Other members of the team have to guess which is the lie, Everyone has to say who they would invite onto their very own late-night talk show (Optional: What their first question to them would be, and why. Unlike virtual workshop ground rules (in which one person is usually the lead), team meetings usually require everyone to operate as a peer. You can divide the journey mapping phase of your Design Thinking workshop into the following activities: Now for the fun part: building prototypes and testing ideas! Reflection and discussion (10 minutes): As a group, discuss what youve learned so far. If you are new to the world of workshop facilitation, you can apply some Design Thinking principles to the process itself. Design thinking is unique in its focus on user-centric problem-solving: you're not just coming up with ideas that could benefit the business, but rather, taking a rare opportunity to really step into your users' shoes and understand them on a deeper level. We can then establish a variety of methods in how we might Empathize with our users: For our cake design, these insights could help us discover our users flavor preferences, any hobbies that might relate to the visual design of the cake; and who else might be eating the cake at the party. You may not teach the steps in a linear manner. Later, the participants organize themselves into teams, discuss their choices, and come up with two ground rules that are the most important ones. To ensure your remote Design Thinking workshop runs as smoothly as possible, its important to keep in mind the following best practices., We hope our guide to running a Design Thinking workshop has answered all your burning questions about mastering this process and has taken the fear out of running your first one. This workshop has been constructed with the simplest solutions in mind, and for the empathize phase, we team people up as pairs and set them the task of interviewing one another about their birthday plans. All these benefits aside, Design Thinking workshops are incredibly fun and engaging. These five stages of design thinking form an effective process for problem-solving that is useful for any team wanting to create better solutions and products. Learn the basics in our design thinking training workshop, and start on your own innovation project step-by-step. Based on what they observed in the previous activity, theyll fill in each quadrant with hypothetical (or direct) quotes and observations. What went well? They have a simple, one-sentence format that can be quickly created and compared. To conclude, I wanted to give you one last little tip as a bonus. Choose three cake ideas, and draw up visual representations of them along with the recipe outline. Depending on the size of the challenge and the goals and needs of the individuals taking part, a workshop can take place over a few hours or up to a week if needed and is adaptable to both remote and in-person work settings. And its precisely when we have fun and when we are comfortable, that we let our creativity flourish and that the best ideas surface! We might also wish to consider if the idea excites us, as innovative ideas should light a spark within us to have the drive and momentum to carry it through to the next stage of the process. Pay attention to the group dynamics and reorganize if necessary! But even with the best intentions, its not sufficient to simply bring a group of people together and expect a great team to form on its own. For example, in one of our recent projects for a French, family-wear retailer, we had a lot of documentation to read in order to get a good understanding of the context and history of the project before running the workshops. Ground rules are monitored by the whole group, for the group. The goal of this time is to create a common ground among participants and outline major pitfalls. equity, awareness, engagements), The Business (ex. Activitysharing ideas and getting feedback (10 minutes): Ask participants to pair up and share their ideas. The goal of the workshop might be to come up with ways to improve the user experience for LoveFoundry customers. It can last two hours, two days, or even a full weekit all depends on the context and the goals at hand. The simplest way to introduce the Empathize stage is often by reminding everyone that design thinking is human-centered and that we are always seeking to understand our end users needs. It's an extremely efficient way of solving pressing product-related issues. Become a qualified UX designer in just 5-10 monthscomplete with a job guarantee. We help businesses and brands succeed in the digital age. So that you don't always find yourself having to be the time police who is tasked with interrupting the teams when time is up, designate a person responsible for keeping time within each team. By following the workshop template, youll find a heap of tips and tricks for teaching design thinking to a new group. Presentation (10 minutes): What is a user journey map? Well offer some advice for each stage and give you some background information too. So how do you go about setting up and facilitating a Design Thinking workshop? Regardless of the activities chosen, the goal here is to create a prioritized list of stories spanning the entire experience. Doing this early can help ease tension between group members, increase contributions, and avoid groupthink. Selecting the right design thinking steps and activities gets easier with experience. In the Ideate phase weve chosen two exercises, one expansive and one focused. Its worth suggesting to the team to use one piece of paper to represent each screen so that mistakes can be easily rectified and the journey is easy for everyone to follow.. At the moment, this is a rather broad question. To review a set of ground rules and select the most important ones . In this section, well explore your Design Thinking workshop agenda in more detail. Perhaps youre already applying it in your work or everyday life, too? Treat everyone as a peer. Third Rule of Design Thinking Ask your Design Thinkers how they enjoyed the workshop and what theyve learned. Most people learn by using the process in relation to a specific problem, you dont have to use the cake baking analogy. One of our favorite icebreaker activities was taught to us by our colleagues at Valtech Stockholm: In teams of 2, each participant must draw their teammate in one minute without looking at their sheet of paper or raising their pen. The cross-functional collaboration will consistently bring about the most innovative and bring about the most effective solution to your users problem., 3. Make sure you create a meaningful experience for them and there is a good chance that the workshop will be a success and that the opportunity will arise again. How will we measure success? In this section of the workshop, participants will turn the steps from their user journey maps into digital screens for an app. Its also a good idea to have a camera on-hand so you can document the workshop. Your agenda is one thing, but behind the agenda, there is a human beingyouwho must show emotional intelligence to be able, for example, to reorganize teams to better balance the different personality profiles, or even to identify a silenced participant to give them the floor. User stories are a helpful way to articulate the specific goals of a user persona. Your email address will not be published. While you can expect a lot of discussion here, preparing an initial list of key performance indicators is a helpful starting point. If working off-site, save the first 30 minutes for teams to arrive and settle. In a way, yes! But the work doesn't stop once youve prepared the workshop and the necessary tools. It can be easy for individuals who are used to working with each other to form familiar teams or pairs during a workshop but its important as the facilitator to remind the team to utilize all talents within the group in order to gain the most out of the workshop. Required fields are marked *, Effective online tools are a necessity for smooth and engaging virtual workshops and meetings. Design Thinking has five steps: empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. Summaries can be shared early in the session to quickly level-set, while raw data can be referenced during activities or decision making. The job's a game!. With your objectives in mind, you can begin the planning process. That way, you can take it in turns to lead activities throughout, and you can also designate secondary roles for yourselves such as note taking, technical checks, photos of the material produced, etc. ), 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. It is proudly displayed, and the act of the happy couple cutting into it is celebrated by close family and friends. Your email address will not be published. It is relatively affordable, perhaps a mid-range cost if its for a milestone birthday, or a low-cost supermarket purchase for a low-key, informal celebration. 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. ), How to run the design thinking for beginners workshop, How baking a cake can explain design thinking, A step-by-step guide to planning a workshop, An honest* guide to facilitating hybrid events. Do I have to be a designer to study this, and have any prior background knowledge? another person asks. Have you ever started a workshop where the participants are a little overwhelmed at what the buzzword design thinking means? She has spent the last seven years working in tech startups, immersed in the world of UX and design thinking. If youre running a workshop for a client, perhaps the main purpose is to teach them about Design Thinking and how it can be applied to their business. 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