What it takes to plan a Design Thinking workshop that leaves a lasting impression.

The purpose of this article is to have a deep dive into what it takes to design and execute a Billboard Billboard Design Thinking Workshop. Here is a summary of the presentation @BernhardFerro, and I did at the 159th Interaction Stammtisch in Vienna Austria on March 13th, 2018 at Tieto Austria.

I like Bernhard’s “Call to action” inviting participants to join the session.

It highlights two critical points about Design Thinking: first, you need to be engaged and burn to make the message of Design Thinking heard and second from the reaction you see on the video people are laughing and having fun. Design Thinking workshops are a fun way to solve real problems.We are also very proud of the feedback we got from the audience regarding the content as well as the presentation method we used.

Here is a step by step rational why and how we design Billboard Design Thinking Workshops

We encourage you to copy the concept and use it for your projects. You can use this article like a checklist substituting the challenge and audience of your workshop.

Prepare for a long read and detailed explanations and enjoy getting a behind the scenes look into what it takes to design and plan a workshop that leaves a lasting impression.

PART I: Workshop Design

Step 1: Defining the challenge

Every workshop is built around a challenge a question you want to answer or a problem you want to solve. In our case the challenge we had was straightforward:

• #1 challenge: How can we explain the Billboard Design Thinking Workshop in 25min
• #2 challenge: What information will be needed for others to copy the concept
• #3 challenge: How can we get people excited so they would try it out for their project

 

Step 2: Define the workshop structure

We used sketching and discussions to define the structure of the presentation. And we decided to have three separate blocks.

The first block contains three topics:

1)    Why we use Billboard Workshops?

2)    What is the value proposition for the customer paying for the workshop?

3)    Who should participate to ensure your workshop is successful?

The second block is a simple four-phase approach that is common for all workshops and always consists the following consecutive steps:

1)    Designing your workshop

2)    Prototype and test you workshop

3)    Conduct your workshop

4)    Workshop follow-ups

The third block was reserved for an interactive exercise we call “Flying Post-its” but I won’t go into any detail because this will be part of a separate article.

Step 2: Draw a poster

Creating a poster is about visualizing your workshop structure for your audience. In general, visualization means drawing boxes and adding titles and creating a layout of your workshop structure you can print on a poster.

Besides the actual content and sequence the design is about visual space and how much area you will need to fit the content. In general, you can say the total size of the poster is calculated according to the expected number of post-its and the size of post-its you will use.

If your workshop includes sketching activities or creating a workflow you will have to ask yourself how many sketch templates will you generate or how many workflow steps do you want to fit on your poster.

If you are not sure how much space you will need to fit all the desired content on the poster you should take a whiteboard or a large sheet of paper and try it out with empty post-its and sketch templates.

You can also use a graphics tool and google post-it sizes to calculate the total area necessary. For example, standard post-it is 76mm x 76mm. In the specific case shown above the actual size required for the poster was  0,9 m x 3,6 m. 

When it comes to visual layout and making your poster pretty, you should not waste too much time. Structure and content are crucial it’s not about making it beautiful. We also suggest your poster is not to colorful remember the color in the workshop comes when participants add post-its and sketches. 

Sept 3: Print your poster

One important tip when sending your poster to the copy shop include a picture with the desired measurements otherwise they will probably print a wrong size.

And just in case you work in an organization with line managers who don’t get the point of why you need a poster be sure to get an approval to spend 100€ for a poster you will throw away after the workshop. Or be prepared to pay the 100€ out of your own pocket because you love Design Thinking.

I never could understand why organizations have no problem inviting twenty, thirty or more employees to a completely useless meeting but refuse to pay for working material you need to conduct workshops. I mean twenty employees with let's say an average wage of 100€ per hour means the organizational cost for twenty employees attending a one-hour meeting is 2000€. It seems like nobody cares but that is a different story anyway. 

Step 4: conduct your workshop

After we have discussed how we managed to turn the challenge into a Billboard Poster, I will dive deep into the actual content of the presentation and explain all individual points in dept.

This section is written like a standard workshop documentation, always first showing pictures of the workshop artifacts then adding a clear-type version and finally including annotation, comments, and thoughts to each of the issues discussed.

Be prepared for a long read, sorry no video to show yet, but that will be the next step to come.

Part II: Documentation and workshop results

Of course, when we use a Billboard Poster to explain the Billboard concept in twenty-five minutes, we didn’t have time to write all those post-its during the presentation, so we prepared them upfront. For each post-it, we decided who will present it and attached it to a single page of a small notebook one post-it per page.

During the workshop, we took the post-its one by one from the notebook flipping threw the notebook page by page always removing one post-it presenting it and then letting the second presenter continue with his presentation. 

As I wrote in another article: “A workshop is like a concert a drama and a visit to a doctor” there is a big difference between seeing a finished picture of a full workshop and seeing how the content unfolds in real time.

This presentation method helped us not only to explain the content but gives the audience a feeling how a Billboard Workshop unfolds in real time and show how the Billboard Poster is populated with content.

The only difference between a real workshop and the presentation was it didn’t take us a full day but only 25 minutes, but I’m sure they got the message and were able to understand how the method works.

1 Why we use Billboard Workshops

1.1 Visual representation

1.2 Clear type

1. A Whiteboard is just a big question mark
2. Shows goal + structure
3. Guiding agenda + time management
4. Visual representation of teamwork
5. That’s the stage where the magic happens
6. It’s your 1st prototype – roll it up – take it home

 1)    A Whiteboard is just a big question mark

If you start a workshop with an introduction and an empty whiteboard or sheet of paper telling the participants: “We will use sketching, post-its, and drawings to visualize the workshop results.” Your listeners will have no clue how and what results will be created during the workshop.

For participants, your announcement that we will be super creative in the workshop will make them uneasy, and it is like a big huge question mark with no answer how the day will unfold. The only thing they know is they will be doing something, and we expect them to be creative.

A Billboard Design Thinking Workshop starts with the poster and replaces this big empty space with a clear picture, so participants get an idea what the workshop is all about.

 2)    Shows goal + structure

The Billboard Poster shows both the goal and the structure. The goal is the final outcome you expect from your workshop. The expected result could be anything from a user journey to a list of pain points you want to resolve or an innovative product you want to develop to boost your sales.

The goal is necessary, so participants know where the journey ends and the structure tells them how they will reach this goal. Explaining both the goal and the structure at the beginning of the workshop creates security and trust and gets people focused. They know what you want to achieve and they know you have a plan.

3)    Guiding agenda + time management

If the goal and structure define your journey the headlines on your posters annotating the structure are like the road signs guiding you on a street or highway giving your destination a name.

Imagin you are traveling from New York to Washington asking your way is easy if you know you are heading to Washington because you can ask people how to get there. Having a clear goal helps you find your way.

Having no structure and no Billboard Poster would be the equivalent to try to go to Washington without knowing the cities name holding a picture of the capitol in your hand and trying to make sense of road signs. My guess is you won’t make it to Washington if you don’t know the cities name.

The Billboard Poster presents the workshop agenda in the correct order and sequence from start to end.

Once your structure and content are defined you need to estimate the time you will spend for each element.

For example, if your workshop starts out with creating a persona, then asking for a value proposition and defining a user journey you have three distinct, marked structural elements visually laid out on your Billboard Poster, and you can ask yourself how much time you want to assign to each part.

When planning we recommend making your best guess write your estimates on a sheet of paper and use it during your workshop to continually check if you still have enough time to make it to the end of the workshop in time.

Experience over time will teach you how much time you will need for each structural element. If you are not sure how much time you will need:

• prototype your workshop
• prototype your workshop
• prototype your workshop
• prototype your workshop

until you know the answer and are confident, you will have enough time.

 4)    Visual representation of teamwork

A Billboard Poster is a visual representation of teamwork. Everything that is relevant in the workshop is put on the poster. Asking all participants to write notes on post-its and drawings and sketching means everything created in the workshop must be shared by putting it on the poster. 

At any given time in the entire workshop, the content is visible on the poster. The content displayed is the summary and output of the team participating in the workshop. Adding content step by step to the Billboard Poster brings the team together, and they understand they are working towards a common goal and each participant sees how his contribution adds to the overall know-how and content created in the workshop.

 5)    That’s the stage where the magic happens

We like to compare the Billboard Poster with a large stage where the play unfolds, the orchestra performs, the rock band plays, or the musical is staged. The Billboard Poster is the one and only central place where all action takes place and this, in turn, means everybody knows where to focus his or her attention and where all useful results are displayed.

You as a conductor or stage worker are the guy in control opening and closing the curtain turning the lights on at the beginning and switching them off at the end. It’s your show, and it’s your task to ensure the show is run as intended, and everything works out as planned.

When you ask participants to come up to the poster and present their ideas, you are inviting them onto the stage and focusing the spotlights on them, and it is totally obvious to everybody who is speaking and who is listening. And of course, everybody is eager to stand on stage and share ideas, but they need to take turns, so everybody is heard.

The Billboard Poster is the stage where everything that is relevant happens, and it is visible for all.

 6)    It’s your first prototype roll it up, take it home

Any product, services or application has an underlying story a way to be used. Somebody wants to do something achieve a goal or has a task that shall be completed.

The Billboard Poster with all information can be compared with the marble block a sculpture has before starting to carve out the artwork he is envisioning. A Billboard Poster contains the masterplan for the service and product you will create after the workshop is completed. It holds all information you need to start your work and create something meaningful after the workshop is over.

From a conceptional point of view, the only difference between a Billboard Poster filled with workshop results and the service you are designing is the way the information is presented.

After the workshop, those post-its sketches and ideas are converted into interface elements, interactions, and screen designs, but the underlying ideas, arguments, and goals are the same as visualized on the Billboard Poster.

 2 Billboard Workshop Value Proposition

Every workshop costs money, and there must be a value proposition that justifies the investment. The internal costs of having ten employees spend one day in a workshop might not be visible immediately but employees time is costly, and also the external cost of the moderator conducting the workshop including preparation and followup must be added. No matter how you argue, each workshop is an investment of minimum 10K € plus.

2.1 Visual representation

2.1 Clear type

1. Knowhow transfer
2. Ideas are made tangible
3. No one is left out
4. Safe environment
5. Decisions are made faster
6. Creates credibility

 1)    Know-how transfer

Workshops are a great place to share knowledge and know-how. Applying the workshop principal: “If it is not on the Billboard Poster, it is not part of the workshop” forces participants to share information and sharing means automatic know-how transfer between all workshop members.

Know-how transfer is often neglected in the project especially when many departments and stakeholders are involved. Companies have tomuch tacit knowledge, and participants often make decisions based on unchallenged assumptions how they believe others think or work.

Telling stories, sharing ideas and explaining those ideas when presenting them to the group automatically means sharing knowledge with the group. In many cases, this knowledge sharing uncovers problems and missing information everybody thought somebody else would take care of.

My experience in the past has shown me many cases where departments of large organizations who need to collaborate and work together in a project have little know-how when it comes to an understanding how those departments or colleagues work and what they do the entire day.

If you put your post-it on the Billboard Poster and tell a story why this is important it creates the context that allows others working in another part of the organization to understand how the presenter sees the world and what problems he encounters regarding the challenge to be solved.

 2)    Ideas are made tangible

Spoken words vanish and disappear once the speaker stops talking. People don’t remember words they remember stories and pictures. Workshops encourage and force participants to not only talk ideas and concepts but make their ideas tangible in some way.

Writing information on a post-it or sketching ideas does not only visualizes your thoughts but now you have shared them and can move them around, highlight them, dismiss them and throw them away. You select and promote them to be the best idea, and you can ask who added the content if you have additional questions.

Writing things down, sketching and drawing creates tangible artifacts information- and knowledge blocks you can use to tell a story and describe a service. The thing you need to understand about workshop artifacts is they are like flexible puzzle peace you can place in various locations of the service you are trying to create.

At the end of the workshop, those puzzle piece will form a complete picture making the solution you created clearly understandable to the workshop group as well as to outsiders who are interested in understanding the workshop outcomes.

 3)    No one is left out

Not everybody loves to stand on stage and present ideas or answer questions. Billboard Workshops are designed around the concept of forcing every participant to come up to the poster and contribute in public.

This ensures everybody is heard and reserves time for participants that usually will sit in the back of the room not saying anything because they either don’t like to talk or are intimidated by those flamboyant well-spoken individuals that believe they are the only ones that can contribute.

In many cases, it is a big surprise to witness how those quiet individuals can share fantastic ideas and contributions if the loud guys just give them time to speak, shut up and listen.

Putting those soft-spoken, quiet thinkers on stage and in front of the Billboard Poster handing over the word to them gives them the security and confidence they need to share their ideas brings much value to every workshop.

4)    Safe environment

All organizations, even start-ups consisting of more than two individuals have a social structure where every individual is assigned a hierarchical role. In large organizations, you will have C-Level management on the top and ordinary employees on the bottom end.

This, of course, is a necessity to make the organization work. This is due to specialization and creating clear responsibilities to make the organization work properly. The drawback is that this competence and power matrix creates rules and boundaries that prevent individuals freely sharing their thoughts, ideas, and criticism.

Imagine a CEO or line manager asking an employee: “Please give me honest feedback is this a good idea….?” Including the word “honest” already highlights the problem. The answer is given, and the words the employee has chosen always depends on which status and position the employee has in the organization.

Companies are crippled and mutilated by imposing those structures on employees and fostering a culture where employee’s opinions and ideas are multiplied with the status of the hierarchical order of the person expressing the new idea.

In many cases, it is impossible for lower-ranking employees to openly share or criticise higher ranking employees and managers. Opposing ideas or giving counter-arguments are automatically regarded as being disrespectful, unloyal and offending towards superiors.

In a Billboard Workshop, those hierarchies are eliminated for the workshop duration. Emphasizing every idea is welcomed and ensuring everybody gets his turn in sharing and explaining his opinion creates a secure environment to allow ideas and problems surface so they can be used and discussed.

In a Billboard Workshop, the social and organizational rank plays no role everybody is equal and every contribution counts. Both the CEO and the apprentices who joined the company two days ago are equal, they get the same time and power to share ideas and voice opinions.

A Billboard Workshop creates a secure environment where participants can share all ideas and thoughts without fearing retributions. If a CEO has a stupid idea in a workshop chances of him being overruled by the majority is hundred times higher then asking for “honest feedback” in a normal meeting where everybody will carefully consider his answer before telling the CEO the idea makes no sense.

5) Decisions are made faster

Due to the honest and open feedback and discussion culture and the know-how and knowledge transfer taking place in the workshop paired with a secure environment where everybody can voice ideas without fear of being rebuked decision tend to be much more rational, less politicise and are thus made much faster.

6) Creates credibility

Credibility is the last but also very crucial part when you think about how workshops create value. There is a big difference between a consultant spending the time to interview employees and users and then writing a report with his findings. It’s the consultant saying what he believes. Compare this with the power of individuals making those statements in front of a group. The second one is much more powerful and creates credibility.

Don’t underestimate the significance of individuals writing their ideas with their own handwriting on post-its or drawing sketches. It’s personal, and it’s a commitment to write something down or draw a sketch there is much value to creating something rather than only making a verbal statement.

You can later on point to any workshop artifact and ask the question: “Who had this idea, or who added this comment?” and ask additional questions to extract more information and understand the statement better.

A workshops credibility comes from participants creating the content on their own it's not a consultant or analyst writing, drawing and sketching it’s the participants them self visualizing and creating things that generate credibility and valuable

 3 Stakeholder mapping

Compared to the previous two topics this one is a simple no-brainer but never the less it should not be left out or neglected.

3.1 Visual representation

3.2 Clear type

1. The user we build the service for
2. Product owner
3. Business Stakeholders
4. Project team
5. Project sponsor
6. External partners 1
7. External partner 2
8. The world outside
9. Users excluded

 1)    The user we build the service for

There is always at least one user or user group the service or product you are building is intended for. Give this user a name, age and some attributes so you can easily imagine taking his place to test the service you are creating.

2)    Product owner

You always have at least one product owner who is responsible for the product or service you intend to creat or already exists and shall be improved or modified.

3)    Business stakeholders

Include all individuals who are affected by implementing or building a new service or product. In general, those are all individuals who potentially could win or lose money, power or social status because of the project execution. Typically, those will be decision makers who will be held accountable if a failure occurs or will want credit for delivering an excellent solution. This often is a complicated stakeholder highly politicised because projects can easily promote or destroy entire carriers.

4)    Project team

Each project needs somebody who will execute the project. Your project team might consist of one or two individuals or include several hundred employees responsible for various tasks and deliverables.

5)    Project sponsor

You will always have at least one project sponsor who is responsible for raising funds, signing off the budget necessary for the project and will be eager to complete the project and make it a success.

6)    External partners

In many projects you will have external partners that are not part of your organization but will be necessary to execute the project, they often have a unique role because they are bound by contract to deliver specific parts but can’t directly be controlled the same way as internal stakeholders. In many cases, you will have legally binding contracts and agreements defining how external partners contribute to the project.

7)    The world outside

Even for large applications and services which are not intended for everybody, you will always have a large part of potential users who are excluded for various reasons. For example, region, age, gender, social background nationality, etc.

8)    Users excluded

Excluded users are similar to users who don’t use the service (The outside world) with the only difference that they are explicitly excluded for example an application that requires users to have a specific age or nationality to access the service. Or because the service is intended for company employees only and everybody who is not employed by the company naturally shall not have access to the service or application.

 4 Designing your workshop

The first three topics covered general considerations concerning Billboard Workshops, the following four parts will deal with tasks you will always need to conduct if you want to apply the Billboard method. The first of these four talks about designing your workshop and customizing it to the specific challenge and customer you have in mind.

 4.1 Visual representation

4.2 Clear type

1. WS challenge + goal
2. Choose the right participants
3. Define location and time
4. Create a business rationale
5. Tools + methods
6. Align WS Design with WS owner
7. Convey expectations with WS owner
8. Do: Efforts + Costs
9. Don’t: use a WS “Template.”

 1)    WS challenge + goal

To deliver value, you workshop must include a challenge and a goal. We recommend this challenge and goal is not too broad and fluffy, and it should be meaningful in a way that makes it possible for you to deliver results that answer the challenge addressee in the workshop.

For example, if the challenge where to find an answer how to digitalize your business I would say that is a too general question. You would not only need to know what exactly you want to digitalize but you would also need to know the underlying business case and business potentials you are trying to tap into before you start.

Generally spoken if you can’t deliver a concrete result your challenge and goal will be too generic, and you need to refine it before you start your workshop.

Here are a view examples of suitable challenges and goals that would work properly

1. How can we use augmented reality to improve training and maintenance tasks?
2. How can we help customers shifting their buying habits from physical to digital stores?
3. How can we connect our customers and their devices to collect device data for research?
4. How can we improve digital payment methods to have 50% of our customers use this service?

  2)    Choose the right participants

After you know what kind of problem you want to solve you can ask the question who you want to invite. Remember a workshop is mainly about participants sharing their knowledge and experience, and it is wise to have people with different mindsets and backgrounds attending.

The second advice is to carefully balance the interest of all stakeholders when inviting participants. There should be an equilibrate ensuring every stakeholder is represented in the workshop. Try to investigate all potential user groups participating in the service and then in a second step see who has time and can join.

The two mandatory stakeholders you always want in each workshop are the project sponsor and the project owner.

For them, it can be a real eyeopener to see and experience what other user’s groups think about a project. For example, if you are building a new CRM for sales, you will definitely need sales employees the sales manager and if possible managers who are responsible for marketing and sales strategy to join if you expect to have meaningful results.

In many cases, you as workshop designer won’t be asked who you want to invite, but your customer will decide and inform you those are the participants that will come and it’s your job to research who those persons are what influence and role they have in the process and organization.

If a customer already has decided on who is participating, you can always suggest adding another one or two persons that can help enrich the diversity of your workshop in most cases customers will try to help if you explain what and how they can contribute.

3)    Define location and time

That’s actually a simple task. Nevertheless, time and location can be a key factor when designing your workshop, for example, don’t expect employees to stay to the end your workshop if it finishes on Friday at 18:00. Chances are high some of your participants will need to pick up children from school or may be reluctant to contribute if you have ruined their weekend plans.

When it comes to location, you might want to think about politics as well as creating an environment where participants will not be disturbed. For example, if your workshop is in a large company on-premise, you should not be surprised if one of the participants is called out to answer an important phone call or report to their customer simply because they are accessible. If you run this workshop in a non-company location that will help participants stay focused and concentrated.

4)    Create a business rationale

No matter what challenge or goal you shall solve or ideate on there will always be some business rational connected that involves some kind of cost or money related issues. The cost might be employees work hours, health costs, profits or market shares you want to increase.

And fixing the issue will involve some effort, work, and money. Sooner or later you will be asked to answer the questions if the solution you suggest is worthwhile implementing and if the problem is severe enough to justify fixing it at all and making a substantial investment.

The underlying business case will answer that questions, and you can use the workshop to make it visible, and use it as an argument to promote change and implement the ideas you suggest. If you don’t have a business rationale and can't find one in the workshop chances are high you will spend much time looking for cool solutions nobody will be interested in implementing after the workshop is completed. Or to put it in other words:

  Your workshop results are totally useless if you have not business rationale. 

5)    Tools + methods

The tools and methods are selected according to the goal you are trying to achieve the amount of time available and the persons involved and the challenge you want to solve. There are many resources on the web discussing various tools. An important selection criterion when evaluating tools is if the created output can be attached to the poster. If the answer is yes: the method is a good candidate for use.

In many cases, you can twerk that tool and modify it to bring the desired result and clarify a question you are asking in the workshop. For example, a simple stakeholder map can be changed in various ways to better serve the workshop.

Here is an example how to adopt a standard tool to make it work for a Billboard Workshop. The standard use of a stakeholder map would be to put the main actors/users in the middle and then ask who else is involved and group all other actors around the main user.

Let’s assume you are involved in answering questions about a purchasing workflow than you could add a horizontal line dividing the stakeholder map into two equal parts and starting out with the two decision makers in the center facing each other.

Behind each decision maker, you would group all influencers that contribute to the decision makers sign the contract. Here is an example how that could look like. As you can see, simply modified a standard stakeholder map to visualizes a very special use case brings much clarity to your workshop design.

6)    Align workshop design with workshop owner

Now you finally have your workshop design finished, and you are ready to go. But wait a minute are you sure the workshop owner, paying for the workshop will be satisfied with your suggestion? Will he get the expected results and will you be able to deliver the results you promised?

There is only one way to find out. Book an alignment meeting, this can also be a Lync or Skype meeting and walk him through your workshop and get confirmation the owner is happy with your game plan. If he is not, you need to revise and rework your plan until you get an affirming ok and you can be sure the workshop owner buys into your concept.

7)    Convey expectations with workshop owner

This requirement for workshop success is like the previous point the only difference is that here you focusing explicitly on the workshop expectations and results you promise to deliver. Imagine your workshop should find a solution how to build a sales portal, and you have one day I guarantee you:, you won’t be able to walk out of the workshop with a finished designed sales portal.

If everything runs as planned, you might have decided what the most important features are and aligned all stakeholder’s expectations one agreeing on a general scope.

You can’t do magic and if you need several workshops to reach the goal communicate this from the beginning and make clear how each individual workshop contributes to finding a proper solution.

8)    ToDo: Efforts + costs

Calculating correct efforts and costs is a complicated problem. You are eager to convince your customer to run a workshop you see how much benefit and value it will create but the customer does not understand why your estimates are so high.

A conservative calculation including all cost for a simple one-day workshop would at least include the following:

           1 day: Preparing the workshop

           1 day: Running the workshop

           3 days: follow-up and documentation

           3 days: optional for a prototype

This means the net total of your workshop will be eight PD (Personal Days) and multiplying this with a price tag of 1000€ per day will leave you with a total cost of 8000€.

In my opinion that is a very average price tag compared to the potential outcome and benefits, you can generate in the workshop, but customers new to Design Thinking may have a very different opinion.

They will probably only see the one day, you are running the workshop forgetting about preparation and documentation necessary to make the workshop a success.

9)    Don’t use a workshop template

People interested in Design Thinking often see the Billboard Posters and ask, “Can we have those templates.” Yes, of course, we will share everything but whatever we share with you can only be an inspiration for your own workshop design. Except of course you want to run a one to one replica of a well-documented workshop like #TietoPED2018 Workshop

Design Thinking workshops are actually nothing else as a different kind of moderated discussion using additional tools extending general discussion or meetings, powerpoint, and flipchart argumentations.

And of course except you are a lousy consultant or salesperson you won’t dare to copy past your presentation for customer A to a presentation for customer B and expect to excite the customer B with the content prepared for customer A.

Of course, you will copy parts of your workshops and use similar building blocks but only copy paste an entire workshop won't work.

 5 Prototyping your workshop

No matter how many years of experience you have you need to try out your workshop design before running your workshop!

5.1 Visual representation

5.2 Clear type

1. Create a WS poster
2. Check time schedule
3. Involve external guys for sanity checking
4. Decide what materials you need
5. Complete rehearsal from Begin – End
6. Have a plan B
7. Everything set Yes -> send an invitation
8. Promote your WS design internally
9. Do: Reserve enough time for prototyping
10. Don’t: No time for prototyping? -> cancel the workshop

1)    Create a workshop poster

This was already described in a previous section above. Basically, this means to use the challenge and goal as input think about the tools you want to use and estimate the space required for the poster. Then draw the poster with your preferred graphics tool, I use powerpoint for this task. And finally, go and print the poster in a copy shop.

2)    Check time schedule

Estimating your time needs is tricky, and I can’t give you much advice except try each step out when prototyping you workshop. That doesn’t mean you need a full day because in many cases you have repetitive tasks and then, of course, estimating time requirements for one step is enough.

Here a typical example would be a user journey with distinct phases of discovering the service, first use of the service, returning back to the service, sharing insights with friends. If you test the first phase and find out it takes 20 minutes then four phase will take about 80 min.

And of course, use workshop protocols from older workshops to benchmark time requirements. For example, a good and simple introduction takes five minutes if it is done properly and then the work can start without long-lasting boring introductions.

3)    Involve external guys for sanity checking

Design Thinking is much about being brutally honest and exposing your thoughts and assumptions and asking for feedback. You can go the easy way and ask your favorite co-worker or friend to give feedback. My guess is they won’t be honest enough and will tell you it’s ok even if they think the ideas make no sense.

Except for Bernhard Ferro who always gives me a tough time and forces me to reconsider and improve my workshop concept until it is sound and solid and that is one of the many reasons why I like to work with Bernhard.

Maybe the ultimate test is to find somebody who thinks Design Thinking workshops are a total waste of time and try to convince him it makes sense.

Take that opportunity to listen why those people don’t buy into the workshop concept. Believe me those insights from managers and colleagues who hate Design Thinking are most valuable, and it is a chance for you to promote the method internally as well.

4)    Decide what materials you need

This again is a simple task. Let’s say you have ten participants and six hours time and the question is how many post-its will they need. Writing a note on a post-it takes at least one minute and 6x60 = 360 so having a total of 3600 post-its should indeed be enough.

Standard materials you should always have included: flipcharts and markers, large post-its to summarize, sketch templates, proper markers for writing the post-its and color markers and felt pens if sketching is involved and don’t forget your tap to past Billboard Poster to the wall.

5)    Complete rehearsal from begin – end

Here again, there is little to say except take the time for a complete rehearsal. That does not mean you need a one-day rehearsal for a one day workshop but reserve two to three hours for the rehearsal.

Don’t focus on the time-consuming tasks like 10 minutes for ideation where participants work on their own. Focus on introduction and transitions between tasks as well as the wrap-up and final statement. It is important your audience gets clear instructions what to do how to do it, and they need to know what is expected of them at any given point in the workshop.

Think of examples and good explanations for each new task. The rehearsal time will give you the first feedback on your timeline. If you can’t rehear you workshop in two hours, you are probably talking too much wasting to much time explaining and discussing. Workshop participants won’t have enough time to do their work.

6)    Have a plan B

The worst thing that can happen is that you notice your workshop plan is failing, nobody is on board, people don’t get the point, and it is clear you won’t make it to the end. Or important stakeholders will tell you they are not interested in continuing. That happened to me, and it will happen to you as well.

The plan B is to remove your poster from the wall, flip it front side backward and attach the empty poster to the wall.

Then you ask the audience what they were expecting or what topic they wanted to solve. And then you take a fat marker and draw a new Billboard Poster with content relevant for the people in the room. Ture it might be ugly and sloppy, but it will be relevant!

 7)    Everything set: "Yes" send an invitation

Best practice is to get the workshop sponsor send the invitation. And if the workshop is related to a business critical issue the best possible scenario is to get C-Level manager not only to send out the invitations but add a view lines why it’s important for the organization and why employees should attend.

8)    Promote your workshop design internally

Today most companies have no clue what Design Thinking is about. Once you have done your rehearsal, your poster is hanging on the wall take a walk through the office and look for colleagues managers of your company you think could be interested in understanding Design Thinking. Ask them if they have 10 minutes time and if yes show them what you plan for your next workshop and ask for feedback.

Getting feedback is not only interesting but see this exercise as yet one additional opportunity to improve your existing workshop concept.

My experience is that often these one-to-one discussions internally help get stakeholders on board. And don’t be surprised if those people call you next day and tell you they consider using this method for their project or for the next customer meeting.

9)    ToDo: reserve enough time for prototyping

The most important ToDo: reserve enough time for prototyping. Minimum two to three hours, if you have a completely new workshop design, you should reserve two half days. One for your first repeat and one for the improved version.

10) Cancel the workshop if you have no time for prototyping

A workshop is no place for experimenting with new workshop designs without thoroughly investing time and testing upfront. Convincing organizations to have Design Thinking workshops is a constant uphill struggle. Delivering a sloppy, boring ill-crafted workshop will get all your adversaries jumping on tables clapping their hands shouting “We knew Design Thinking workshops are a waste of time.”

If you are not ready to deliver value, postpone or cancel your workshop immediately!

 

6 Conduct your workshop

6.1 Visual representation

6.2 Clear type

1. Prepare room + material
2. Find the best place to hang the poster
3. Welcome people to the WS personally (UX)
4. Wait and enjoy the “Wow.”
5. Use poster for introduction
6. Fill poster with WS content
7. Get your stuff done in time
8. Make pictures + videos
9. Control time exercise and people
10. Don’t: Everything that’s not on the poster doesn’t exist
11. Don’t: forget brakes
12. Do: be flexible

 1)    Prepare room + material

That can be difficult if you don’t know the location. Asking for pictures and a room layout can help. Print your poster and pack all equipment in a box ready to go the day before.

When it comes to room preparation, and you can’t prepare the room a day in advance plan at least one hour for this task. In many cases, you will need to remove excessive furniture move tables and chairs so people can easily come to the front and share information on the poster.

Try to make your audience feel comfortable you are the host create a relaxed setting.

2)    Find the best place to hang the poster

That’s not always easy, sometimes pillars, doors, and windows chop up wall space, and you have no proper place to put your poster. When hanging the poster consider two things: thirst everybody should see the full poster second participants should be able to approach the poster without running once around the room.

It can even be a problem for your time management if getting up from the chair and coming up to the poster takes thirty seconds and returning to the seat takes another thirty seconds you might wast one hour with people walking to the poster and sitting down again.

3)    Welcome people to the workshop personally

You are the host, and it is your invitation. Try to shake hands with all participants use this opportunity to say hello and talk a little bit about what is going to happen. Remember you are the host you should be polite, and everybody should know who is managing the show.

4)    Wait and enjoy the “Wow.”

In general, most participants have little time to think about what will expect them and when they see the poster it’s usually this “Wow!” what is that. This moment creates curiosity and is like a welcome and wake up call. They are curious, and that’s the best way you can start your workshop.

5)    Use poster for introduction

After everybody has been seated and you introduced the workshop rules: “No Laptops, No Handys” use the Billboard Poster to explain your plan.

Don’t simply point out to the different sections of your poster. Start at the beginning and walk your way from the start to the end. Remember the Billboard Poster is a stage. And if you are a good actor, you will use the entire stage available and not only stand on one spot talking.

Highlight the structure and what will happen and emphasize that at the end of the day you want concrete results. You need to create a sense of urgency: we want to start immediately, we are eager to deliver results, and we have a plan that requires strict resolution.

The Billboard Poster is the stage, and you as host are the first one on stage show how it works.

The last thing to mention is: don’t forget to highlight the breaks and lunch during the introduction. By that time participants have already noticed, they won’t be sitting on their chairs the entire day consuming some presentations, but they actually need to work. Knowing there will be brakes and lunch is a welcome relieve.

6)    Fill the poster with workshop content

Not much to say simply ensure all ideas and comments are placed on the poster in the correct location. You might consider having a parking lot for good ideas you don’t want to dismiss but simply don’t fit in this specific workshop. Use a flipchart or a door for that purpose.

7)    Get your stuff done in time

Use your time schedule to ensure you don’t use too much time for individual tasks. At the end of the day, the most important thing is for you to reach the goal and deliver the promised results. After all the workshop sponsored is paying and is entitled to get value for his money.

Whenever participants get looked into discussions, and things take too long we recommend to cut the debate short and point to the Billboard Poster emphasizing: “We need to go on to reach our goal.”

If the discussion seems important then summarize the main topic on a big post-it and add it to the parking lot. Tell your audience you understand it is important but this discussion needs to take place after the workshop.

8)    Make pictures and videos

Don’t forget to take pictures and videos of all stages of the workshop. That helps when writing the documentation to understand how the workshop evolved and to recapitulate the exact sequence of events.

9)    Control time exercise and people

The Billboard Poster helps everybody to stay focused because they know where they heading for and how they will get there. The poster is the one big argument to cut short disruptions or people trying to disturb the workshop. You will always have one person who is going to challenge the purpose and content of the workshop, but your Billboard Poster will prove what you want to do how you will reach your goal and what needs to be done next.

We hade several workshops where we were challenged by prominent stakeholders trying to derail the workshop. Pointing to the poster asking if the challenge and goal are correct and then telling them if they don’t want to contribute they are free to leave the room. That will silence anybody who has dought you know what you are doing.

Up to now nobody actually left any of our workshops, but if they did I would not care!

The point here is that you as a host want to have people feel comfortable and if one in the group is really convinced he is wasting his time there is no point in this person staying in the workshop. Be polite apologize for not delivering something that is relevant to this person and asks him to leave.

It is no big deal and no drama. Compare it with a vegetarian being invited to a stake house, and the only thing for him to eat is a dry salad.

10) Everything that’s not on the poster doesn’t exist

We often repeated this sentence during workshops. If it is not on the Billboard Poster, it is not part of the workshop. Talking and discussing is fine and necessary, but the discussion must render a result or conclusion, and that information always fits on a post-it or sketch template.

The primary mission of any Design Thinking Workshop is to create ideas and solutions and share information. In Design Thinking terms sharing always means visualizing and creating artifacts.

Remember: if it’s not on the poster it doesn’t exist.

11) Don’t forget brakes

Workshops are very intensive and engaging experiences. You are asking a lot from your participants. They are thrown into an unknown situation, are asked to be open hones and creative and need to work hard. They will need brakes and short recreational moments to lean back before working on the next challenging task.

When it comes to lunch brakes, we recommend one and a half hour. One hour for lunch and thirty minutes for checking e-mails making important calls. Participants should not be forced to either have lunch or followup with important business.

12) Be flexible

A workshop plan and your workshop design are always built on an ideal scenario where everything works out exactly as you expected. Real live of course is different. During the workshop, you might notice something is taking to long or an activity you planned doesn’t work the way you want.

Sticking to your script and following the workshop design without taking the feedback into account hardly ever will work out. There is a fine balance between executing your plan and being responsive to user feedback and deciding to change your original concept on the fly.

When it comes to this point, my only advice is: try to execute your workshop design even if it doesn’t work out perfect but tweak the task to accommodate the individual session. And of course if necessary scrap you plan and use your plan B.

                                                                                                            

7 Workshop Follow-ups

7.1 Visual representation

7.2 Clear type

1. Thanks + inform participants about next steps
2. Collect all visual artifacts
3. Gather feedback look for improvements
4. Use the poster to sell your project
5. Create a professional documentation
6. Word of mouth promotion
7. Prototype WS outcome
8. No documentation WS is waste of time
9. Opportunity to create interest for next workshop

 1)    Thanks + inform participants about next steps

At the end of the workshop, most participants are enthusiastic and tire at the same time. It has been a long day, and even if they enjoyed the workshop, nobody is really interested additional discussions and announcements.

Never the less you should inform the participants about the next steps. What is going to happen? When will the documentation be finished? Are you going to deliver a prototype etc.? Participants need to know if they are done-done meaning their contribution is finished or are they expected to give additional input like follow-up sessions reviews etc.

 2)    Collect all visual artifacts

Make pictures of the entire poster and all sketch templates. Rolle up the Billboard Poster and take it back home. That’s the main reason why we insist everything is on the poster, so we know what happened in the workshop and what needs to be documented.

3)    Gather feedback look for improvements

We always ask for feedback. I personally dislike the method where everybody has to give a short statement what he liked or disliked. We prefer handing out a short feedback form with four questions.

1.  How did you like the workshop: Choose one of three smilies (smile, ok, sad)
2.  What did you like: a place for remarks
3. What could be improved: a place for remarks
4. Would you recommend this workshop: Yes / No

This can be done in parallel saves time and is completed in two to three minutes. And it is also less embarrassing because after the first two participants praised your nice workshop because it either was nice or they want to be polite, the third person does not know what to say next.

5)    Use the poster to sell your project

Encourage your project sponsor or project owner to go and get other stakeholders into the room after the workshop is completed to discuss the results. It is not unusual the workshop sponsor will be so satisfied with the results he will ask a top manager or decision maker into the room and explain the key findings in five minutes. The only thing you need to do is to ask and suggest if anybody with decision power is available and might have time.

6)    Create a professional documentation

That is a time-consuming task plane minimum two to three days for that. Proper documentation includes the original goal, the business rationale, a list of all participants and information on the location and time schedule and a detailed description and annotation of all workshop results and artifacts. If you want to see an example of such documentation check out #TietoPED2018 Workshop

7)    Word of mouth promotion

If you work in an IT company, show the results to your colleagues and sales managers so they can understand how value is created during workshops. It is similar to the promotion tasks you do when testing your workshop only now you have content and interesting insights you can share.

Having a prominent customer like British Airlines and telling a compelling story of the challenge and the solutions developed in a workshop lets people understand how useful Billboard Workshops are and why they create value.

8)    Prototype the workshop outcome

It’s not always required but if possible create a prototype to collect feedback on the solutions created during the workshop. Documentation is good and necessary, but hardly anybody will read ad twenty, thirty or more page documentation. A prototype can be explored in a view minutes and gives valuable insight if the solutions make sense or not. Your primary target would be end-users and decision makers who did not participate in the workshop.

9)     If No documentation workshop is a waste of time

As you can see from this very long article only the pictures with post-its gives you only a fraction of the information created during a workshop. Workshop artifacts are in general no more than headlines summarizing complex meanings. The documentation reveals the underlying meaning.

Sometimes the prototype itself can be the documentation that you don’t need to write an extensive protocol. In any case, you need something that clearly shows the results of your workshop.

10)   Opportunity to create interest for next workshop

Don’t miss the opportunity to show your documentation, workshop results, and prototypes to anybody who is interested. Tell colleagues about what you are doing. Especially when you are one of those convinced Design Thinkers who have a mission others don’t understand seeing concrete results for customers lets coworkers and Design Thinking skeptics understand what it is all about.

 

Thanks for reading this very long article. If you made it to the last line thanks for your time and please leave a comment what you think?

If you are a project owner-manager and you have an interesting challenge let me know so we can design a workshop together.

 

 

 

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