10 tips for running a remote workshop
Learn how to collaborate digitally, and why it can get you better results.
As a globally distributed team of designers with a mix of co-located and remote contributors, we have been running several remote workshops lately (especially in light of COVID-19 restrictions).
Initially, we were concerned about losing the ability to brainstorm collaboratively and sketch out ideas together. We had become accustomed to using whiteboards and wall space for sticking up post-its, prioritising ideas and for quickly sketching out concepts.
It turns out that it hasn’t been as challenging as we thought! Whether your team is spread across different offices, or you’re working from home, connecting and sharing ideas is vital for any design process. Check out our top tips on how to run an effective remote workshop.
1. Gather the right people.
Make sure to pick the most essential group of people that you need. Try to select the smallest number of people necessary so you can keep people fully engaged. Try to aim for 4–6 people, and avoid having people there just to listen in. If you don’t know all your participants beforehand, it is good to get to know their role and areas of expertise before the workshop. Consider how they can contribute to the workshop and what their role is in the project.
2. Choose the right tools.
Choose tools that are simple to use and ones that your participants are fairly familiar with.
We start off with a video call and then each participant opens the link to the real-time collaboration tool so we can talk and contribute at the same time. Most important is that it’s a tool that all members can access and collaborate in real time.
3. Set clear goals.
Evidently, knowing exactly what you’re aiming to achieve is crucial to any design process, not least a digital one. We want it all and then some, but trying to reach all of our goals at once only takes us in a painfully messy, time-consuming and, surprise, inconclusive direction. Know what you want, or else you’re not going to get it.
As part of your preparations it’s important that you have a clear idea of your goals for the workshop before planning exercises and agendas. Write them down before the workshop or run through them together as a team as the very first thing on the agenda. Make sure to refer back to the goals throughout and at the end of the workshop to find conclusions and agree on next steps.
4. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
You can never be too prepared for a workshop, and when you’re running a remote workshop this step is even more important. We’ve been documenting this in the real-time collaboration tool for this to structure the workshop and fill in all the exercises that we were going to do at the workshop beforehand. It may seem time-consuming in the moment, but it is time well spent.
5. Break it up.
Make sure to be realistic with your plans and realise that remote exercises may take longer than exercises done in-person. If possible, consider doing some of the exercises offline and combine them with short breaks allowing participants to get away from their screen a little. No one can be creative and productive for 4 hours straight, especially not when they’re looking at a screen. We’ve found that you need a short break at least every hour. We’ve also learned that keeping remote workshops to one hour and then regrouping the next day works quite well, but this of course depends on the project and timeline.
6. Set expectations.
It’s important to set expectations of the participants early on, and be descriptive of how they can best contribute to the workshop. Also make sure to set homework before the workshop to optimise the time you have together. The homework should be something that each participant prepares on their own and spends a few minutes presenting in the workshop. This will also help participants get to know each other early on and be comfortable with speaking out loud.
Make sure you send out a calendar invite with your agenda and instructions on how to join the video call and the tool you plan to collaborate with, so everyone’s up to speed.
7. Buddy up.
It’s a tough job to be facilitating a remote workshop and if you are also taking notes and keeping track of time this can be an almost impossible job. You’re recommended to partner up with one person who can be the notetaker and time keeper. Ideally someone you are going to be working closely with on the project. If you are running the remote workshop alone use tools to keep track of time and request that everyone takes notes on the board/slide you are collaborating on.
8. Level the playing field.
This tip tackles a general workshop pitfall where you actually have an advantage when you commit yourself to collaborating digitally. You know how it goes — discussions are happening, ideas shared, you’re fired up and dedicated… and suddenly find yourself sharing your most valuable reflections with another participant at the coffee machine. You may even feel like you’ve aligned. Which is great, except that the rest of the participants didn’t hear this. It’s probably one of the most common causes of workshop confusion.
Make sure everyone keeps all workshop related conversation online. Yes, everyone. Even if you sit in the same office, all participants should fire up their laptop and join in as if they were a remote participant. It might seem strange, but it levels the playing field and ensures that everyone’s on the same path. Nothing is more alienating than being the one giant head on a screen and feeling left out of the group conversation happening in another room.
9. Bring the right supplies.
When planning an in-person workshop, we come prepared with supplies such as sharpies, paper, post-its and snacks. Some people might be more comfortable sketching on paper than sketching digitally. Make sure to tell your participants to keep some of their own supplies handy so they can sketch on paper, and then take a photo and upload it to the board you are collaborating on.
10. Follow up.
Make sure to follow up with the workshop participants to check in on how things went and what can be improved for next time. Everyone has different set-ups and different needs. Sometimes you will need to make some adjustments to the process to suit your team’s preferences and needs.
As with life, everything might not go according to plan but that is okay. Just make sure to manage the expectations of the participants and reassess the situation. We’ve found that some activities take a bit longer than they would in person, and in these instances we’ve divided the workshop into a few days.
All the best with your remote workshopping!
Resources.
If you want to learn more about remote workshops here’s a further list of resources that we have found quite helpful.
- Nielsen Norman Group — Tools for Remote UX Workshops
- Miro — 100 Remote Workshop Learnings
- Miro — Remote Design Sprint Template
- Mural — The Definitive Guide To Facilitating Remote Workshops
Let me know what you think. Please feel free to get in touch.
