Facilitating effective design workshops
?? Catt Small ??????
Product Design Leader, #GDoCExpo Executive Director, & Creative Technologist
Brainstorms and workshops can be a highly impactful, quick way to align one or more groups of people in a short amount of time. However, I often hear people—non-designers and designers alike—speak negatively of these activities. I’ve heard folks say workshops are a waste of time, that they only serve to build the facilitator’s career, and other logical fallacies based on anecdotal evidence.
The issue is that many people either don’t know how or when to run workshops. Well-considered, well-facilitated workshops are not a waste of time. Poorly-planned activities that have no basis in the context of the organization or team’s needs will never be successful.
So how can we facilitate effective brainstorms? I’m going to share the five qualities of a successful brainstorm facilitator. These recommendations come from approximately 10 years of experience facilitating various workshops and classes, both in and outside my role as a designer.
Be prepared
If you’re organizing ad hoc group activities without defining the need, expected outcomes, and timeline, you’re starting off poorly. You don’t need to spend weeks preparing for a 1-hour sketching session. You?do?need to come with an explanation regarding why everyone has gathered—and what will happen after the session ends.
Spend time before the session putting together documentation that outlines the goals of your activity and who will be participating. Also include a lightweight run-of-show. This will serve as a reference during the session itself, and you can share these details with your participants in advance. Participants will be more committed to the work when they know you’ve put in effort.
Send pre-reads
Have you ever sat through a 30-minute presentation, only to realize it could have been an email? Your participants will feel the same way if you only share context during the brainstorm. Consider what can be shared asynchronously before you meet.
Your synchronous time should be used for live discussions and decision-making. I often share a compilation of customer research and link to videos participants can watch in advance of our workshops. And now that we have tools like Mural and FigJam, you can even share the brainstorm workspace in advance so people can have quiet time to share their ideas!
When sharing asynchronous materials, give participants at least 2 business days for review. Time yourself as you go through the materials. This will help you include an estimated amount of time required so participants can manage their schedules appropriately.
Watch the clock
During the actual workshop, use a timer to keep yourself and others on track. Products like FigJam now include timers for group activities so you can keep everyone aware of the time left for each activity. If you don’t have access to a timer within the brainstorming product, there are plenty of free options across the internet—or you can use your phone.
Time tracking is crucial because conversations can easily go off-track. I usually prepare a “parking lot” within my brainstorm activity for discussions like these. The parking lot is crucial for documenting meaty, tangential topics that must be handled at a later time. Participants usually feel comforted knowing their thoughts have been acknowledged and documented, even if they can’t immediately finish the conversation.
领英推荐
Accept change
No brainstorm ever goes completely according to plan. If you are too rigid, participants may feel constrained. Allow some wiggle room. If participants need more time for a relevant conversation, make the space and reschedule the remainder of the activities for a later time. Flexibility is an important part of teamwork.
As a facilitator, you need to read the room and adapt appropriately. I change plans if a particular exercise doesn’t land the way I thought it would. Give participants the signal that feedback and skepticism are welcomed—their input will ultimately lead to a more fruitful conversation.
Ensure everyone speaks
One common mistake I see in facilitated group conversations is letting one or a few people speak too much. Keeping the discussion balanced takes observation and effort. As a facilitator, this is your duty. Document who speaks and when, then actively call on people who haven’t recently spoken.
When you ask a question, point to someone specific rather than lobbing the question in the middle of the group. Encourage the speaker to call on the next person. If you’re doing a brainstorm, give people quiet time to write down their ideas, then give participants equal time to share out their ideas.
Valuable ideas are missed when a small percentage of people dominate the conversation. Seniority often holds weight in groups. Active facilitation is the only way to maintain equity. The more participants know their thoughts matter, the more they will value the work you do together.
It’s easy to write off all brainstorming exercises after a bad experience. What’s much more challenging—and rewarding—is taking a nuanced, contextual stance. I encourage you to invest in your facilitation skills and explore the value group ideation can bring to you and your customers.
Liked this piece? Check out these resources to become a better facilitator:
Originally published at?https://cattsmall.com. Like this post? Press the ???? button below!
UX Architect @US Bank | Designing experiences that are human centered.
1 年These are really great tips for facilitating workshops. I would be interested to know how you navigate to other exercises if your primary exercise didn’t pan out the way you’d like?
Virtual Strategist strategyandimpact.com | Online Strategic Planning Program thestrategicnonprofit.com
1 年Great post. I totally agree with Asia! One facilitation must for me it to build in silent time. I find that a large percentage of people benefit from having time to think, without ideas, opinions, and questions popping up (loudly) every 10 seconds. So I build in blocks of silent time for people to capture their thoughts before momentum starts in any one direction. I also build in opportunities for people to share their thoughts anonymously. Then I have everyone vote on the anonymous ideas to uncover themes and priorities. This levels out the dominating strong voices that typically guide the direction. Happy to jump on a call to talk about it!
Lead Product Designer, Mentor, and Speaker
1 年I've sometimes disliked design workshops because while they generate a lot of ideas and often, positive morale, I'm often confronted with the reality that the best ideas don't always get funded, for any variety of reasons. It can be frustrating when colleagues are aligned but the organization as a whole may have radically different priorities (and if user research is to be believed, sometimes, the wrong ones). Still, there's no denying that workshops, when run correctly, can help everyone become more aligned and focused. You've covered all the great points about what makes them effective, and if I were to add one thing, it's helpful to know your audience-participants. Seniority isn't the only factor that keeps people silent. Sometimes we don't have a shared language, and participants will often defer to the people closest to the work and "most" informed. But often the most insightful feedback comes from "outside" of the typical tech organization. Similarly, different audiences have different interests as far as getting buy-in. Knowing what's important to your audience will not only inform the language you use, but the assets as well! Thanks for the excellent article, and the resources as well!
Experience Strategy and Design @ Mastercard ????
1 年I loved this piece! I think something that often goes overlooked is introductions or icebreakers. Often times in a work environment, colleagues will defer to more senior voices and the senior voices might want to hear others but have become used to radio silence. I think introductions in the form of how people like to communicate (extrovert jumps in with thoughts vs introvert might need an extra push) helps to humanize collaborators for a smoother, more open minded session!
Lead UX Design Researcher at Milwaukee Tool
1 年Love this post and totally agree with all your suggestions. I especially love “?Document who speaks and when, then actively call on people who haven’t recently spoken.” ?I’ve never tried this, but it’s a great way to manage that (rather by keeping track of speakers in your head, which is my current method and can assure you is less successful!)