The science of facilitation: A guide for product designers
Adam Cochrane, Senior Product Designer and go-to creative facilitator and facilitation trainer at Zalando, shares his tips and tricks to guiding more effective collaboration in workshops, meetings and creative sessions. Follow Adam on Medium.
Boss or leader? In Zalando’s Product Design team, it goes deeper. In our radically collaborative working culture, facilitator is the winner. Facilitation of creative projects not only means inspiring individual achievement, but inviting the whole team into an open and transparent conversation — a mutually encouraging platform from which to collectively optimize performance, solve problems and make decisions. And as we learned from Senior Product Designer at Zalando, Adam Cochrane, who regularly helps us to up our game as a passionate facilitator and trainer, facilitation is a fine science — not least since the whole process had to be moved online!
Want to learn how to get the best out of yourself and your colleagues? We asked Adam to reflect on the skill of facilitation in product design and to offer some key insights into his process.
Facilitator isn’t your official role at Zalando, is it?
No. I’m a Senior Product Designer for the Fashion Store. But facilitation, and training others in facilitation, have become a big part of my working practice over the last few years. I found that I was quite good at it, and people started requesting that I help them — either to facilitate a session, or with advice on how to do it. And the natural next step after giving advice is turning that into official training: to promote best practices for teams across the whole organization.
One thing I value about Zalando is how the company finds people’s strengths and offers them space to explore them further. And not just explore, but share them with others so that they can learn and grow as well. In the product design job family, we call this the “learn, do, share” principle. That’s really powerful and something I feel is worth celebrating.
How did you discover you had a skill for facilitation?
I think it’s always been there, and I discovered I really enjoyed it in a very different context. Quite a few years ago, I was a leader at some international summer youth camps running all kinds of crazy activities to keep them motivated. This brought out many of the skills I would later develop as a designer. It might sound odd, comparing keeping teens amused and entertained to getting the best out of adult professionals, but there are actually quite a few parallels. Channeling energy, keeping people’s attention, being empathetic to everyone, and making sure they all get along and “play nicely” are common to both spheres. Everyone needs to feel welcome, and that they have a part to play. There is also the need for clear rules of engagement in both.
“As we are a diverse team, with diverse sponsors and diverse stakeholders involved…it’s important to get everyone on the same page at the same time.”
What is the role of facilitation in product design, and why is it so important?
As a facilitator, it’s your role to bring people together to do their best work, and create sustainable long-term agreements and solutions. I think we designers often jump too quickly into tools, trying to create the right solution straight away. Although we may start with the customer and their needs, not everyone will have the same view on what this is. At Zalando, we try not to design in a vacuum. And as we are a diverse team, with diverse sponsors and stakeholders — all with different perspectives, agendas, and hopes and fears about what you’re doing in the room (or call) — it’s important to get everyone on the same page. While Zalando sets the bar high for designers, facilitation enables us to effectively deliver on those expectations.
I believe everyone should play a part in this, and realize how they can make an impact. If you do not intentionally facilitate, it might default into another unproductive meeting, which simply wastes everyone’s time and does not result in the right solution for the customer. That’s where being more conscious and having the essential skills and the right tools comes in.
“Someone who supports everyone to do their best thinking. A good facilitator can create an environment where people are encouraged to participate, understand one another’s point of view and are pushed to create strong ideas. In doing so, a group facilitator helps participants create elegant solutions and build sustainable agreements helping a team move towards an outcome”. — AJ & Smart
What makes a good facilitator?
The above quote puts it perfectly. In my training, I focus on some widely recognized best-practice guidelines for running a good workshop. And there are also a few building blocks that everyone can be aware of to avoid directionless meetings, ensuring any meeting or workshop can be made a whole lot more efficient, aligned and collaborative.
- Role
Facilitation isn’t only about how you personally build trust within the group, create confidence in the process, and set out the right goals to be achieved. It’s how you act in the role of facilitator: whether you facilitate as leader, a peer or a servant. This depends on the audience and how they will best respond to you. For example, if you’re moderating C-Level, they may be more comfortable being asked than told. Chapter 10 in This is Service Design Doing dives deep into this topic.
2. Exercises
This is all about selecting the right exercises, not overloading the participants nor the workshop, and consistently communicating how each exercise will work and what it will achieve. In the ‘hybrid’ work setting, it’s particularly important to reduce the number of exercises and to focus on building confidence, participation and knowledge. If you’re looking for a list of great exercises, try following the lightning decision jam or any of the methods from This is Service Design Doing’s method library.
3. Framework
This is the flow of the workshop: the logical steps from A to Z that hold everything together. A good framework creates a structure that helps move people along, engage with and follow the exercises. To get this flow right, think in terms of the diverge and converge pattern — e.g. learn then synthesise, ideate then prioritise.
4. Principles
Finally, these are the big rules that establish the terms of engagement for all participants. They set out limits and expectations to help create a safe space for all. This is important to establish early on, as common ground rules can help you deal with disruptors and low commitment participants later on. A great example of this is the IDEOU’s rules of brainstorming or even our own founding mindset at Zalando.
“One thing I learnt early on is to make sure that the workspace I set up always has a public, open and collaborative space, as well as a private space for each individual contributor to brainstorm, take notes and ideate.”
Can you give examples from your own experience of these foundations being put to work?
A good example from my own product design role is my involvement in the development of the new Beauty experience at Zalando. To kick off this initiative, I was invited to facilitate a sprint with all of the product designers, product managers and sponsors involved. There were around 30 participants in total, and my role was to bring everyone together. This was to gain clarity and alignment on our objectives, to build a sense of excitement, and to agree on a realistic customer journey for sign off and approval by our stakeholders. It also helped us to find gaps and dependencies.
I had to rapidly translate this process to the online environment during the tricky first few weeks of lockdown — a big learning curve for all of us. What I found most effective at that highly insecure time was to clearly show participants how the process would lead us to our goal, and to encourage participants to be involved at the right time. I quickly noticed the importance of breaks and asynchronous work to give enough time to unwind and detach from their screens. One thing I learned early on is to make sure that the workspace I set up always has a public, open and collaborative space, as well as a private space for each individual contributor to brainstorm, take notes and ideate. Of course, there are many more tips and tricks for better remote workshops including: minimizing the amount of decisions that need to be made, taking it slow, talking louder, turning on cameras, and making sure that you stick to the workshop foundations such as using the write, read and vote format (more on this later).
“I have seen great workshops done in slides, spreadsheets or with simple pen and paper. It comes down to understanding the needs of each group and focusing on the required content and outcomes.”
Is there a guide you can show us on how you set up a workshop?
Here is how I set up my workshops, meetings and creative sessions — whether it’s as part of a team for the top 100 finance execs at Disneyland or simply facilitating a retrospective in my team. It’s also a great sneak peek for all those at Zalando who will take my training in the future!
Set yourself up for success
- Understand why you are doing the workshop and what are the expectations and next steps
If someone asks me to facilitate, it’s important that I understand why we are having the workshop, and what the team, or manager wants to do next. There is no point in running an ideation session if there is no one to act on the ideas. Likewise, there is no point getting people to prioritize a problem if there isn’t commitment to finding solutions.
2. Pick the right structure, methods and activities
To ensure a healthy and natural flow for your workshop, use a mixture of divergent and convergent activities to avoid overwhelming your participants’ cognitive load.
3. Choose the right tools and assign roles and responsibilities
This might not always be the most fancy tool. I have seen great workshops done in slides, spreadsheets or with simple pen and paper. It comes down to understanding the needs of each group and focusing on the required content and outcomes (e.g. if people are talking too much try a “plank stand up”).
4. Do a run through and take a deep breath
Remember you should plan as if the workshop depends upon it and facilitate like a plan doesn’t matter.
Facilitate, don’t lead
- Ask the right questions
Try the why, how, what format. Establish the purpose and direction, and clearly illustrate where you’re going and how you will get there. Setting up the right expectations and principles is a key foundation for success and reflection.
2. Establish the process, mindset and a “Parking Lot”
This often entails putting up agreed rules like those from IDEO U. A “Parking Lot” allows you to collect questions, ideas and topics you might want to circle back to later on.
3. Break the ice, shift the mindset, gain focus
This great icebreaker shifts people to the task at hand: before each round, everyone puts their hand in the middle and hums. For remote workshops, try sending participants on a treasure hunt for objects in their home/office or changing their backgrounds to remote locations or favourite movies. Here is an endless list of creative icebreakers from Mural.
4. “Time box”, move people along, structure conversation and take good breaks
Structure conversation with the write, read and vote format. This is where participants write what they want to say on post-its, read it out and then vote to help prioritise. This structure will help balance extraverts who think to talk and allow introverts to think and then talk.
5. Constantly reflect, ask for feedback, adjust, and align
Pace this, do it regularly, encourage feedback and use participants’ names to pull them back into the workshop.
6. Celebrate
Although often overlooked, it’s important to thank people for their time, for creating a positive space and committing to take part. Be fair to your participants. We all have a lot on our plates and thinking in a set and structured way can be hard. Workshops can take a large amount of energy especially when they are remote. It’s important to celebrate all contributions.
Build value beyond the workshop
- Act quickly on feedback
If there are any quick wins or small changes, do them straight away.
2. Respond and synthesize the workshop
A good synthesis proves the value of the workshop by allowing participants to reflect how their work has contributed to the overall progress.
3. Plan for action
Whether it’s you or someone else, where possible, end with a commitment that combines a name, a time and a clear SMART (Specific, Measureable, Agreed, Realistic, Time-bound) action.
Wow. Thank you, Adam. Do you have any final words for those who are looking to level up their facilitation skills?
Sure! I think the biggest tip I have for anyone that wants to level up their facilitation skills is to practice, whenever the opportunity presents itself. These days, everyone works in a team. My suggestion is to try raising your hand for what scares you. Or you can try suggesting a workshop or a different way of working to your team or manager and, in this way, you can start small, but get started nonetheless. If not, you can always join a summer camp and get to know the joy of working with teenagers!
For more from Adam, follow him on Medium.
