How we took our workshop experience online
If there is one cliché we really loved to indulge in as designers/planners, it is being surrounded by whiteboards, colourful pens, and an abundance of sticky notes. And our clients like the decor. Our style, sense of preparation and the way our workshops ran made the clients happy, and us proud. The outcomes of our work were dependent on sparking challenging debates, as well as creating an inclusive space for all to contribute their ideas, no matter how unconventional they may be. We made it our mission to make it an empowering experience.
In the middle of a design sprint last March, came the dreaded news of the lockdown. Things needed to move online, as of yesterday. This was the beginning of a new reality. Pandemic. Lockdown. Anxiety. The times of “you’re still on mute”, “can everyone hear me?”, and other phrases that are now in our everyday vernacular. What seems normal today, back in March 2020 it sure as hell was not.
Under certain circumstances it may have called for a quick fix, but we were inclined to build something that stands the test of time and would be beneficial even after the lockdown/WFH was over (which at that time seemed only to last a couple of months). And since our USP relies on our clients participating in workshops and loving them, we needed to design an experience that stands out online as much as it does when we’re all together in the same room.
The transition was smoother than expected, but it wasn’t a happy accident. It was by design. We planned for different needs and eventualities to create a suite of building blocks that can be used to assemble the exact session we needed to run. On-demand, and with the smallest amount of effort as possible. Depending on the design team to prepare every workshop from scratch was not an ideal option for the consultants, and not feasible for us as a business. The challenge was to lower the barrier to design and produce content for short focus groups, to as much it would be for a five-day design sprint with multiple groups of participants.
Enter our new system for workshop templates.
Introducing a new tool
As we were learning and adapting to new ways of working, our dependency on an effective online collaboration tool only increased. We chose Miro for its many integration options that lend to an agile workshop experience.
Here, the challenge was to introduce this learning curve to the participants of the workshop. Keeping in mind that the participants had never used the tool before, we created a pre-workshop training template in Miro explaining the basic features that the participants would need to know prior to the first workshop.
Engagement
A key feature of our workshops has been learning through interactions and keeping the engagement level same for every participant. The true potential of a workshop is in enabling people to move out of their comfort zone — sharing ideas wholeheartedly, engaging in group activities, and achieving a change in mindset that comes through the power of participation. For us, creating such an atmosphere online was imperative to achieve impact through workshops.
1. First contact
People in the lockdown are separated by distance, so at the beginning of the first workshop we made sure there was enough time for introductions amongst the participants. In an in-person meeting, it can be difficult to remember each person you are introduced to, especially within a large group. This is where we found a certain advantage to virtual introductions. We created activities where each participant added a bit of information about themselves. To enable easy interactions between participants, the information was available on the Miro boards to all the participants throughout the workshops.
2. Breaking the ice
Effective ice-breakers are an essential tool in every workshop or meeting, in making the group feel comfortable. Conversations don’t flow naturally online, so it helps to have the advantage of an ice-breaker to get things warmed up. It’s important to choose an ice-breaker that fits the needs and purpose of the workshop. This also depends on external factors such as, where the participant is in the process of the workshop, size of the group, etc.
We created a collection of ready-to-use ice-breaker templates based on various categories to help participants bond, as well as encourage collaboration to refine, analyse and think more creatively. We shared this collection on Miroverse, so it can be used by everyone.
3. Learning with practice
After warmups, every workshop has one or two presentation parts, which is followed up by exercises that are aimed at participants’ ability to get familiar with the subject. This is also an opportunity for the participants to ask extra questions related to the exercise.
The presentation feature within Miro enabled us to present just like in Powerpoint or Google Slides.
4. Enabling peer-to-peer learning
The purpose of any workshop is to nurture collective work and embrace individuality. To do so, smaller groups of people need to work together. The next part of the workshop used Zoom’s breakout rooms that broke the participants into their teams, which could then work together on an exercise in Miro.
We encourage peer-to-peer learning in all our workshops, as it allows participants to expand their perspectives leading to deeper learning. While teams remained in their breakout rooms, the working area for all teams was located in one Miro space.
5. Check-in with participants
Any workshop is pointless without constructive feedback, not just for the participants but for the organisers as well. We ended each workshop with easy and quick share-back questions.
The end experience
“Ultimately, the goal of a good workshop is to get participants to step out of their comfort zones and adopt a new mindset…when you tackle a workshop just like you would tackle any other design challenge, the outcomes can be quite transformative and magical”.
— Daisuke Yukita, Senior Interaction Designer, IDEO
The result was a collection of various thought-through templates, which we now customise and adapt to create different workshops. By setting up sections of each workshop, these are pre-loaded with these templates and other information that the participants might need.
Of course, the whole experience will be incomplete without aligning it with our 4 design principles and incorporating our brand’s look & feel.
