Coordinating aVirtual Design Workshop
Takeaways from a Collaborative Experience Design Evening
Remote workshop. Those two words might be enough to give you chills, but San Diego Experience Design (SDXD) tackled the topic for April’s monthly meetup. SDXD facilitators creatively led the evening using Zoom video conferencing and Miro, a digital whiteboard tool. By the end of the event, 65 attendees were guided through ten breakout groups, each team emerging with its own design artifacts and remote collaboration experience.
The goal of the workshop was to share tools and skills that support virtual teamwork and build bonds with our San Diego Community members. As experience professionals, we thrive when we can create solutions together with others. The feedback of our stakeholders and team members is an invaluable part of our design process. Using tools like Zoom and Miro are ways we can keep that collaboration alive while physically distant. By practicing these remote techniques in a supportive environment, members had a safe place to laugh off internet connectivity problems or the occasional toddler in the background.
Prior to the workshop, SDXD board members invested time creating a thorough workshop agenda, complete with takeaway templates for attendees — check out the planning Miro board here. This pre-workshop prep work was vital for a smooth meeting and ensuring attendees knew what was expected of them.
The evening was structured so that after an introduction, attendees were split into Zoom breakout rooms. Within these rooms, they worked with a workshop facilitator from start to finish on an empathy mapping, storyboarding, or journey mapping exercise.
Each room followed the same general agenda, but built-in freedom for its members to vote and exercise their unique team makeup throughout. Miro’s virtual whiteboards were used as templates for the exercise prompts and spaces where each team could work together, from creating the journey map to dot-voting with emoticons.
The agenda was split into four main sections:
- Intro/kickoff: The team selected their persona and perspective from a list of possible choices. For example, a kidless couple trying to exercise during quarantine. The team worked together to focus on the problems and goals of the persona they’d selected.
- Empathy map/Storyboard/Journey map exercise: At this stage, the team worked together and as individuals to build the respective artifact for their persona in their situation as it related to their problem space.
- Discuss opportunities and brainstorm: This portion of the exercise sought to re-create the organic feel of in-person affinity mapping. Pre-made templates guided attendees through the process and breakout room facilitators worked to ensure each voice was heard.
- Poster board solution: In the final stage, attendees used their work to build a poster that communicated their proposed solution. They crafted a pitch and visual to help tell the story of their final idea.
Following the exercise, members returned to the main Zoom room and shared out their team posters. SDXD facilitators also started a group debrief for attendees to discuss what they’d learned from their remote collaboration experience. The completed Miro board from the workshop can be found here.
What we learned
- Plan workshop leadership. From Zoom technical management to prompting breakout room discussions, there are a myriad of tasks that make up a great virtual workshop. Set each member of a workshop leadership team up for success by giving them responsibility over a clear subset of tasks. Planning who is responsible for what aspect of a remote workshop helps facilitators and attendees have a better experience.
- Set the virtual tone. In-person meetings are rich with human and social connection. Plan how you can re-create this in your virtual workshop. Make sure your agenda has opportunities for attendees to build empathy for one another using tools like ice breaker exercises, group projects, etc. Remember that it’s ok to say hi to your coworker’s cat or commiserate on homework duty. Building rapport virtually is an important step to leading a workshop with soul.
- Fail gracefully with technology. Despite the most well-crafted agenda, virtual workshops are at the mercy of the technology supporting them. Chances are, someone will have internet connection issues, be unmuted accidentally, the list continues. Plan for these failures and focus on what you can control.
Overall, the evening was a success. The community spirit SDXD cultivates permeated throughout the virtual workshop. But, as LaVar Burton says, don’t take my word for it.
“Great meetup! This was the most human interaction I’ve had since the lockdown!” — Kami Wang
About SDXD
SDXD (San Diego Experience Design) is a catalyst for a vibrant San Diego experience design community. A professional networking and education organization, they serve primarily UX research and design practitioners but welcome anyone who works in, or is simply interested by, the various experience design disciplines and techniques (UX, IxD, usability, prototyping, HCI, service design, industrial design, etc.).
Find them at: http://www.sdxd.org/ | http://www.meetup.com/s-d-x-d/
Volunteer, sponsor, and get involved in this community.
Find out how by visiting us at: http://www.sdxd.org/ These events are made possible by great people and by the companies that put us to work. If you or your company would like to sponsor us, we’d love to talk. Download our one-pager about SDXD and the type of events we host.
