Designing Design Workshops

PREPARED BY
Designing Design Workshops
Adam Connor, VP Organizational Design & Training – Mad*Pow Jan. 25, 2016

Designing Design Workshops
Workshops and collaborative activities provide teams with the potential to generate
more and better ideas for a solution, allow individual team members to share their
points-of-view, and build consensus around design solutions. However, effective
workshops take more thought than just putting people together in a room. In this
workshop participants will:
• Explore and practice a variety of workshop activities
• Learn when to use which types of activities
• Review best practices for planning workshops
• And learn how to facilitate activities and discussions including advice for dealing
with difficult participants.
OVERVIEW
5

OVERVIEW
6
Who We Are
Mad*Pow is a design agency that improves the experiences people have with
technology, organizations and each other.
Experience Design | Design Strategy | Motivational Design | Organizational Design
Adam Connor
VP Organizational Design & Training, Experience Designer

THE WHYS & WHENS OF
WORKSHOPS
10

Studios, Sprints, Workshops, Whatever…
Workshops are meetings comprised of 1 or more activities in which ALL* participants:
• Are presented with 1 or more questions or challenges
• Explore and provide their answers or ideas for solutions to the given challenge
through hands-on activities
• Work together to (begin to) understand and organize their
perspectives/answers/ideas.
*With the exception of the master facilitator
THE WHYS & WHENS OF WORKSHOPS
11

Workshops can be used to…
• Generate and collect a variety of ideas
• Allow all team members to share their perspectives.
• Build awareness across team members of challenges, perspectives from each other
and the desired solution
• Build a shared vocabulary
• Find consensus around elements of the final solution
• Build a sense of collaboration and of ownership in the solution
• And…
12

Avoiding the all to familiar, and horribly painful…
Swoop-n-poop!
13

Reconsider workshops when…
• Key members of the “team” aren’t willing to participate
• The team (or leadership) is unwilling to move away from an existing solution.
• There aren’t clear objectives or outputs for the workshop
14

The contents (activities and topics) of a workshop are always
determined by the objectives or output that the workshop needs
to achieve.
Understanding where you are in the overall process of your
project can help clarify what your objectives or output should
focus on.
15

16
The Design Thinking Process

17
DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE REFINE
Initial
Insight Plan Release
EVALUATE
Discover
Explore the influences, actors, contexts, triggers, constraints, etc. of a problem or
opportunity set.

18
DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE
Initial
Insight Plan
Synthesize
Organize findings into insights: what the group believes and understands about the
problem space and articulating the objectives for the future state that the project will
work to create.

19
DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE
Initial
Insight Plan
Generate
Generate a large number of ideas for “solutions” (products, services, etc.) for achieving
the desired objectives.

20
Initial
Refine
Iterate, combine, and eliminate solutions based on analysis and appropriate variables
while increasing fidelity until one (or a small number) of solutions are determined.

21
Initial
EVALUATE
Evaluate
Deploy the solution(s) in some form and monitor it’s effect on the problem space.

22
Initial
EVALUATE

MAKING IT WORK
STRUCTURE & PLANNING
23

24
Bringing people together to work collaboratively
can be so challenging sometimes?

The Diamond Model
25

The Diamond Model
26
Divergent
Working to collect as
many answers, ideas, etc.
as possible from the
group.

The Diamond Model
27
Convergent
Making decisions to focus
attention on a subset of
what has been collected.

The Diamond Model
28

The Diamond Model
29
Emergent
Analyzing and organizing
ideas/answers/etc. in order
to make sense of them.
During this time, some new
ideas might arise, or be
consolidated together.

You keep using
that word…
I do not think
it means what
you think it
means.

Planning Backwards
• Identify the immediate next action you need to be able to take once the workshop
is complete.
• Ask yourself what information, decisions, artifacts, or answers you need in order to
be able to take that action.
• Ask yourself the same question again and repeat until you reach whatever
information you currently have.
• You now have an information trail from your current state to your desired future
state. Select the best activities to acquire this information and decide what can be
accomplished in your workshop or as pre or post work.
32

Time is a resource. Plan accordingly.

All About Agendas
• You’ll need one. It helps you figure out what you can get done in the time you have.
• Don’t save it for last. (It’s usually the second… and fourth... and sixth thing I do)
• Give everything specific timings, not general blocks like “early morning”.
• If things feel tight when putting together an agenda, they’ll probably seem worse in
the actual workshop.
• Pad everything. Things almost always take longer than you think they will. Plus you’ll
need time for transitions, instructions, clarifications, etc.
• Remember that the time needed for many activities will be depended on the
number of participants.
• Have others look it over and give you their OK, especially if leadership is involved.
34

DISCOVER
38
Initial
EVALUATE
Discover
Explore the influences, actors, contexts, triggers, constraints, etc. of a problem or
opportunity set.

For many projects, much of the gathering of information will be
done via research.
However, gathering perspectives from participants (such as stakeholders) will still be
important. For example:
• Understanding various perspectives of the challenges to be solved.
• Understanding the roles associated with a project’s execution.
• Understanding initial objectives (i.e. goals and principles).
DISCOVER
39

Challenge Map
DISCOVER
40
USE TO
Reframe a problem space by exploring perspectives on
why it should be done and challenges to it’s success.
PARTICIPANTS
Work in pairs or triplets.
TIME
Minimum of 25 minutes. More depending on the scope
& number of participants.
HOW TO DO IT
1. Divide into small groups (2-3 people per group). Each team will then:
2. Write the current problem statement in the form of “How might we…” on a
post-it and place it in the center whiteboard (or butcher paper)
3. Using a different color post it, ask the question, “Why should we do this?”
Capturing each answer on an individual post it and placing them in a row
above the original statement. Preface each answer again with “How might
we…” or (HMW…) for short.
4. For each answer, repeat step 3, continuing to expand outward and upward
until the team feels the answers it’s uncovering are no longer useful.
5. Select a third color post it and begin working below the original problem
statement. Here you will challenge the problem statement with “What is
preventing us from doing this?” or “What is preventing this from happening
today?” Again, include the HWM... preface.
6. Continue, moving downward in the same fasion as you did for the question
of “Why” in steps 3 & 4.
7. Examine all of the answers and determine if one or more would might make
more apporpriate problem statements.
8. Have each group share their results looking for patterns and overlap.

Challenge Map
DISCOVER
41
TIPS & CONSIDERATIONS
1. Left unchecked, this activity can go on forever. Master and group facilitators
should look for diminishing returns to determine when best to end.
MATERIALS
Whiteboard (or butcher/flipchart paper)
Post Its (3 colors)
Markers
PAIRS WELL WITH
Follow up with activities to evaluate the potential new
problem statements. Activities like SWOT Analysis,
20/20 Vision, and voting-based exercises can work well.

Free Listing
DISCOVER
45
USE TO
Gather data about a group’s understanding of the
“contents” of a specific topic.
PARTICIPANTS
2 or more people working individually
TIME
5-10 minutes for initial collection. Time needed for
presenting and organizing items will be variable.
HOW TO DO IT
1. Provide participants with a topic related to the purpose of the project or
workshop. For example, “auto insurance”
2. Ask participants to individually write down as many things as they can
related to auto insurance.
3. Depending on how you plan to analyze and organize participants answers
you may want them to write each item on a separate note card or post it, or
write all answers on a sheet of paper.

Free Listing
DISCOVER
46
MATERIALS
Post Its, note cards, or paper
Markers
Tape
PAIRS WELL WITH
Often followed up with affinity mapping activities.
1. Depending on how you plan to analyze and organize participants answers
you may want them to write each item on a separate note card or post it
(for use when affinity mapping), or write all answers on a sheet of paper.
2. When following with affinity mapping, have participants present their
responses to each other. Posting each item on the wall as they present.
WHY WE USE IT
By gathering the items that people come up with we can then compare
similarities and frequencies of topics to understand more about the perspective
of the group as a whole.

4Cs
DISCOVER
47
USE TO
Build an understanding of a group’s perspectives on a
specific topic.
PARTICIPANTS
4 - 24 people
TIME
25 – 30 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
1. Draw a large 2x2 grid on an easel pad or whiteboard. Label the 4 spaces:
Components, Characteristics, Challenges, Characters
2. Provide participants with a topic related to the purpose of the project
or workshop. For example, “auto insurance”
3. Explain to participants that the activity’s purpose is to help them
explore what they know about the selected topic by having them
gather information with respect to each of the 4 spaces:
• Components: parts of the topic.
• Characteristics, attributes of the topic
• Challenges: obstacles associated with the topic
• Characters: people or roles associated with the topic.
4. Break participants into four equally sized teams. Assign each team one
of the “C”s and provide them with post it notes and markers.
5. Instruct the teams that their job is to collect as much information
about their assigned “C” from others in the room. Give the teams 5
minutes to discuss their assigned “C” and how they will gather
information.

4Cs
DISCOVER
48
USE TO
Build an understanding of a group’s perspectives on a
specific topic.
PARTICIPANTS
4 - 24 people
TIME
25 – 30 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
6. Once the 5 minute planning period has elapsed, give the teams 10minutes
to gather information from as many of the other participants as possible.
7. At the end of the 10 minute gathering period, give each team 5 minutes to
organize what they’ve captured in whatever way they deem appropriate
and then add their organized findings to their space on the original 2x2
grid.
8. Have each team present their findings to the others and facilitate
discussion to ask clarifying questions and have other participants add
information if they sense something missing.

4Cs
DISCOVER
49
MATERIALS
Post Its
Markers
Easel Pad or Whiteboard
PAIRS WELL WITH
Often followed by further explorations into problem
framing (challenge maps), principles or goals (free
listing), personas (proto-personas) etc.
1. You don’t need to use the 4Cs as laid out here. If there are other elements of
the topic more appropriate for your situation, use those instead.
WHY WE USE IT
Team members come to projects with their own perspectives which is
important, but one aspect of good collaboration is seeing the perspectives of
others. This activity forces participants to gather information from other
members of the team. It also acts as a strong introduction to the group’s
perspectives setting the stage for discussions on personas, principles, scenarios,
etc.

SYNTHESIZE
51
Initial
EVALUATE
Synthesize
Organize findings into insights: what the group believes and understands
about the problem space and articulating the objectives for the future state
that the project will work to create.

During “Synthesize” the team builds a shared understanding of
both the current state surrounding the problem space as well as
their objectives and vision for it’s future.
Work done during this phase often focuses on these aspects:
• The framing of the “problem” or “opportunity”
• Establishing Personas
• Identifying Goals (OKRs)
• Articulating Principles
• Constructing Scenarios
SYNTHESIZE
52

Proto-Personas
SYNTHESIZE
53
USE TO
Develop an understanding of the team’s perspectives
on the needs, constraints, and contexts of their
audience/users.
PARTICIPANTS
Up to 10 people
TIME
3-5 hours, typically divided over 2 sessions. Additional
time in between sessions needed for consolidation.
HOW TO DO IT
1. Introduce the concept of personas and proto-personas (as necessary).
2. Provide participants with proto-persona templates, or have them construct
their own (paper divided into quadrants labeled: Name & Sketch,
Demographics, Behaviors, Needs & Goals.
3. Working individually, give participants 15 minutes to come up with as many
personas as they can think of for the project.
4. Once time is up, have each participant present their personas to the group,
posting them to the wall as they do.
5. Work with the team to select 4-5 characteristics that can be conveyed as a
spectrum (ex: risk aversion) based on the pool of personas. These
characteristics will be used to help organize the personas and identify
opportunities to consolidate. Try to select characteristics related to
behaviors/needs/goals rather than demographics.
6. Draw the spectrums on a whiteboard. Have the group decide where the
each persona falls on each spectrum, placing a post it with that persona’s
name at that point. Voting cards can be useful here.
7. Make sure that conversations focus on the users themselves. Participants
should be debating each other, not trying to convince you (the facilitator).

Proto-Personas
SYNTHESIZE
54
USE TO
Develop an understanding of the team’s perspectives
on the needs, constraints, and contexts of their
audience/users.
PARTICIPANTS
Up to 10 people
TIME
3-5 hours, typically divided over 2 sessions. Additional
time in between sessions needed for consolidation.
HOW TO DO IT
8. Once all personas have been placed, end the first day/session with a quick
description of the next session’s work.
9. Before the next session, examine the personas that have been generated
and work to refine/consolidate them into a smaller set (3-5ish) as necessary.
Keep track of your work as in some cases you’ll need to explain your
rationale to the group.
• For this step, combine the demographics and name/sketch quadrants from the first
round and use the lower left quadrant for the personas positioning on the
characteristic spectrums.
10.When the group gathers again, present them with the new set of personas
and how you arrived at them.
11.Allow the group to adjust the new personas as necessary to reach
agreement.

Proto-Personas
SYNTHESIZE
55
1. Large groups can make this activity somewhat difficult. When dealing with
significantly large groups it can be useful to break out into multiple sessions
and run the just the first session with each sub group, then the second
session with a core, decision making group.
2. If the entire group is sufficiently small enough, you may be able to do the
persona consolidation together.
3. When dividing over 2 sessions, do not allow too much time to elapse
between sessions. Too much time in between kills momentum.
WHY WE USE IT
Personas are a useful tool for understanding user/customer archetypes. But projects
don’t always allow for them or sometimes we need to talk about users before they’ve
been created. This approach allows organizations to build upon and later validate or
invalidate their understanding of their audience earlier in the process.
MATERIALS
Post Its (3 colors)
Markers
PAIRS WELL WITH
Follow up with additional exploration like empathy
mapping and/or journey mapping. Or possibly with
brainstorming activities like Design Studio or 6-8-5.

Empathy Mapping
SYNTHESIZE
60
USE TO
Help participants empathize with specific audiences in
a given situation.
PARTICIPANTS
Teams of up to 6 people.
TIME
20-25 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
1. Prior to this activity, make sure that the team has developed proto-personas
or is familiar with any personas developed for the project key use cases have
been identified.
2. Assign a persona and use case to each group. You can select the same or
different combinations for each group depending on your needs.
3. Provide each team with an empathy map template or have them construct
on easel pad paper (see image).
4. Give each team 20-25 minutes to capture what their persona is sensing
(seeing/hearing/etc.), thinking, feeling, and doing when they encounter the
assigned use case. Each item captured should be written on a post it and
placed in the appropriate section of the template.

Empathy Mapping
SYNTHESIZE
61
MATERIALS
Post Its (3 colors)
Markers
PAIRS WELL WITH
Follow up with current state-journey mapping.
1. Depending on the number of personas and use cases/scenarios that you
need to cover, distributing different combinations across the teams in your
workshop can be a good way to cover more ground.
WHY WE USE IT
Designing for experiences requires teams to think about how people think,
feel and perceive specific situations. By thinking through how a situation
affects an individual, teams can better understand their behavior as they
work through it towards their goal.

Design the Magazine Cover
SYNTHESIZE
64
USE TO
Envision key characteristics, features, and outcomes of
the future product or service the project will create.
PARTICIPANTS
TIME
30-40 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
1. Provide each team with one or more sheets of easel pad paper.
2. Instruct each team to imagine that a magazine is running a special issue all
about their future product/service/organization. The sheet of paper
represents the cover of the issue. Their job is to determine the contents of
that cover in 20 minutes. Their contents should include the following:
• Feature Story: The big thing people will be talking about related to the
product/service/organization
• Key Headlines: Other stories that reinforce or explore other angles to the
feature story.
• Quotes: things people, often customers, but can be anyone, will say about the
future creation.
• Ideas for images: images reflective on the new future state the creation will
bring about.
• Sidebars: Smaller stories that reveal interesting facets of the feature story.
(often personal experiences)
3. As the facilitator, remind teams as they work that this is a magazine cover.
Imagine it sitting on the rack, trying to grab people’s attention.

SYNTHESIZE
65
USE TO
Envision key characteristics, features, and outcomes of
the future product or service the project will create.
PARTICIPANTS
TIME
30-40 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
4. Have each team present their magazine covers and describe why they
made the selections they did.
5. As a group identify and capture any significant similarities and differences
between the different team’s magazine covers. And discuss whether these
similarities or differences are indicative of characteristics (principles) of the
future creation, use cases/features, personas, or other elements.

SYNTHESIZE
66
MATERIALS
Easel Pads
Markers (various colors)
PAIRS WELL WITH
Future-state journey or scenario mapping as well as
activities to explore/refine principles.
1. A blank page can be intimidating. It can be useful to prepare templates
ahead of time for the teams.
2. Give the teams additional paper to brainstorm and capture ideas before
putting together their final cover.
WHY WE USE IT
This activity pushes teams to think from an outside-in perspective about how
the world will perceive what they create, what will be the most valuable aspects
of their creation and how might that value be seen/experienced. This activity
can be used to begin to surface key principles or features/use cases or further
explore principles and use cases that have already been noted by the group.

Other Common Activities for Synthesis
Journey Mapping (Current & Future State)
Mapping the flow of an end to end user journey across channels and touch points to
identify opportunities and challenges (current state) or objectives (future state)
Scenario Mapping
Mapping the ideal (future) sequence of thoughts, emotions, and interactions a user
will have with a product or service for a specific use case.
Goal & Principle Setting
Identifying goals and principles for the product/service/organization. Often through a
combination of research, free-listing, affinity mapping and prioritization/voting.
Affinity Mapping (KJ Technique)
Identifying common perspectives within a group for a given topic by arranging answers
in proximity to one another based on how similar they are.
SYNTHESIZE
67

MAKING IT WORK
TEAMS, ROLES, & FACILITATION
70

Don’t just throw people together.
• Workshops can be done with any group. Think about your objectives for the
workshop and their implications for who you should invite. In many cases you’ll
want to go for cross-functional representation.
• Don’t forget to include stakeholders.
• Understand the roles, needs, and influence of participants (i.e. who needs to sign
off and who is there more for awareness).
• Though in a workshop, you should treat everyone as equals, it’s useful to know who your
gatekeepers are.
• To the degree you can, get a sense for individuals’ personalities prior to the
workshop.
72

How you put people together makes all the difference.
• Teams are an effective way of making workshops with large numbers of people
work.
• They can also be useful tools for exploring various perspectives.
• Try to keep them to no more than 6 people per team.
• Most of the time, teams should be cross-functional.
• Think about the personalities of people in each team and try to avoid bad
combinations.
• Each team will need a facilitator.
74

Roles
Owner
Responsible for planning the workshop and defining it’s success criteria. During the workshop Leaders often take
the participant role.
Master Facilitator
Responsible for helping to plan the workshop, guiding all participants through the workshop agenda, providing
activity instructions, and facilitating discussions.
Team Facilitators
Responsible for making sure their group carries out activities as directed. Also, to observe discussions and take
notes as applicable. May participate in activities depending on setup.
Recorder
Responsible for taking public notes of important points, questions, to-dos, parking lot items, etc.
Participant
Responsible for contributing and participating in all activities and discussions.
75

Facilitation is about establishing boundaries and keeping the
workshop within them so that it reaches it’s objective.
77
START FINISH

Without (enough) binding and guidance, things can go anywhere
and possibly never reach the objectives needed.
78
START FINISH

Too much binding and guidance can cause the workshop to feel
constricting and forced.
79
START FINISH

Good facilitation (and planning) directs the workshop towards it’s
objectives while keeping it feeling open.
Remember: Facilitation is a skill. It takes practice.
80
START FINISH

Facilitating Activities & Discussions
• Silence can be both good and bad. Be on the lookout for it.
• Be a time cop, but also give people time to finish their thoughts or reach
agreement. Don’t be afraid to let them go on long or cut them off if necessary.
Know when to hold boundaries and when to let them slide.
• Be prepared to adjust your agenda on the fly. Always know where you are. Make
calculated decisions on how to proceed.
• Watch out for group think and design-by-committee. Use framing tools, output from
prior activates, research, etc. to steer back to what matters.
• Facilitators should be unbiased
81

Facilitating Activities & Discussions
• Summarize arguments, conclusions, etc.
• Look for understanding. Check to make sure everyone understands what is being
talked about.
• Look for emotions in participants.
• Ask lots of questions. Play dumb. “Why?” is your weapon of choice.
• Be transparent. Let people know why you’re doing things.
• Use a parking lot. It sounds lame, but it works so long as you follow through with it.
• As you move through activities recap and refer back to observations and
conclusions from previous ones.
82

Yes. You will have to deal
with difficult people.

Recognizing “Difficult” People
• Sometime it’s pretty obvious.
• Signals can include:
• Dominating conversations. Talking over people. Ignoring what others are saying.
• Not Participating. Being closed of both verbally and physically.
• Not staying in scope. Introducing topics and questions outside the bounds of the workshop.
84

Handling “Difficult” People
• Remember that someone’s difficult nature isn’t always a reflection of their evil plans
for world domination.
• Use open ended questions to work at finding the root of their concerns,
misunderstandings, etc.
• Like most things in facilitation, forms of the question, “why?” are your best friends here.
• Work with them to relate points back to any previous activity output, objectives,
problem framing, etc.
• Use your parking lot.
• Call time-out, regroup, and adjust if necessary.
85

GENERATE
89
Initial
EVALUATE
Generate
Generate a large number of ideas for “solutions” (products, services, etc.) for
achieving the desired objectives.

Bad Ideas
GENERATE
90
USE TO
Explore what “shouldn’t” be done in order to better
understand the contexts of a topic and potential real
solutions.
PARTICIPANTS
2 or more people.
TIME
30 – 40 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
1. Prior to the workshop or activity, select a challenge/topic you’d like
participants to generate solutions for.
2. Assemble participants into teams, provide each team with markers and an
easel pad/paper.
3. Present the challenge to the team, and ask each team to work at creating
(sketching) the worst solution possible over the course of the next 10
minutes.
4. Set your timer for 10 minutes and have the teams begin.
5. When 10 minutes are up, have each team swap their solution with another.
6. Each team then has 10 minutes to imagine and write/sketch the
circumstances in which the “bad” solution would be a good one.
7. When time elapses, have each team present the bad idea they were given
and the reframed circumstances they came up with that would make it a
good idea. Allow for 3-5 minutes for each team.
Let’s Have lunch at
McDonalds!

Bad Ideas
GENERATE
91
MATERIALS
Paper
Markers
Tape
PAIRS WELL WITH
Follow up with additional brainstorming such as 6-8-5,
Design Studio, or Lens Brainstorming.
1. This activity works best for broader conceptual challenges (ex: How might
we make the experience of foreclosure less stressful) than “detail design”
questions (ex: how should our application form work).
WHY WE USE IT
We often misunderstand “bad” as being the opposite for good, and in our
search for good ideas we unconsciously cut ourselves off from a whole set of
solutions.
By examining what bad ideas might look like, and subsequently looking at
situation in which they become good, we both expand our creativity by
breaking down our aversion to “bad” as well as potentially surface ideas we
wouldn’t otherwise consider.
Let’s Have lunch at
McDonalds!

Lens Brainstorm
GENERATE
93
How might we…
make saving for college
more rewarding?
USE TO
Generate ideas for solutions to a problem space that
satisfy a specific set of characteristics.
PARTICIPANTS
3 or more people.
TIME
10 minutes for initial collection.
3-5 minutes per person for presentation.
HOW TO DO IT
1. Select a challenge/problem space and set of 3-5 adjectives that describe the
experience the group would like their future creation to elicit.
2. Instruct participants that they will be brainstorming solutions for the
challenge in accordance with the selected adjectives.
3. You will provide the prompt in the form of “How might we [challenge] more
[adjective]? Example: How might we make saving for college more
rewarding?
4. Let participants know that they will have 90 seconds per adjective and will
write down one idea per post it.
5. Begin the brainstorm with the prompt for the first adjective. After 90
seconds, repeat the prompt using the next adjective. Repeat until you have
gone through all of the selected adjectives.
6. Have each participant share their ideas with the rest of the group, posting
them to the wall as they go.

Lens Brainstorm
GENERATE
94
MATERIALS
Post Its
Markers
PAIRS WELL WITH
Often followed by affinity mapping to identify common
ideas and outliers (which aren’t necessarily bad ideas)
1. The adjectives you use can be anything (there is an original set based on the
activities origins in game design). One good source of adjectives are the
efforts design principles if any have been established.
WHY WE USE IT
A lens brainstorm (often paired with affinity mapping) can act as a good catalyst
for a more detailed design brainstorm such as a Design Studio.
How might we…
make saving for college
more rewarding?

6-8-5
GENERATE
95
USE TO
Generate a large number of ideas or answers to a given
challenge or questions.
PARTICIPANTS
2 or more people.
TIME
25 – 35 minutes per round
HOW TO DO IT
participants to generate solutions for.
2. Provide participants with paper folded (or divided) into 2 x 2 or 2 x 3 grids.
3. Instruct participants that their task will be to–working individually– sketch
their ideas for the proposed topic using the provided paper with one
idea/division. They will have 5 minutes to sketch as many ideas as they can
with the goal of coming up to 6-8.
4. Set your timer for 5 minutes and have the participants begin sketching.
5. When 5 minutes have elapsed, provide each participant with 3-5 minutes to
present and discuss their ideas with the whole group (or team if your
workshop is broken into multiple teams)
6. Repeat the process as you see fit to collect more ideas, coaching participants
to try to generate new ideas based on what they’ve seen in the previous
rounds.

6-8-5
GENERATE
96
MATERIALS
Paper
Markers
Tape
PAIRS WELL WITH
Critique (see Design Studio) and voting based activities
1. In order to maintain divergence, focus questions and discussion on
clarification and explanation rather than analysis.
WHY WE USE IT
Useful for giving participants an opportunity to express how they think a
product or service might look/work. Like other divergent thinking activities, this
activity also pushes participants beyond their initial idea, which typically are not
the “best” ideas to emerge.
Also useful as an alternative when the time available doesn’t work for a larger
Design Studio activity.

Other Common Activities for Generation
Brain Writing
“Silent” brainstorming, in which participants add their ideas to lists of ideas generated
by other participants using those lists as inspiration.
What if?
A variation for use with other brainstorming activities where the facilitator selectively
adds or removes a constraint to the problem space.
SYNTHESIZE
97

REFINE
109
Initial
EVALUATE
Refine
Iterate, combine, and eliminate solutions based on analysis and appropriate
variables while increasing fidelity until one (or a small number) of solutions
are determined.

Affinity Mapping
REFINE
110
USE TO
Allow teams to find shared ideas as well as outliers.
PARTICIPANTS
2 or more people.
TIME
1-3 hours depending on the number of participants
HOW TO DO IT
1. Begin with a large pool of related items posted to a wall. For example, the
output of a Lens Brainstorm or Free Listing exercise.
2. Instruct the group to move items to another wall (or a space far enough on
the current wall) arranging them in groups according to how similar they are
to form “clusters” of similar items.
• Participants work individually, simultaneously, and shouldn’t discuss as they work.
• They can move items into groups created by others or rearrange groups that don’t
make sense to them.
3. Once all items have been moved to the new wall or space and any
rearrangement seems to have diminished, end this phase of the activity.
4. Next, work with the group to assign a name to each cluster. Review the
contents of the cluster with the group and allow them to suggest names. If
the group agrees that a cluster represents more than one theme, break it
apart.

Affinity Mapping
REFINE
111
USE TO
Allow teams to find shared ideas as well as outliers.
PARTICIPANTS
2 or more people.
TIME
HOW TO DO IT
5. Review the groups and the potential group names with the participants.
Have participants select a preferred group label (You may use a simple
show-of-hands vote if necessary).

Affinity Mapping
REFINE
112
MATERIALS
Post its
Markers
PAIRS WELL WITH
Preceded by Free Listing or other brainstorming
activities. Followed by voting activities.
WHY WE USE IT
Understanding similarities and outliers can be helpful for discussions of priority,
as well as to identify outlier ideas that can, at times, hold interesting solutions
that are otherwise overlooked.

Dot Voting
REFINE
114
USE TO
Determine relative priority or interest in concepts
based on participant selection
PARTICIPANTS
3 or more people.
TIME
10 – 15 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
1. Determine a total number of votes each participant will be given. 3 and 5
are common choices.
2. Begin with a pool of options for the team to select from. Review them with
the participants and allow participants to ask clarifying questions as needed.
related items posted to a wall. For example, the output of a Lens Brainstorm
or Free Listing exercise.
3. Instruct participants to select the ideas they believe are most important (or
most worth pursuing, etc.) and note place dots next to them. If they think an
idea is particularly important, they may vote more than once.
4. Participants will place their votes simultaneously.
5. Tally the votes and arrange the items according to most to least votes.
Discuss the resulting arrangement with the group. Are there any surprises?

Dot Voting
REFINE
115
MATERIALS
Dot Stickers
PAIRS WELL WITH
Precede with critique in order to help make sure voting
considers relative value of ideas..
1. There are many variations on this activity, including blind voting ant the
$100 test.
2. Sometimes, participants will change their votes during voting based on
where they see others placing their votes. If concerned about this, an
alternative is to have all participants write their votes down on a piece of
paper and then give that paper to another participant who will cast their
votes .
WHY WE USE IT
While it might seem overly simple, this activity is a quick and simple way to see
where a group’s relative interests lie and can be useful in selecting priorities and
directing future conversations.

Design Studio
REFINE
119
USE TO
Generate a large number of ideas and then build
consensus around the most valuable through iteration
and consolidation.
PARTICIPANTS
2 or more people.
TIME
HOW TO DO IT
participants to generate solutions for, typically a scenario for use of your
product or service.
2. If needed, arrange participants in teams of up to 6 people.
3. Provide participants with paper folded (or divided) into 2 x 2 or 2 x 3 grids.
4. Instruct participants that their task will be to–working individually– sketch as
many ideas as possible for their solution in 8 minutes.
5. At the end of 8 minutes, give each participant 3-5 minutes to have each
team member present and critique their ideas with their teammates.
6. Once all participants have presented and received critique, have each
participant sketch one idea for a solution based now on their previous ideas,
the ideas of their teammates, the critiques they heard, and any new ideas
that may have popped into their head. Again, participants will use the
divided paper and have 8 minutes to sketch.
7. Again, once time is up, give each participant 3-5 minutes to have each team
member present and critique their ideas with their teammates.
8. This time, participants will their solutions to their teammates quickly and
then critique them with the Participants may use the divided paper as they
wish.

Design Studio
REFINE
120
USE TO
Generate a large number of ideas and then build
consensus around the most valuable through iteration
and consolidation.
PARTICIPANTS
2 or more people.
TIME
HOW TO DO IT
9. Once each team member has presented and received critique, instruct each
team that they will now be given 20 minutes to work together to sketch a
single solution based on all of the ideas and critiques they’ve hear up until
now, using whole (undivided) sheets of paper.
10.At the end of 20 minutes, give each team 5-8 minutes to present their
solution to the others and receive critique.
11.Close with a discussion of the similarities and differences between the
concepts the teams came up with.

Design Studio
REFINE
121
MATERIALS
Paper
Markers
Tape
PAIRS WELL WITH
Follow up with prototyping.
1. Depending on the scope of the project/workshop, you may find it useful to
assign different teams different persona/scenario combinations. However
this eliminates your ability to compare how different teams evolve solutions
for the same contexts.
WHY WE USE IT
Design Studio works well to provide teams with an outlet to share their ideas for
detailed designs and interactions as well as find and build consensus in a final
direction based on value rather than personal preference.

Other Common Activities for Refinement
Critique
Critical Thinking based discussion of an idea to analyze it against its objectives and
determine which aspect do or do not work towards them and why.
Prototyping
Creating a representation of the creation that can be interacted with by users in order
to understand its effect on their experience.
REFINE
122

3 Kinds of Feedback
REFINE
Reaction
Direction
Critique
Good lord! That’s awful! An inebriated cocker spaniel
could have done better!
You should have made all of those radio buttons a drop
down [,because…]
If the objective is for users to consider the impact to their
bank balance before making a purchase, placing the balance
at the bottom of the screen at the same size as all the other
numbers isn’t effective because it gets lost in all of the other
information.
123

The Critique Framework
REFINE
What is an objective of the design?
Which elements or aspects of the design are relevant to the objective?
Are those elements effective in achieving the objective?
Why or why not?
124

REFINE
If the objective is for users to consider the impact to
their bank balance before making a purchase…
Why or why not?
125

REFINE
…placing the balance at the bottom of the screen at
the same size as all the other numbers…
Why or why not?
126

REFINE
…isn’t effective…
Why or why not?
127

REFINE
…isn’t effective…
Why or why not?
…because it gets lost in all of the other information.
128

MAKING IT WORK
LOGISTICS & LITTLE THINGS
129

Materials
• Gather the appropriate materials based on your selected activities. Always bring
extra.
Common Materials
• Post Its (Various Colors & Sizes)
• Markers (Various Colors)
• Blank Paper
• Easel Pads
• Tape (we use painters tape)
• Index Cards
• Dot Stickers
• A Timer
• Printouts can be useful. Think about anything that participants might need for
reference.
LOGISTICS
130
Sometimes Useful
• Pipe Cleaners
• Block/Bricks
• Foam
• Scissors
• Video Camera

Space
• Make sure the space is large enough. It can get loud when groups are working and
discussing. You need enough space for each team to not feel crowded and for
people to be able to move around freely.
• Sometimes breakout rooms can be useful, but they can also complicate overall facilitation and
transporting of things back and forth.
• Plenty of wall space for posting ideas and notes (and the blessing of facilities to do
so)
• Good lighting, including daylight
• Whiteboard
LOGISTICS
131

Setup
LOGISTICS
132
This! Not This. Or This.

Back To Agendas
• Make sure you incorporate breaks. Try for 15-20 minute breaks every 90-120
minutes.
• Lunch should be no less than 45 minutes. Try to avoid “working lunches.”
• Provide snacks (and lunch if possible). Not just caffeine and sugar though.
• Don’t start before 9 and don’t end after 5. 9:30-4:30 is good.
• Never plan to start on time.
LOGISTICS
133

Here lie our best intentions….

We often look backwards and wish we’d done things differently.
What if we looked ahead and tried to predict what might go
wrong so we can be prepared.
WRAPPING UP
142

Premortem
WRAPPING UP
143
USE TO
Help teams prepare for predictable obstacles to their
success.
TIME
20 – 25 minutes
HOW TO DO IT
1. Ask the group to share their concerns and ideas about the things that will
prevent the project and their efforts from succeeding. Capture these items
on a whiteboard as you go.
2. After about 10 minutes, switch to discussing what will be needed to prevent
the obstacles from occurring or to avoid their derailment of the project.
3. Capture these comments alongside their problems they address. surprises?
How WILL OUR
EFFORTS FAIL?

Closing Out The Workshop
• Review the insights that emerged over the course of the workshop: patterns,
outliers, assumptions, agreements, etc.
• Don’t expect workshops to produce THE answer. Instead they are more like
research, they point you in the direction of the answer(s).
• Share next steps and assign responsibility if necessary (there are activities that can
help with this as well). The key to a successful workshop is MOMENTUM.
• And… THANK EVERYONE!
LOGISTICS
145

THANK YOU!
146
Adam Connor
VP Organizational Design & Training, Experience Designer
aconnor@madpow.net
Twitter: @adamconnor

Designing Design Workshops

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Designing Design Workshops

Similar to Designing Design Workshops (20)

More from Adam Connor

More from Adam Connor (15)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Designing Design Workshops