tool be a blocker for great ideas! For example, I was in a workshop with lots of non-designers and not everyone was comfortable sketching ideas in a Crazy 8s exercise. We ended up with fewer ideas because so many people were caught up in their drawing abilities. If we had chosen a different method that enabled people to express their ideas in a multitude of ways, we may have produced better results.

In terms of tools and methods, there is a sea of options, I like gathering the team and hearing about what methods they would like to use. It's easy to get lost in that sea of options so it's always a good idea to be on the same boat.

Certainly! Choosing the right format or tool in UX can enhance the D&D process. Here's an example: Scenario: Creating wireframes for a new mobile app interface. Wrong Tool: The designer creates wireframes using a text editor. They describe the layout and interactions in text form, which makes it difficult for others to visualize the design. Development team may struggle to understand the designer's vision. Right Tool: The designer uses a specialized wireframing tool, such as Adobe XD or Sketch, for wireframes. Use the drag-and-drop interface to easily arrange UI elements, create interactive prototypes, and define user flows. The visual nature of the tool allows the designer to convey their ideas to the development team and stakeholders.

Virtual Participation For an audience size of more than 5 or 10, I ensure that participants use the chat feature to share their thoughts. Asking detailed follow-up questions during the workshop requires time to articulate - writing it down and sharing it in the chat is better. One of the team members from the facilitation team can copy/paste the content onto a sticky and discuss it with other audiences. It saves time and lets the person engage purposefully. Invite more interaction directed to achieve the Workshop goal.

Consider different personality types when planning your workshop. Share the workshop, supporting info, and prompt a few days ahead of the session to empower people who are more creative thinkers when they have time on their own to brainstorm ideas.

This plays a major role. If we are the only one who is talking or doing the things, if we are not making enthusiastic the session will be boring. We have to make sure that we are engaging them through chat replays asking questions and answerimg their insecurities.

Three things I found very helpful to keep high energy level in both online and f2f sessions: 1. Have clear behavior rules and review them together in the begining of the session. 2. Start with a fun activity that will make everyone feel more comfortable with each other. It can be asking them to share an embarrassing story, this or that question, or true or false sentences. 3. Have breaks scheduled in the daily agenda, and make sure you take them. People need to refresh in order to keep the energy going. And you can use this time to re-asess and adjust the session.

From my personal encounters, I've discovered that introducing relatable real-world scenarios or user challenges is effective in stimulating participant engagement. This approach allows them to grasp the tangible implementation of the concepts under consideration, leading to more profound involvement. Furthermore, an alternative strategy worth considering involves integrating storytelling to depict user experiences and establish emotional bonds. Stories possess a lasting impact and strike a chord with participants.

Summarizing workshop outcomes Categorize findings - alignment with the goal - major themes - ideas - gaps add more categories to make reporting easy to consume

Yes! This is where all the hard work get's to be shown and how important it is to hear to your participants. So take your sweet time with documenting, cause it's gonna make non designers either buy or hate your process.

Make sure that the solution we have got is "Viable for business, Feasible(technology) to implement and Desirable for the users. Any outcome that cannot satisfy this will not be an ideal solution.

Selecting the right stakeholders is crucial for enhancing the effectiveness and engagement of UX workshops and meetings. It's essential to bring together participants from diverse fields, including subject matter experts, to ensure a wide range of perspectives. This diversity of viewpoints leads to more in-depth conversations and comprehensive insights. To achieve this, utilizing tools like the stakeholder interest vs power matrix can help incorporate a broader spectrum of stakeholders into the process.

Always know your limits, it's easy to get lost in fantasy. We don't all work for Google, we can't develop the best of the best but we can always be sure we delivered the best we could as long as we use our resources.