10 tips for running a successful workshop
Swetha Sethu-Jones, Senior UX Researcher
I’m a researcher at Just Eat, my job is to understand our customers, explore behaviour and use those insights to help the team solve problems or identify opportunities. Workshops, whether for the research side of my role or running sessions with internal stakeholders, are an integral part of what I do and throughout my career, I’ve run lots of them.
First, what do I mean by a workshop? When people say they’re running a workshop, they can mean very different things. At the most basic level, workshops are a tool that gets us from A to B by bringing together different people and their perspectives. Here, B is not always the final destination. Often, a project could include a mix of other methods and/or a series of many workshops.
When running a workshop, I am continually reflecting on what went well and what could be better. I’ve picked up a lot of learnings along the way — whether the workshop is being held in person or adapted to being run completely remotely.
Top 10 tips to takeaway
1. Keep workshops focused and short (but if you can’t, bring snacks!)
It’s hard to find a time that will suit a whole group of people, and doing a full-day workshop can be even harder — participants will generally get tired and find it difficult to focus after 2 hours.
- If you do need to hold a full-day workshop, for example for a strategic project or an essential team learning opportunity, then consider a venue outside the office to offer a break from the routine. It’s also helpful to provide good food, snacks and refreshments.
- Keep energy levels and engagement high, with regular breaks (every 90 mins) and include 2 to 3 warm-up activities throughout the day. This gets people moving, talking and laughing — works especially well after lunch.
2. Prepare, prepare, prepare
Prepare an agenda with activities and timings, set up the activity space and collate any materials or tools required. Ensure everyone has access to the room and/or the tools.
- Check diary availability as soon as possible. With a larger group or with senior stakeholders, you need to plan ahead. Even if you’re still planning the exact agenda — in your invite, inform participants of the goal and the outcome you’re trying to achieve.
- If there are handouts that participants need to read beforehand, put this in a format that’s accessible and easy to share. At Just Eat, for example, everyone has access to G-suite, so I use Google docs or slides when planning workshops for Just Eat colleagues. I still include links to any pre-reads or relevant sources of information on the Miro board as well, so it’s all in one place.
- I use Miro to plan the rough agenda and timings, and then build this. I usually discuss my plan with a co-facilitator or another colleague. I then use Miro to create dedicated activity boards with instructions in context. Miro has several templates you can choose from and customise, or you can start from scratch.
3. Send a pre-read to participants in advance
It’s helpful to send them a quick pre-read in advance so they can prepare a little.
- Sometimes your participants may not be familiar with workshops or with design thinking. Give an overview of what you’re doing and how they can help you. You could do this either at the start of the workshop or consider a short pre-workshop call a week before. This can make them more comfortable and also get them excited about it.
- A pre-workshop activity can help participants prep for a research session. Although be careful to ensure that the pre-workshop activity doesn’t lead them in a way that biases their contribution during the workshop. However, by getting them to reflect a little, you won’t be putting participants on the spot during the workshop and they’ll be able to provide insights that are a lot richer and more helpful. For example with a Just Eat research workshop, I usually ask participants to think about when they’ve ordered a takeaway in the last month, to understand more about their thought process and experience.
4. Choose your tools
Use tools that are available to all participants.
- In the UX&D team at Just Eat, we use Miro for workshop collaboration. It works well with attendees who aren’t co-located (and it’s super helpful right now during the lockdown).
- For in-person collaboration, a stack of post-its and a blank wall could work too. I also like to use magic whiteboard paper. At the end of the workshop, I take down the magic whiteboard paper and put it back up by my desk — all without moving the 100s of individual post-its that are on it.
- If you don’t have access to Miro or other similar paid tools, use existing tools that everyone can access. For example, at Just Eat everyone has access to G-Suite so we can use Google Slides or Sheets. With Slides, you can create dedicated activity spaces using post-it shapes. Or with Sheets, you can create a tab with common headers for each group or participant.
- Miro also has a timer function so everyone using the board can see the time left and when it’s done. Whichever way you do it — the key thing is to set timers!
5. Strict timekeeping
Be strict in timekeeping for activities and breaks to ensure smooth running of the workshop.
- Decide how much time is reasonable for each task. For a group that’s very familiar with a topic, it’s good to start with less time and include some extra time in case it’s needed. As a rule of thumb, individual activities take less time, especially compared to a group of 3 or more.
- For remote sessions, explanations and setup can take longer. Be aware of this and consider some extra buffer time. So if you were planning a 1.5-hour workshop, make this at least 2 hours for remote sessions.
- Make sure participants know how much time they have for each activity and how much time is remaining. Miro has a timer function that’s visible to all collaborators. Though if you’re not using Miro, you can also use the timer available via Google search (which has a full-screen view).
- If everyone is co-located you can use Time Timer which makes it easy to see how much time is remaining. You can also use a timer on your phone in a pinch — but you’ll have to be more proactive about giving people timing updates if they can’t see the timer.
6. Include breakout activities for workshops with many attendees
If there are 6 or more participants, then consider breakout group activities. If there are 10 or more participants, then breakout group activities are essential.
- Smaller breakout groups increase participation and ensure the smooth running of the workshop. Each breakout group can work in parallel for an allocated time limit.
- I prefer to have ideally 3 to 4 participants in each breakout group. This is a suitable group size as they’ll all have the chance to speak and contribute.
- Create cross-functional or cross-team breakout groups, to encourage sharing and learning different perspectives. Also, check tip 9 about gradually increasing group collaboration.
7. Consider extra facilitators
If you’re running a workshop with a large number of participants (8 or more), it’s super-valuable to have a co-facilitator. This is essential when the workshop is remote and there are several breakout group activities.
- For an in-person workshop, the facilitator(s) can move around and check in with smaller groups, and see how they’re getting on and support them.
- For a remote workshop and when it’s 8 or more participants, it’s not possible to support all the groups. Plan and get extra facilitators to help you. Choose people who work with you (so they understand the work) and would make good facilitators. Their role is to help keep things moving along in their respective breakout groups.
8. Create activity spaces to make it easy to get stuck in
Whether in-person or remotely, you’ll get much higher engagement when there’s a clear space for individuals and groups to work in.
- Use templates to make it easy for participants to contribute. This is particularly important if the workshop is remote. For example, I create clear spaces for each activity and sub-group with instructions in the context of that space. I also include several blank post-its on the Miro board space, so participants can understand what they need to do.
- Ensure there is space for participants to break out into groups. For an in-person workshop, it’s easier as each breakout group can take a corner of the room, or they could have adjoining spaces. For a remote workshop, this becomes trickier. Zoom has the option to manage breakout rooms and participants can come back to the main room when they’ve finished the timed-activity. If you don’t have access to a Pro Zoom account, then use an existing tool for a workaround. For example, create the main Google hangout and extra hangouts (per breakout group). Make sure participants have the main hangout room open but muted. This way they can still listen to the facilitator and join back after completing their group activity.
9. Gradually increase group collaboration
Once someone has spoken in a room they’re more likely to speak again. Keep this in mind when planning workshop activities.
- Start with a quick individual activity so participants are comfortable speaking and sharing. Then run in-pair activities and finally include bigger breakout group activities as needed. This is an effective method even for participants who know each other — and it’s essential for participants who don’t.
- Consider the initial activity to be a quick ice breaker. This is helpful when workshop participants don’t know each other or don’t work together. Choose an ice breaker that’s easy to explain and run (think of the context, is it remote or in-person). The purpose is to get people comfortable, laughing, charged up and ready to start working.
- Don’t start straight away in large breakout groups. Some people will not feel comfortable speaking up and contributing. You’ll observe that there will be a few who are more comfortable speaking and may lead the discussion in their way — which is not what you want.
10. Be the assertive cheerleader and the strict facilitator
Your role is to keep the workshop moving and to ensure high engagement.
- Give clear instructions to get people excited and stuck in.
- Be assertive and neutral so that you encourage and enable participants to discuss and contribute to the activities.
- The trick is to be assertive whilst also being strict (tip 5). Move people along so they don’t get too caught up in one discussion or one activity. For example, get people to park any interesting discussions that are not in focus. Capture these somewhere so people are not distracted, and they can come back to it later.
How we use workshops at Just Eat
Workshops aren’t just useful for kick-offs and alignment, but also a powerful tool for research. At Just Eat, we use them for:
- Problem understanding and prioritising research areas
- Understanding customers’ pain points and opportunities
- Persona development and engagement sessions
- Analysis sessions
- Turning insights into actions
- Exploring customers’ beliefs, mental models and behaviours
I usually refer to Gamestorming (either their book or website) as a starting point. We also have a ‘Workshop playground’ at Just Eat, where team members share activity ideas and learnings.
Adapting to the current situation
We’ve quickly adapted to working remotely. With this in mind, I’ve included suggestions for remote workshops in the above tips. We’ve also written a separate article on Designing during a pandemic: how we’ve adapted
I hope these tips are helpful. Please leave a comment if you’ve got any tips from workshops you’ve run or participated in, that you’d like to share with us.
Fancy getting stuck in?
Come and help us serve up the world’s greatest menu. Find out more.
