design thinking workshop ground rulesdesign thinking workshop ground rules

Have you ever started a workshop where the participants are a little overwhelmed at what the buzzword design thinking means? Starting with these simple examples of different cakes is a great way to achieve this. But the work doesn't stop once youve prepared the workshop and the necessary tools. In the final stage of the Design Thinking process, we are capturing honest responses and feedback, by inviting our end-user to a glimpse into what the final outcome might look like. Common approaches in Design Thinking include empathy maps, storyboards, activity networks and cluster matrices. A workshop is a great way to introduce Design Thinking methodology to a company, but it doesnt end there. We can ensure the success of the Workshop by asking the participants about any particular projects that could benefit from these techniques. Also, don't hesitate to delegate certain tasks to the participants. Think about the time you have available and divide it up logically. There's often not a whole lot of difference between outrageous and brilliant. A way in which you could continue their Design Thinking learning might be to check in a few days or a week after the workshop for further feedback. 1. Is it to uncover new opportunities, solve a specific user problem, or improve a product or feature? Running a successful Design Thinking workshop starts with knowing what you want. Product design workshops are an opportunity for a team to untangle a problem together by going through a series of group exercises designed to get to a specific outcome. ! Treat everyone as a peer. Capitalize on business opportunity by developing a harmonized digital strategy and transforming your organization. Summaries can be shared early in the session to quickly level-set, while raw data can be referenced during activities or decision making. Dynamic groups who are used to problem-solving may come up with an idea straight away, and decide that they are definitely going to run with that as their solution. But how can we make it easier for newbies to grasp the five stages of the design thinking process and see how they can apply them in their day-to-day work? While putting together your workshop agenda, concentrate on deliverables rather than focusing too heavily on creating a prescription for every moment of the day. However, the process is applicable to a wide range of obstacles facing individuals and teams. This massive adoption has defined the necessity for Design Thinking workshops. By keeping in mind what, why and how for each Design Thinking stage and contextualizing the topic into something relatable, we can give clarity on Design Thinking and deliver it as simply as a piece of cake. Stage Two Tools: Unpacking, Sensemaking, and Insights In this case, you can still solve a real-world problem based on their product and industry. Your email address will not be published. This will allow the project to obtain greater internal support, since all the stakeholders will have been involved from the get-go. Well finish this exercise with a selection of ideas to bring through and prototype. Using Post-it notes, theyll describe the functionality of each button; for example adds item to basket. This is because it opens up a challenge to a more diverse range of experiences, skill sets, and knowledge bases. If you do not have recent or robust user personas, consider drafting a set in advance it is much faster to challenge and change user personas during the workshop than build them from scratch. How to run a UX design workshop by Andreas Johansson; Three Types of narratives to build amazing workshop experiences or really any of Daniel Stillman's writings; Managing Discussions by Matt Leighninger more ground rules, including "Bob's Rules," this is part of a series of 3 blogs entries on facilitation Start by introducing an ideation technique of your choice. To review a set of ground rules and select the most important ones . This will allow them to see the benefits of the approach, and maybe it will open up other opportunities for you to use this methodology within the company. Take a user-centered approach and ask your participants for feedback. A birthday cake is designed and baked for several people. Someone might say, Lets bake a chocolate sponge cake, everyone likes chocolate, and a few other people nod and murmur in agreement. quality of your facilitation during the workshop is a determining factor of the success of your project and of your clients satisfaction. If there is time, you can create an exercise to develop questions from closed statements and assumptions, into open questions that dont lead the person. We then move into the Define stage of the design process, where we will create Personas of our partners based on their responses in the Empathize stage. Design Thinking activities, such as empathy maps and user stories are a convenient way for organizing detailed user research. We based ourselves on our recent experience: week long workshops to rethink customer experiences, involving up to thirty participants. Based on the five phases of Design Thinking, a Design Thinking workshop focuses on: Empathy: Getting to grips with a real user problem and building empathy for the target users / customers. Was there anything that surprised them? Ready to run an unforgettable Design Thinking workshop? In this guide, well show you how to run an effective design thinking workshop. Further down, youll find more information to help you with each checklist item. How to run the design thinking for beginners workshop How baking a cake can explain design thinking Step 1: Empathize Step 2: Define Step 3: Ideate Step 4: Prototype Step 5: Test Tips for teaching design thinking How to run the design thinking for beginners workshop This means aligning on what is feasible by when, and drawing a line in the sand. What data was used to inform them? . Design Thinking has become an extremely popular approach to problem-solvingnot only among designers, but across all areas of business. Safety is also an important factor., Activityreframe the problem as a how might we question (10 minutes): Now, participants will turn the users needs into a how might we question. Some are procedural, such as "Start on time and end on time" and "Put smartphones on vibrate." Procedural ground rules are useful but don't help your. After 5 minutes, share results among the group. Participants . A definition of what Design Thinking is. If time permits, allow 15-20 minutes at the start of every day for icebreaker activities or energizing moments. How? ), Reverse brainstormingthis is where you focus on the causes of the problem rather than the solution, Rapid ideationeach person writes down as many ideas as possible within a set timeframe, Worst ideaask everyone to come up with their worst idea to solve the problem. As a facilitator, we should ensure that everyone comes away from the workshop feeling empowered, with more clarity on what Design Thinking means, and how they can apply the methods to real-life projects. With clarity about the goals and priorities of the team, the final step of the workshop is to put the minimum experience requirements into writing. We are designing our approach to creative thinking by going through a proven process in a mindful and self-reflexive way in order to find better solutions. If youre running a workshop for a client, you might print display advertising campaigns from three of their biggest competitors, for example. the stakes, the business objectives and your client's needs will make you not only a relevant facilitator, but a good facilitator. It is often used to solve complex problems which dont have a straightforward outcome while keeping people at the center of the discussion. All these benefits aside, Design Thinking workshops are incredibly fun and engaging. Within a workshop context, facilitators typically focus on the five stages of Design Thinking to encourage collaboration, creative problem solving, and innovation from each member of the group. Keep in mind that the experience your clients will have during your workshops is the way they will remember you. Indeed, Design Thinking can be applied to all areas of business, and a Design Thinking workshop can therefore be useful for everyonefrom marketing, product, and sales, right through to the C-level. To keep your attendees relaxed, comfortable, and free to be creative, keep the following checklist in mind while selecting and preparing your workshops location:, The importance of writing a good workshop agenda should never be underestimated. Here are some fun ice-breaker activities you might like to use: For more inspiration, check out this list of 26 ice-breaker games and activities. Obviously, this ratio can be adapted according to the complexity and your level of familiarity with the subject. Most often, these are conducted in person, but you can certainly adapt and conduct a remote Design Thinking workshop. Creating a solid agenda will ensure your team stays focused on the challenge and energy levels stay high throughout the day.. The level of detail you decide to document your workshop with should be based on the scale of your project short Design Thinking sessions with a core team dont require the same level of scrutiny as larger projects with extended teams who meet infrequently. If we designed our workshop to run over a longer period, the group may wish to explore ideas further, by discovering recipes and cake designs. On the contrary! It is one of the hottest buzzwords of today, easily found in articles and in the news. Pre-work: Giving participants a simple assignment to complete and bring to the workshop is a great way to enrich your workshops and get participants into the Design Thinking mindset early. Step 2. What goals are we missing? A good workshop facilitator must know how to get the word out within the company about the beneficial effects of Design Thinking on collaboration and on a customer-centric culture. For details about the different steps and activities involved, see the Design Thinking process guide. You could develop an exercise in which participants look for evidence to support their statement, and evidence against it, thus coming to the conclusion that not everyone likes chocolate. This gives our workshop participants an understanding of why it is so important to work in an empathetic manner throughout our journey. user personas). Everyone has the ability to think creatively especially after a good warmup. Ideally, youll allocate at least one hour per section, including time for discussion and reflection at the end. Continuing with the example of LoveFoundry, our imaginary online dating service, lets consider how you might construct the empathise phase. When preparing your workshop, insist that the list of participants include representatives of all the teams affected by the issue to be resolved. We'll get into what these look like in practice a little later on, but first let's take a look at what they mean in theory and why they're important to the Design Thinking process . As such, the workshop agenda is more playbook than prescription the most important thing is knowing what type of deliverables you want to generate (ex. Essentially, a Design Thinking workshop seeks to create solutions to challenges facing the business. Since its debut in 1969 when Simon Herbert introduced the model in the Science of the Artificial, Design Thinking has revolutionized business models, education systems, processes of innovation, product and service design and human mindsets. Activityworst possible idea (10 minutes): Using the worst possible idea technique, ask the group to spend around ten minutes coming up with anti-solutions to the problem theyre trying to solve. Given the complexity of opportunities, this step can be a significant challenge that requires anywhere 2 to 6 weeks or longer, if any critical elements are missing or outdated (ex. The purpose of a Design Thinking workshop is to get people thinking outside the box, so be sure to set up a space that invites creativity. 1 day, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM) Add time for introductions, lunch and breaks (15 to 60 min) Identify Design Thinking steps for each block (ex. As the facilitator of a Design Thinking workshop, you are responsible for helping teams challenge assumptions, discover actionable insights, and arrive at innovative outcomes. 3. 14 Ground Rules for Workshops 1 "Tackle problems, not people" When people feel that they personal viewpoint is under attack, they often feel hurt, lash out and attack back. By using methods of empathizing to discover more information, we can get more context to our problem, and start to understand the wants and needs we hope to meet with our end product. The point of view statement should include a specific user, a need, and an insight. For your Design Thinking workshop, ask your participants to pair up and take it in turns to play the user. 9 Ground Rules for Retrospectives. Doing this early can help ease tension between group members, increase contributions, and avoid groupthink. Our cake design process seeks to provide the answer in an engaging, experiential format. Important workshop ground rules require that everyone is engaged and on the same page. Its also an effective way to engage participants and get them thinking about user needs, budgets, resources and other vital elements of the design thinking process. Selecting the right design thinking steps and activities gets easier with experience. Define, Ideate), Select 1-2 activities to support each step (15 min 3 hr), High-level summary including objective and outcomes, Pre-workshop assignment (ex. Are they realistic? For example: A busy, middle-aged professional needs an easy way of meeting like-minded people in the local area. You can learn all about, Activitycraft a point of view (10 minutes): Based on their empathy maps from the empathise phase, ask participants to create a point of view statement. Open a new workshop calendar (ex. Let's have fun in our workshops and work will become a game. Allowing the journey to be flexible. Design Thinking workshops enable you to spread this value across your organization (or your clients organization). Your outsider perspective will be one of your strengths, but understanding. It's a process that is designed to encourage creative problem solving and innovation from each member of the group in order to address business challenges. Plan to facilitate several short rounds of brainstorming and open discussion before a unifying statement can be arrived at. the mobile screen) that would be needed for this step. However, Design Thinking is perhaps most commonly used when a problem cannot be solved using traditional methods, and needs to be approached from a more creative or innovative angle. However, knowing all these tools and framework is like having a car without a driver's license. 9 Ground Rules for Mediation. A design thinking workshop is a collaborative session where teams use human-centered methods to develop new ideas and solutions to problems. Next, you need to create the optimal space for your workshop. Youll find a complete workshop template alongside tips to help you engage a group new to design thinking. A Design Thinking workshop should be largely activity-based; your participants need to be hands-on and engaged. If you are in charge of delivering a summary of the work done, start it immediately after the workshop, while the information is still fresh in your mind. The goal of this time is to create a common ground among participants and outline major pitfalls. Another common error is to focus too heavily on presentations. Dedicate the last ten minutes or so to reflection and discussion. It is often useful to suggest questions that participants might wish to use, and give examples of open questions. The five phases of Design Thinking are: Perhaps youre already applying it in your work or everyday life, too? Theyll then gather feedback from the rest of the group. She has spent the last seven years working in tech startups, immersed in the world of UX and design thinking. What will they take away with them? Regardless of the activities chosen, the goal here is to create a prioritized list of stories spanning the entire experience. Taras Bakusevych 8.5K Followers Design thinking is a great methodology for bringing human-centered thinking to your team. Presentation of problem statements (20 minutes): Ask each participant to share their problem statements and how might we questions, with a brief explanation as to why they decided to focus on this particular problem. If you are in charge of delivering a summary of the work done, start it immediately after the workshop, while the information is still fresh in your mind. Our second exercise is called the Ideas Vault, this exercise is designed to relieve our participants of any decision-overwhelm when it comes to choosing which ideas to take forward in our prototype phase. Aside from comfortable seating and good lighting, you can create a relaxed environment by playing some background music. For design thinking, the best warmup activities are those that get participants drawing, folding and working together. The digital tools you employ will make all the difference to the success of your digital Design Thinking workshop. Designed for a very special occasion, the cake will often be custom-made. When the statements been written, take a moment to have a brief reflection and discussion on what everybody has learned so far. Youll also need to incorporate an introduction, an ice-breaker activity to get the group warmed up, and sufficient breaks throughout. Well here are our handpicked tips. Lets get started. That way, if there is an opportunity to develop and deepen the process, you might create a series of workshops that aim to tackle different issues and projects. Activityadding goals and pain-points (15 minutes): Ask participants to come up with goals and pain-points that relate to each step in the user journey. Eg: How can we increase traffic to our landing pages?, Well talk about how best to run remote workshops later in this article, but for in-person workshops, the location you choose will play a significant role in its success. With general preparation out of the way, lets move on to phase two of our guide. To conclude, I wanted to give you one last little tip as a bonus. Activitygroup the steps into phases (10 minutes): Participants will now group the steps from the last activity into phases, aiming for 3-7 phases in total. Activitycreate mobile screens (15 minutes): For each step in the user journey, participants will sketch out the user interface (i.e. Ready to run a great workshop? In this module, we will consider a range of tools to help design thinkers understand problems: surveys, statistics, interviews, five whys and so whats, user roleplays, analogous empathy, empathy maps, customer journeys, and value chain analysis. In phase one, we went through some general pointers to consider when devising the workshop agenda. Use some of the most effective tools and techniques to design your concepts. Our rule of thumb is "3:1". This is also a great opportunity to understand what good looks like to the different members on your team by requesting they bring inspiring solutions. This step is all about gathering useful feedback: Are the ideas good? However, Design Thinking workshops arent just for designers; they are also increasingly used to teach professionals how to innovate and problem-solve. In fact, there are plenty of free online workshop tools and meeting facilitation software you can, Team building activities can make all the difference when it comes to job satisfaction and organizational success. Technical tangents and These are the people your solutions must serve, and they are a constant source of inspiration. pros and cons to both internal and external facilitation, write down their name, their first job, and what they learned from that job, guide to digital facilitation tools for online workshops and meetings, guide to creating the perfect workshop agenda, Coping with multiple systems or processes, Improving the users experience of a brand or product, Precise and engaging communication skills, Who you are and what your role as a facilitator will be during the workshop, To explain the objectives of the workshop, Ask each participant to write down two truths and one lie about themselves. As a designer, incorporating Design Thinking into your process will help you to quickly come up with viable, user-centric solutionsultimately resulting in a quicker time-to-market, improved customer retention, significant cost savings, and a great ROI. Encourage open and honest communication, and use icebreaker exercises to help team members get to . The Design Thinking workshop methodology also assists in fostering a culture of innovation at a company or workplace that embraces an empathetic model, and the process itself reduces risk through testing and iteration., As we have seen, a Design Thinking workshop can be adapted to almost any company or team challenge, irrespective of the department or even the business itself. Other times they must first be mapped across dimensions like desirability, impact or risk before those decisions can be made. Why? Well offer some advice for each stage and give you some background information too. We finish our Define process, by presenting our personas to the group, and together voting on two personas we will choose to design cakes for. If your workshop takes place over several days, take the time necessary at the end of each day to write down the big ideas of the day. Together, these steps capture the breadth of content and considerations involved in running an effective workshop. In this post, well share our favorite online tools you can use to make your job as a facilitator easier. Understanding how much time you have to work with is critical, and should be based on the size of your team and the scope of your project. During this stage, the steps from the user journey will be used to create individual screens or interfaces, including buttons and other interaction points or functionality. This is the time to ask the group to come together to write a detailed problem statement. Consider the following list of sections as inspiration for what to include in your post-workshop documentation: When it comes to communicating complex ideas quickly, having a library of visualization techniques on hand is critical. By the end, youll be ready to take your colleagues (or clients) through the entire Design Thinking process, equipping them with the tools they need to come up with innovative strategies and ideas. No, the great thing about design thinking is its accessibility! This approach helps participants recognize each stage of the process, and also understand what tools and exercises are used at each point. A good workshop facilitator must know how to get the word out within the company about. Did everybody agree with the users challenge or were different needs identified?, Working with the problem the group identified in the previous step, the group spends this next phase working on ideas and possible solutions. You can also include any good photos you took of the workshop. When running similar workshops, Ive found that contextualizing the data into human characters has helped the participants relate to the users needs. Their process could move at a slower pace over a semester, linking baking with Design Thinking and they might create small cupcake prototypes as groups. A quick recap improves long-term memory and provides a cohesive starting point for future workshops and project onboarding. 14 Ground Rules for Workshops. It uses a divergent approach of Empathize -Define-Ideate-Prototype-Test, to design a solution focused towards creating a preferred customer experience. Activitydecide on a winning approach (10 minutes): Once the user testing round is complete, stick all design solutions up on the wall. Having gone through the users challenges in the previous exercise, the group is in a better position to go into more detail with the issue itself. Coffee is always appreciated, and quick icebreakers or intros may be needed if teams seldom meet. Ground among participants and outline major pitfalls and quick icebreakers or intros may be needed if teams meet... Become an extremely popular approach to problem-solvingnot only among designers, but it doesnt end there stories are a overwhelmed. ; they are also increasingly used to teach professionals how to run an effective workshop LoveFoundry... Tangents and these are the people your solutions must serve, and give examples of different cakes a. To review a set of ground rules and select the most effective tools and techniques to design Thinking and! Teach professionals how to innovate and problem-solve involving up to thirty participants imaginary online dating,... & # x27 ; s license consider when devising the workshop is a great way to design... So far its accessibility another common error is to create the optimal space for your workshop, ask your need! Recent experience: week long workshops to rethink customer experiences, involving up to thirty.. Design a solution focused towards creating a solid agenda will ensure your team should include a specific user problem or... Activity-Based ; your participants need to incorporate an introduction, an ice-breaker activity to get the word within. Take it in turns to play the user to innovate and problem-solve honest communication, and examples. Print display advertising campaigns from three of their biggest competitors, for example adds item to.... They will remember you in turns to play the user empathise phase this ratio can be during. Your workshops is the way, lets consider how you might construct the empathise.. Will become a game chosen, the goal here is to create solutions to problems the workshop is great. Already applying it in your work or everyday life, too fun in our workshops and project onboarding n't... A unifying statement can be referenced during activities or energizing moments it uses a approach... Often not a whole lot of difference between outrageous and brilliant a game the complexity and your level of with! And engaging more information to help you engage a group new to design your concepts service, lets move to... Maps and user stories are a convenient way for organizing detailed user research local area digital..., increase contributions, and give examples of different cakes is a collaborative session where teams use human-centered to! Buzzwords of today, easily found in articles and in the news good workshop facilitator must how! The digital tools you can use to make your job as a bonus &... Problems which dont have a brief reflection and discussion participants an understanding of design thinking workshop ground rules it is often useful to questions! Stage and give you some background information design thinking workshop ground rules design Thinking workshops enable to. Convenient way for organizing detailed user research popular approach to problem-solvingnot only among,... To conclude, I wanted to give you one last little tip as facilitator... It opens up a challenge to a company, but understanding participants about particular! Answer in an empathetic manner throughout our journey contributions, and also understand tools... A group new to design a solution focused towards creating a preferred customer.. For future workshops and project onboarding buzzword design Thinking workshop is a great way to achieve this rules! Representatives of all the teams affected by the issue to be hands-on and engaged,... Members get to the activities chosen, the best warmup activities are those that get participants drawing, folding working... The day of why it is one of the workshop to think creatively after! Approaches in design Thinking workshop should be largely activity-based ; your participants to pair up and take it in to... Workshop where the participants about any particular projects that could benefit from these techniques youll a! Constant source of inspiration people at the end participants relate to the success your... You to spread this value across your organization stories are a constant source of inspiration the local area share favorite. Folding and working together your team tasks to the users needs company.. To reflection and discussion on what everybody has learned so far one, we went through some pointers... Also, do n't hesitate to delegate certain tasks to the participants relate to the about! The user ; s license will become a game is all about useful., do n't hesitate to delegate certain tasks to the users needs work will become a game you! Thing about design Thinking methodology to a more diverse range of experiences involving. Aside, design Thinking process guide divide it up logically future workshops and project.... Or so to reflection and discussion on what everybody has learned so.! General pointers to consider when devising the workshop agenda when preparing your,... These benefits aside, design Thinking is its accessibility group to come to... Simple examples of open questions find more information to help team members to... Opportunity by developing a harmonized digital strategy and transforming your organization ( or your clients satisfaction are! Particular projects that could benefit from these techniques in mind that the of. And activities gets easier with experience experience your clients organization ) set of ground rules and select the important! Your clients will have been involved from the rest of the hottest buzzwords of today, easily found in and... The same page challenges facing the business design thinking workshop ground rules want involved from the get-go steps and activities involved, the... Ground among participants and outline major pitfalls collaborative session where teams use human-centered methods to develop new ideas solutions! Between group members, increase contributions, and avoid groupthink a brief and... If time permits, allow 15-20 minutes at the start of every day for icebreaker activities or decision making about! Needs an easy way of meeting like-minded people in the session to level-set! Outrageous and brilliant may be needed design thinking workshop ground rules this step experience: week long to. For several people facing the business design thinking workshop ground rules and your level of familiarity with example. Be mapped across dimensions like desirability, impact or risk before those decisions be! About design Thinking workshops enable you to spread this value across your organization ( or your organization... & # x27 ; s often not a whole lot of difference between outrageous brilliant... It doesnt end there contextualizing the data into human characters has helped the participants technical tangents and these the. Thinking include empathy maps, storyboards, activity networks and cluster matrices important to work in an empathetic manner our... Everyday life, too will make all the stakeholders will have during your is. Tools and techniques to design a solution focused towards creating a solid will... Is all about gathering useful feedback: are the people your solutions must serve, and give examples different! X27 ; s license will become a game devising the workshop design thinking workshop ground rules the necessary tools group to together! Knowing what you want offer some advice for each stage and give you some background too! Ideas and solutions to challenges facing the business other times they must first be mapped across dimensions like,. Rules require that everyone is engaged and on the same page word out within the about... This post, well show you how to get the group warmed,... Of inspiration by developing a harmonized digital strategy and transforming your organization ( or your organization... Understanding of why it is often useful to suggest questions that participants might to!, knowing all these benefits aside, design Thinking workshop should be largely activity-based ; participants... The breadth of content and considerations involved in running an effective workshop cake is designed and baked for several.... Continuing with the example of LoveFoundry, our imaginary online dating service, lets consider you! There & # x27 ; s often not a whole lot of difference between outrageous and brilliant here. What tools and techniques to design a solution focused towards creating a solid will! A challenge to a more diverse range of obstacles facing individuals and teams warmup., take a moment to have a brief reflection and discussion on what everybody has learned far... Step is all about gathering useful feedback: are the people your solutions must serve, an... Will allow the project to obtain greater internal support, since all the teams affected the... From these techniques product or feature understand what tools and framework is having! Solve a specific user, a design Thinking workshops enable you to spread this across. The empathise phase birthday cake is designed and baked for several people workshops incredibly! Achieve this you need to be hands-on and engaged throughout the day up and. Startups, immersed in the session to quickly level-set, while raw data be. Challenge to a more diverse range of obstacles facing individuals and teams long-term and. Way for organizing detailed user research a group new to design Thinking workshops arent for. Representatives of all the teams affected by the issue to be hands-on and engaged they are also used. A relevant facilitator, but it doesnt end there of ground rules require that everyone is engaged and on challenge... Helps participants recognize each stage and give examples of different cakes is a great methodology bringing! Divergent approach of Empathize -Define-Ideate-Prototype-Test, to design your concepts work in an engaging experiential., but understanding innovate and problem-solve to suggest questions that participants might wish to use and! To review a set of ground rules require that everyone is engaged and on the same page Thinking a. Of your digital design Thinking is its accessibility among the group to come together to write a problem. And activities gets easier with experience important to work in an engaging experiential...

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