Virtual workshops: experiences that can be designed
We are Constanza Prado (Chile) and Ana De la Rosa (Mexico), UX designers at Globant. We have worked in the world of workshops across various industries: education, healthcare, events, retail, and banking.
Many UX designers have familiarity with these activities as we aim to communicate with all team members effectively. This enables us to collaborate and reach agreements when ideating and defining processes, products, opportunities, or problems. In many cases, we act as “facilitators,” working to create conditions where vital dialogues flourish (that lead to insight) among various stakeholders: marketing, sales, product, and development.
These dynamics have changed over the years. Before the pandemic, traditional workshops required attendees to gather in a physical location for face-to-face activities or group discussions; we used materials like flip charts, sharpies, post-it notes, etc., and often needed a considerable budget for additional activities like coffee breaks.
Then the pandemic forced us to stay home. Nevertheless, we still needed to foster communication. Thus, we transitioned to remote workshops, using digital tools. While this shift was significant and also brought forth its own set of challenges, it also moved us towards a more expanded experience, effectiveness, and process optimization.
The virtual workshop experience
If we think of the experience of communicating through a virtual workshop as something we can plan and design, the first things we should ask ourselves are these strategic questions:
What is the objective? What do I want as a result and why? How will this result impact the product or service? And most importantly: Is it necessary to do it through a workshop?
To answer these questions in a structured and efficient way, we recommend using the hypothesis mindset, based on the LEAN method. This is the basic structure:
“We believe that by conducting this workshop for this user, we will achieve these results and know <this> with those <metrics>.”
Real-life Case: In a large retail company, a digital product was being designed (Discovery stage) to automate processes in a busy and no-time commercial and planning area. We needed to understand their own goals and their workflow, raising repetitive and inefficient processes perceived by all the stakeholders: users and their leaders, the internal team, and us as the product side. For that we not only needed their active participation, but also that they were aligned with what could perhaps be seen as a “threatening” product.
In that case, our hypothesis was as follows:
“We believe that by conducting a workshop for agents from the operations and commercial area, we will be able to address and prioritize issues associated with the workflow, thus defining the value proposition. We will know this when at least 75% of the invitees attend and we manage to identify three prioritized issues that everyone thinks are critical.”
Having this clarity helped us “evangelize” the purpose with the stakeholders, and also have a clear goal to follow as a northstar on the workshop.
Planning a workshop involves considering the following areas:
- People
Who are my users? What are their contexts? Since the pandemic began, we have become accustomed to working with people from all regions: you might be in Chile, but you’re in your home, or in a cafe. If you know that you will be organizing the workshop with people from various regions or countries, you should consider a schedule that suits everyone.
People and power dynamics
This is crucial for planning. Sometimes workshops are with an internal team, a “safe zone”, here is probably easy to talk to, and explain the goals and value of the workshop. Other times they are with end users or just people you don’t know, and maybe you will need to add an extra activity to “break the ice”.
Also, the power dynamics inside companies are relevant: if you are in a company that has a traditional “vertical structure”, people with different jobs/areas/hierarchies can be uncomfortable being truly honest with their opinions or questions. Keep that in mind, especially if you’re targeting sensible subjects.
People and their motivations for attending.
Try to identify the different motivations that exist in each role. Not everyone has the same motivations. If you can, use this to make special invitations to each stakeholder. This also helps to identify the key roles that are essential to obtain the information, not everyone in a team needs to be there.
Organizing team
If a workshop is large and with many people or will touch on sensitive topics, having colleagues from your team support you is important. We recommend the following roles (keep in mind that these are based on our own experience and can easily be different depending on your objectives and context):
- Facilitator: Key role. Should always be present in a workshop. They ensure that the objectives, structure, and proposed activities are fulfilled. They should be able to guide people through activities. It is important to emphasize the objective role of the facilitator. What they must achieve is that all involved parties converse, and give their opinions. This is what we refer to as “vital dialogues”: reaching agreements from various points of view, a true finding.
- Timekeeper: The responsibility is over the use of the time: ensuring that an activity lasts as planned and ending it if necessary to move on to the next activity. They must know how to control the agenda and communicate directly with the facilitator.
- Analyzer: As the analyzer, your role is crucial in ensuring that everything is recorded. For instance, if the project leader participates in an activity and makes an important statement, make sure to write it down. This person supports recording and taking notes on anything relevant. Hence the relevance of their participation, as they are an observer of the activity.
- Backup role!: Sometimes the conversation that you need does not happen: participants do not collaborate actively, maybe they are shy, they feel bored, or they don’t know how to start a conversation. As a facilitator you should be guiding the conversation, one way is to indicate directly to a person “What do you think about this? What do you imagine? If this does not help, the backup roles can. These “backup roles” are the ones who encourage participation by example. “I can start working first on this, I think I would do it this way”.
2. Tools
In the physical world, tools were post-its, markers, and flip charts. All these tools have been efficiently incorporated into virtuality. There is a diverse range of tools available that can serve different purposes.
- For internal communication: For an internal team, always have a tool/chat at hand, such as WhatsApp or Slack, depending on what you use where you live. It helps coordinate unplanned changes or manage time and achieve the objective within the agreed schedule.
- For workshops in video calls: Audio and cameras to see the participants’ faces. When choosing the tool, always think about the diversity of your guests: different locations, and accessibility. For example, a tool that allows live captions is very useful for everyone.
- For ideation: Lightweight tools that are as visual as possible, easy to use, and collaborative in real-time. One benefit of ideation tools is that they encourage shy people to express their opinions or ideas without having to go through uncomfortable situations, such as standing in front of everyone to speak. It also helps regulate people with stronger voices so they do not always dominate the conversation and allow others to speak. A common feature of these tools is that they prevent digital fatigue.
Digital ideation tools and their benefits
One of the virtues of virtual workshops is that they can have almost everything they need in one place and at hand: a stopwatch, ambient music for concentration, and “unlimited” flip charts.
But there is something very important that we believe is the big difference between the physical and the virtual: the communities behind each of these platforms.
These can help you learn, as they provide you with templates and instructions for their use. We believe that this is a positive form of loyalty since they help you get involved in the topic, and it depends on your search for what you want to learn. That is a difference from what we experienced before, both in its dynamism and in the access to content.
Other useful tools are Kahoot, Slide, or Mentimeter, as they help you do Icebreaker activities and quickly gather information in real time.
There is a wide variety of them on the market, so we invite you to use the ones you already know. Try NOT to install something new; the idea is to reduce the end user’s effort, but also yours. Full list:
AI tools
This is a list of AI tools that can help:
- Chat GPT: We have used it for very basic things, especially to break some blockage, and to seek inspiration on different approaches to relevant content.
- Mid Journey: Image generators can help you put participants in context, or for your deck, explain results or analysis to stakeholders. It can be fun if you need an image pointing out a specific context.
- Deep Learning, or DeepL: Helps to have your presentation in various languages quickly and easily.
- Grammarly: Helps with spelling and writing.
- Synesthesia: It is an AI for generating videos: they have “trial” versions free, if you want to be a little more sophisticated, it could help you.
- AutoDraw: Helps illustrate ideas and is usually used by people who are not comfortable drawing. Its plus is that it is free and very easy to use.
Protip: Our recommendation will always be not to abuse these fancy tools. We need to be conscious about how we use this technology, our natural resources depend on how we use these tools.
Facilitation is about creating a dialogue between people and has to do with active listening and communicating assertively. This is one of the main keys to achieving the desired results and even relevant unexpected findings.
2. Techniques
Techniques are procedures that can help you plan and execute a successful workshop. The more you use them, the easier it will be to conduct one.The techniques you implement will depend on your objective and your level of experience.
In general, time/number of people management is key: complex topics with ambitious agendas are more likely to succeed with fewer participants, while simple topics that involve fewer exercises can still work well with larger groups.
Defining the agenda and its activities is essential, and for that, you can ask yourself the following questions: what will be the structure of the workshop? How much time do I have available? For example, a design sprint exercise can last up to five days. That is why you must consider all this when you start planning and strategizing.
Starting from scratch
If you have never conducted a workshop before, we recommend that you practice your skills with a short session.
An exercise of 15–20 minutes, divided into 3 activities, is sufficient to get started. These types of sessions are very useful for obtaining quick and accurate information, and if well designed, can be highly effective.
You can include team members from frequent meetings or open the conversation to anyone interested. However, we recommend starting with people you already feel confident with, even if they are few. Remember that the number of people is proportional to the number of minutes your session will last. We recommend starting with a “simple,” but direct question, such as: “How Might… we improve conversion in accessory purchases?”
It is also very important that before you start, you always clarify that there are NO bad ideas.
Activities:
- Ideation (5 min): Write down ideas that answer the initial question. It is individual work.
- Voting (5 min): Each person votes for 3 ideas that they feel they like the most and that they can eventually realize. They can vote for their ideas. This is also an individual work.
- Prioritize and order ideas (5 min): In this case, you arrange the post-its from most to least amount of votes. This is a collective work because everyone participates in helping you to sort and comment on what they think. These prioritized ideas can be used for future projects or to make continuous improvements.
Advanced workshops
If you want to do something that needs to solve more complex issues and feel that you already have the confidence to lead a longer session, you should focus on planning and structuring.
We recommend starting with a self-response exercise to determine the structure and script of your workshop. In other words, use storytelling to ensure that the activities in your workshop are meaningful to attendees.
Like any traditional story, the structure contains the following parts:
- Introduction: At this stage, we can do ice-breaker activities and explain the workshop instructions. The most important thing is to establish a connection between participants, even if they don’t know each other. Let them know that all opinions have the same validity and provide clear instructions for the activities and their objectives.
- Body: The activities offered may vary depending on the objective of the workshop. We like to refer to it as a way to ‘seed’ ideas.
- Conclusion: Here you can summarize the work, share findings and conclusions, and indicate the next steps. This stage is also known as “harvesting ideas.”
Sample script:
When creating a schedule, it’s always a good idea to add a little extra time for unforeseen events. For example, if an activity is expected to last 10 minutes, consider adding an extra 5 minutes to the schedule.
People v/s time
It’s important to keep in mind that groups of 10 to 25 people tend to work best for activities that last around 2 hours. The more people are included, the longer it will take you.
Additionally, if someone is in a different time zone, it’s a good idea to send them the activity in advance so they can complete it asynchronously. On the day of the workshop, make sure to include it as part of the results.
This will give attendees enough time to plan and allow you to accurately assess the number of people who will be attending, which will help you determine whether the workshop should proceed as planned or be rescheduled. It’s crucial to send out invitations well in advance, ideally 2 to 3 weeks beforehand.
In the invitation, you can attach the instructions and the objective of the session, what tools will be used (and recommend that they log in before), thus avoiding technical setbacks. You can provide your contact information if they have any questions so that on the day of the workshop, they arrive super informed and knowledgeable about what needs to be done.
Once you have confirmation of who will attend, we suggest sending them a couple of friendly reminders: one on the day before, and another on the day of the event.
The moment of truth
Day of workshop execution. No experience is the same as another, just as no two workshops are alike; however, we want to share some tips that can help you have a successful workshop.
Mental setting
One practical tip is to create a mental map and share agreements with your participants, including any tacit agreements.
- Write the instructions as literally as possible.
- Always share the objective. For example, for a brainstorm, the most important thing is that participants feel safe. Emphasize that there are no wrong ideas when it comes to finding solutions or identifying problems.
- It is also very important to share the day’s agenda, considering the small timeframes for each activity. Respect the times, yours, and everyone else’s, so we make the most of them.
- Before starting the session, kindly suggest that participants keep their cameras on so you can see how they are feeling and if they are “connected” to the activity or not. This can help you facilitate as you have the non-verbal signs to interpret.
Use of rooms
If the group is large (more than 10 people), we recommend dividing the group, like in Zoom rooms or another platform. This way, each team member can have a facilitator so people won’t feel left out. If you have no team to help you with this, feel free to let everyone know that you’ll be in the main room and available to help with any questions or concerns.
Create a calm atmosphere
To start the activity, especially the individual ones, we suggest playing some relaxing music to set the mood ✨.
Flexibility and improvisation: “tug of war”.
Additionally, it’s important to be flexible and open to improvisation. For example, you can try playing a game of ‘tug of war’: While there is an agenda, part of active listening is being flexible in the structure to not miss vital dialogues.
On the other hand, if you feel like the discussion is deviating too much and becoming emotionally charged, gently remind everyone of the session’s objective and propose that they continue the conversation in a separate session dedicated to that specific topic. Remember, this skill takes practice.
Some tips on Figma or ideation tools
- You can add some pre-made post-its as examples.
- If participants are going to use the post-its and are not familiar with the tool, practice using it a little before the activity.
- If there is voting, you can ask them to use voting points and have their face. This way, it is easier to recognize who they are.
As a facilitator or moderator, you can start identifying repeating patterns and taking notes to share later.
Harvest — Findings:
Let’s start by looking at the points where all agree. If there was a vote during the activity, we should focus on the ideas that received the most votes and discuss them further. Not all workshops include a voting stage, there may be issues related to a problem that simply need to be categorized and organized for reporting purposes, following the overall agreement on them.
What should we do if we can’t reach an agreement? Recognize that on certain points there is no agreement and that this is not necessarily a problem. Try to set it down, objectively and not lean towards any of the opinions. This can help you have action points to continue. Perhaps it is necessary to do another activity that deepens the problem.
Follow-up
How to document findings or results? How are they validated with attendees? How does the story continue? Don’t forget to follow up on the story and commit to sending the results.
It’s crucial to make the impact of the attendees’ efforts visible. After the workshop, it’s important to document the findings or results and validate them with the attendees.
Additionally, it’s important to continuously improve by asking how the attendees perceived the workshop. You can ask the question more informally within your work canvas. Alternatively, if you require more detail or formality, you can send a survey after the workshop. Ideally, this should be done on the same day. Also, consider measuring with a scale. We use the NPS satisfaction SCORE, a classic that can help you compare one workshop to another.
To finish, we want to share our recommended workshop catalog activities, based on which space you are problem/ideation, or solution/definition; can help to start.
Ideation:
Solution or definition
Takeaways
Finally, we want to share with you some podcasts, books, and resources focused on virtual or remote workshops. Also, a podcast that we believe is worth including here (Design life, with Jonathan Courtney) talks about the great work of the facilitator and their primordial role within virtual or face-to-face workshops.
And last but not least, we have a Design Talk about this article on YouTube. If you’d like to watch the recording, it’s available here.
Enjoy it!
Books
M Tippin, J Kalbach, D Chin. The Definitive Guide To Facilitating Remote Workshops
Podcasts
How to run remote design sprints and design reviews
185: Facilitating workshops with Jonathan Courtney
Jay-Allen Morris & Kirsten Clacey. The remote facilitator’s pocket guide
Video resources
Improve Your Remote Workshops With These Easy Tricks!
Virtual group dynamics to be conducted on Zoom for facilitation (Spanish).
Others
Workshop harvesting, WE MADE IT ❤, ITS A TEMPLATE!
Lean hypothesis canvas, not ours.
ABOUT US!
Constanza Prado, UX Designer at Globant.
A designer who likes to learn about people and their interaction with services and interfaces. Enjoy experimenting with new technologies without losing ethics, and keeping people and the environment as the most important thing to take care. Also love music.
Ana de la Rosa, UX Designer at Globant.
Ana is a UX and product designer with a graphic design background and an insatiable curiosity for creativity, strategy, and user research.
