Common Design Thinking workshop objectives include: Note: Expect to devote 1/2 day for each additional workshop objective. What kind of projects do you think this workshop could relate to? It could be that you need to come up with a drastic strategy for regaining consumer trust after a PR disaster! Coffee is always appreciated, and quick icebreakers or intros may be needed if teams seldom meet. With preparations ready and the agenda set, you can now facilitate a productive workshop. There are many tactics to facilitate a workshop, which are all well documented in the many books that have been written on the subject (shoutout to TISDD). In the simplest definition, design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving. Your email address will not be published. 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. If you plan to use this workshop agenda, do you see it as a stand-alone learning, or as a starting point for further exploration? Ask your Design Thinkers how they enjoyed the workshop and what theyve learned. Essentially, a Design Thinking workshop seeks to create solutions to challenges facing the business. To give you a helping hand, weve put together a handy list of tools and best practices you can follow to make sure you and your workshop group are well prepared for your remote workshop session.. 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. All these benefits aside, Design Thinking workshops are incredibly fun and engaging. Keep in mind that the experience your clients will have during your workshops is the way they will remember you. They can use words or sketches. Summaries can be shared early in the session to quickly level-set, while raw data can be referenced during activities or decision making. Why is it so important to design for the user first? Perhaps there is already a product in the prototype phase, and you use the tools from the Empathize stage to find out more from your users as they test the product. 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 . For design thinking, the best warmup activities are those that get participants drawing, folding and working together. Design thinking consists of five key stages which well explore in this workshop: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. A Design Thinking workshop is facilitated meeting where multi-disciplinary teams plan and prototype user-centered designs. Plan to facilitate several short rounds of brainstorming and open discussion before a unifying statement can be arrived at. Technical tangents and These are the people your solutions must serve, and they are a constant source of inspiration. 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. and we established a list of our key tips. 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. Make sure to include lots of activities, be realistic with your time planning, and allow plenty of time for breaks, spontaneity, free-flowing discussion, and creativity., Youll probably want to allow approximately one hour for each section of the workshop, with a generous slot dedicated to reflection and debriefing when the activities are over., To ensure maximum creativity, youll be going back to basics for your Design Thinking workshop. Blue sky thinking is brainstorming without limits. For example: A busy, middle-aged professional needs an easy way of meeting like-minded people in the local area. I use examples of Personas, explaining that they could be based on one person, and therefore be very real, or if they use the data from several people, they can create a fictional character with whom they will empathize and keep in mind throughout the design journey. The introduction should consist of three main parts: Use a fun icebreaker to warm up the team and help them get to know each other a little better. When preparing your slides, plan to include four basic types: While a save-the-date should follow shortly after youve identified your team, the pre-workshop email is typically sent a few days before the workshop. If your activity requires it, you can also designate a person in each team who will be responsible for formalizing the group's work on a computer. Well look at what to include in your workshop agenda in phase two of this guide a little further down. Activitycreate mobile screens (15 minutes): For each step in the user journey, participants will sketch out the user interface (i.e. Workshops can deliver on one or more of these objectives, depending on how long they run (and how well you prepare). Take the time to be well prepared. Your slides should directly reflect your workshop agenda. There's often not a whole lot of difference between outrageous and brilliant. To conclude, I wanted to give you one last little tip as a bonus. 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. 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. Now that the team is warmed up and all on the same page, its time to start thinking about the user. 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. This approach helps participants recognize each stage of the process, and also understand what tools and exercises are used at each point. It follows three simple steps (Prepare, Facilitate, and Document) and includes all the tools, templates and checklists you need to apply Design Thinking in todays business environment. Sharing relevant inspiration is an effective way to build a collaborative atmosphere while bringing fresh perspectives into workshops. Identify your skills, refine your portfolio, and attract the right employers. Do they need updating or even overhauling altogether?, Although the general challenge has already been identified, nows the time to get down to specifics. Creating a solid agenda will ensure your team stays focused on the challenge and energy levels stay high throughout the day.. Ideally, youll have a separate table for all the materials and equipment (more on that in step three!). For example: The step browses through potential matches could be propelled by the user goal of wanting to meet new people. Dedicate the last ten minutes or so to reflection and discussion. A wedding cake will be seen and eaten by many guests. 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. to something more specific. These workshops constitute several activities that provide a solid ground for co-creation, collaboration, and team effort. Presentation (5 minutes): What is ideation? Nurture your inner tech pro with personalized guidance from not one, but two industry experts. It serves as a rudder for cross functional teams working on complex projects, and takes 3 5 days to complete. To review a set of ground rules and select the most important ones . Consider the following workshop preparation checklist as a guide: Team: Having the right skill sets in the room is key to generating innovative ideas with practical applications. Depending on where the project stands within the Design Thinking process, workshops can be used to output anything from early strategic requirements to fully-functional prototypes. There are many tactics to facilitate a workshop, which are all well documented in the many books that have been written on the subject (shoutout to. Encourage Wild Ideas Embrace the most out-of-the-box notions. We help businesses and brands succeed in the digital age. Selecting the right design thinking steps and activities gets easier with experience. First, lets explore the problem at the heart of this workshop design, which is baking a cake! 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. Design Thinking has five steps: empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. Is it to uncover new opportunities, solve a specific user problem, or improve a product or feature? Chances are you have. We then made these documents available to workshop participants, so that everyone had the same level of knowledge at the beginning of the week. Always one to evangelize and advocate open thinking when it comes to 'Digital Experience Design', and having played a gamut of roles from being a 'Multimedia Designer' since 2004, to being a . In this workshop, well ask the group to approach the problem of baking a cake. Another common error is to focus too heavily on presentations. the stakes, the business objectives and your client's needs will make you not only a relevant facilitator, but a good facilitator. As the facilitator of a Design Thinking workshop, you are responsible for helping teams challenge assumptions, discover actionable insights, and arrive at innovative outcomes. The sponsor has to provide a concrete and well described challenge to work with, a topic is not enough, and agree in the main deliverable. In the following sections, youll see how the Introduction to Design Thinking workshop explores each stage of the design process through the analogy of baking a cake. BE CLEAR: this rule applies to any project, but it is particularly important for a workshop considering the limited allocated time. Encourage participants to use one piece of paper per screen; this way, they wont need to start over completely if one goes slightly wrong. Well here are our handpicked, Whether it is an internal or external client, its essential to know the project's business context. Design Thinking is a vital framework in the modern business ecosystem. Part of the workshop will be dedicated to building low-fidelity prototypes, for which youll need a good selection of materials. Why? Who are we designing for? The benefits of Design Thinking. Youll want to stock up on white copy paper, colored paper, pencils, marker pens, Post-It notes of different colors, sticky tape, and whiteboards.. As a group, youll now decide on a winning approach. 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. Design thinking is a great methodology for bringing human-centered thinking to your team. These might include: This phase can also include a brief retrospective. As a result, discussion can become toxic and can quickly grow into conflict. signups, completions, reviews), The Brand (ex. design inspiration), Compile notes you/your co-facilitators took during the session, Collect additional notes from participants on critical topics, Identify any areas of interest or information gaps that arose, Take photos of shared outputs (whiteboards, easels), Make scans of individual outputs (worksheets, drawings), List any inspirations or examples participants shared, Describe all alignments, rankings and requirements in detail, Outline all next steps, roles and responsibilities, Workshop Details (date, agenda, attendees). We based ourselves on our recent experience: week long workshops to rethink customer experiences, involving up to thirty participants. These are the mindsets. 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? Please fill out the form and the nearest person from office will contact you. On average, spend three hours of preparation for each hour of workshop. 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. What could have gone better? Youll find a complete workshop template alongside tips to help you engage a group new to design thinking. Provide them with some starter questions, such as: How would you describe your most recent experience with online dating? ), 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. Common approaches in Design Thinking include empathy maps, storyboards, activity networks and cluster matrices. Some key points to include in your introduction are: This is also a good time to mention that youd like to document the workshop by taking photos. 9 Ground Rules for Retrospectives. For the complete list of the digital tools to assist virtual facilitation and workshopping, check out our guide to digital facilitation tools for online workshops and meetings. Design Thinking has become an extremely popular approach to problem-solvingnot only among designers, but across all areas of business. The job's a game!. The cross-functional collaboration will consistently bring about the most innovative and bring about the most effective solution to your users problem., 3. It may involve employees from different departments coming together to tackle a company-wide problem or individuals from the same team focusing on a department-specific challenge., A workshop that promotes cross-collaboration between teams, and which contains individuals with a wide range of specializations, will bring the most innovative and effective results to a Design Thinking workshop. ), 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. While putting together your workshop agenda, concentrate on deliverables rather than focusing too heavily on creating a prescription for every moment of the day. Reflection and discussion (5 minutes): As a group, discuss what youve learned from the ideation phase so far. These visualizations not only help teams describe ideas, but also interpret data and make informed decisions. Its important that the group understand the mindset and that they can reflect on real-life scenarios they could apply Design Thinking to. So how do you go about setting up and facilitating a Design Thinking workshop? Define, Ideate) Select 1-2 activities to support each step (15 min - 3 hr) End with a recap and next steps (30 min) . The key is to deliver interesting, relevant content, followed by a practical exercise and then group discussion. Once youve gathered all the information, compile it into a single document and share it with the extended team. 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. Treat everyone as a peer. Next, youll move onto the define phase. The first part of the design thinking process is Empathize. This includes open questions that could help us uncover information to aid the design of our cakes. 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