Design Thinking workshops are only successful if they are properly prepared
After delivering 500+ #billboarddesignthinking workshops a seven-step standard process emerged that helps me engage with teams and guides me through the delivery process from a first call to delivering a workshop that matches customers' expectations.
Your takeaway from this article:
Moderators are obsessed with delivering the workshop but its less than 10% of the actual work and 10% of the skills you need!
Most moderators enjoy running the show and being in command and focus much of their attention on how to perform when running the workshop, but reality is that's just a small part of the skill set you need to deliver a good workshop.
If workshops fail its always because Step 1-4 is either not done properly or totally omitted and Step 6-7 are rarely done because as a moderator, you will rarely get celebrated and clapped on your shoulder for all the hard work that is necessary to prepare and follow-up the workshop.
Overview stages and workloads to expect by stage
If workshop moderation is your profession here is what you should expect from a time effort perspective ranging from simple to complex workshops.
It's easy to do the math and if you look at the effort estimate you can expect for a simple workshop (30-hour) and for complex workshop (85+ hours) but you should also notice that workshop moderation is only 10% of the time it takes to deliver a workshop!
Here I want to highlight that delivering the workshop is about only 10% of the workload and 90% of the moderator work is done before or after the workshop!
If you want to improve your moderation skills and you delivered workshop
look at the 90% effort before and after the workshop to improve your moderation skills
not what you do in the workshop!
It seems to be counterintuitive that if you want to improve your moderation skills you should not focus on the workshop itself!
Whenever I deliver training sessions for moderators, they are surprised about the amount of work and complexity that is involved in delivering a world-class workshop and often they are disappointed!
Their expectations were: "Show me how to be a start moderator" and they were hoping for simple tips how to better facilitate a workshop until they find out that there is much hard work going on behind the scenes.
And they also understand that after the workshop clients and colleagues will often not give them any credit for that work that is so necessary to deliver a good workshop.
Delivering a workshop is like a musician giving a concert: "Nobody wants to listen to the musician practice on stage"
What's true for musicians is also true for moderators. If you don't practice, prepare and do the hard work before you go on stage nobody will be thrilled about your performance.
Why the moderator is responsible for the end-to-end delivery
Some moderators believe their sole responsibility is to stand in the front of the room hand out post-its and explain the workshop goal and that's it.
If you want to make a proper living as a moderator, you need to provide an end-to-end service which starts with consulting customers and help them understand when they should use a design thinking workshop or not and also help them understanding if a design thinking workshop is the right tool to solve a problem or not.
The workshop moderator job ends with handing over the documentation to the customer and archiving all documents so the learning from the workshop can be shared with others.
When I am invited to pitch a workshop and clients ask me what my role is I always answer:
My workshop is like an all-inclusive vacation.
You book the vacation, and
I will take care
of everything else!
This statement of lets customers smile or react surprised and I assure them that the only thing they need to do is provide a room and ensure participants show up in time and I will take care of everything else.
As a moderator
you are responsible
for the end-to-end process, and
you are finished when you documented and archived your workshop!
Step-by-step discussion on activities, tasks and deliverables
The rest of this article will share a step-by-step guide with comments for each of the seven-stage explaining the reasoning and task for each of the steps.
1. Request - Workshop
Moderator task:
In the request phase the moderator is responsible for consulting various parties in understanding if a Design Thinking Workshop is helpful in the current situation.
Often customers or account teams jump to conclusions and ask for Design Thinking workshops and hope they can solve all problems, but Design Thinking is a tool that should be applied wisely and only if it is appropriate.
1.1 - A customer requests a workshop
Sometimes customers will request a Design Thinking workshop because they have used or heard of Design Thinking and think it is the correct approach to solve a problem and approach your company with a direct request.
1.2 - Moderator suggests a workshop
Sometimes moderators hear of an opportunity or are working on an engagement where they see an opportunity for Design Thinking to create value and suggest a workshop either directly to the customer or to the account team and the suggestion is received well.
1.3 - The account team asks for a workshop
In most cases account teams will ask for a workshop either because they want to propose it to the customer or because the customer asked for a workshop
The Moderator consults the request to understand if a design thinking workshop is the right tool to solve a problem.
2. Qualify - Workshop
Moderator task:
During the qualification process the moderator and account team discusses the workshop details for example who will attend, when it should take place. They also look at the workshop investment and effort to understand if a workshop will create value and should be part of the engagement or not.
2.1 - Account team starts qualification process
The account team collects the information and triggers the qualification process and decides if they want to offer a workshop or not as well as discussing if this is a free delivery or if the customer is paying for the workshop
2.2 - Moderator is assigned
A moderator is assigned to the workshop delivery. In a perfect world the moderator would be the same person who helped in the request phase and help on deciding if the workshop makes sense or not.
3. Design - Workshop
Moderator task
In the design phase the moderator leads and designs the workshop together with the account team and/or customer. In any case, it is important that the moderator has access to stakeholders who understand the topic, challenge, workshop goals and deliveries expected and can book them for 60-90 minutes to co-design the workshop in a design session.
The complete design is done with PowerPoint templates which ensures easy reuse and the option to send the design result to the customer or account team and have them involved in the design process.
Design sessions are a powerful opportunity to listen and deeply understand customer needs and goals and fully exposing the workshop design before the workshop starts ensures all stakeholders agree on the workshop flow and outcomes.
3.1 - Joint Account team Design session
In those cases, where the account team is suggesting a workshop the design session is done without the customer and the account team is the workshop owner and the goal is to make a good guess what could work.
This is justifiable if the customer has no concrete idea about Design Thinking and the goal is to show what is possible with a real example that resonates with the customer.
Never use generic templates for customer presentation the worst guess is better than nothing and shows you gave it a try!
3.2 - Joint Account team and Customer Design session
This is the most favorable scenario because here all decision makers with individual goals and needs craft the workshop together it is part of co-innovation and is by far the fastest way to come to an agreement with all stakeholders and balance different interests.
3.3 - Joint Customer design session
This is a rare scenario and requires full trust between the account team and the moderator and is most applicable if the moderator and customer have worked together in the past and the team is sure the moderator understands the customer needs and context when making design decisions.
The goal of a joint workshop design session is to minimize misalignment and manage expectations
4. Offer - Workshop
Moderator task
After the design session has completed the moderator creates a workshop offer which consists of a simple PowerPoint slide deck with five slides
If a virtual workshop is planned the moderator prepares the Klaxoon board too and uses it in the presentation with the customer to answer questions on virtual workshop practicalities.
4.1 Create workshop offer + Klaxoon
The moderator takes the output of the workshop design session cleans up the templates and brands the poster before importing the images into the workshop proposal Power Point file.
4.2 Presentation to account team
Before the proposal is send to the customer the moderator presents the proposal to the account team and they have the final say and also are responsible for sending the proposal to the customer which also means they have to check the proposal and change what they think is necessary and if many changes are required this will lead to a redesign.
4.3 Customer approves workshop proposal
After the presentation the workshop proposal is shared with the customer and the customer should confirm the workshop design is ok and to ensure there is no misunderstanding the customer should also send out the invitation.
5. Deliver - Workshop
Moderator task
The moderator is responsible for the entire logistic including bringing all workshop materials and artifacts to the workshop but the account team and/or customer are responsible for ensuring participants come and a proper location has been booked.
5.1 Customer sends invitation
It is the customers responsibility to send the invitation and ensure all employees have time to attend the workshop and arrive in time.
If the presentation is successful, the customer should send the invitation because it creates better buy-in with customer stakeholders if the invitation comes from an internal manager rather than from a vendor or partner like Microsoft.
Of course, having a high-ranking manager send out the invitation is helpful to ensure participants understand the importance of the workshop.
Sometimes customers who are not familiar with Design Thinking will ask for an E-Mail template then this is provided by the moderator as well.
5.2 Prepare and deliver workshop
Workshop delivery includes setting up the room with all workshop materials that are necessary in most cases the account team and often the customer will also support.
If possible, prepare the workshop room and hang the poster on the evening of the day before so you can come relaxed and enjoy the workshop. In most cases this is just a wish, but it is the best option and if you don't ask you won't get a yes.
Also, it is the moderator's task to clean the room and leave it the way it was before the workshop started. For example, move chairs and tables back to their original place, clean whiteboards.
Best practice is the room can be used for the next meeting after you leave without people scratching their heads what has happened.
Remember you are a guest and act as if you are invited to a friend's house.
6. Document - Workshop
Moderator task
Since the moderator is responsible for the end-to-end process, he/she is also responsible for writing the workshop documentation. This is the most time intensive task but here the moderator can use his/her experience to translate the workshop artifacts into consulting know how.
Unfortunately, there is no magic button that will do this for the moderator. Often account teams and customers will ask for a one slide summary but this summary requires somebody to first create the documentation and then aggregate the high-level findings.
6.1 Write Documentation
Writing a documentation is time consuming but 70% of the works is simple and straightforward and consists mainly of digitalizing the workshop results for a physical workshop and linking workshop notes and/or transcripts to the post-it's that were created during the workshop. If the moderator has a consulting mind set, then he/she can also summarize the main points and write an executive summary.
6.2 Share Documentation
Once the document is finished it is shared with the account team who is responsible for checking the content and reading the document end-to-end. If the account team trusts the moderator, they can forward the document but without reading the content they won't be able to understand the insights and won't be able to use the information when working with the customer.
6.3 Customer gets documentation and summary
Best practices are asking the customer for a handover meeting where the moderator explain two things. First how the documentation was created and second how the documentation can be used by the customer.
Depending on the workshop topic there are different options. For example, if the workshop was about creating product features than it would make sense to create product backlog items but if it is a strategic workshop then the goal would be to convert the results into strategic initiatives.
Create 2-3 examples how the workshop results can be converted into knowledge.
7. Archive - Workshop
Moderator task
A workshop without documentation is a waste of time and if we look at the total time and cost efforts invested by all stakeholders not reusing the workshop insights for other workshops is insane.
But workshop archiving does not simply mean putting everything in a folder and sharing the link but requires curating the content and selecting which artifacts are reusable. In addition, outcomes should be standardized so they can easily be reused.
7.1 - Customer signs-off workshop delivery
Of course, this does not require an official signature and a simple E-Mail or verbal communication during a meeting is sufficient as long as it is clear the workshop has been delivered and the customer is not waiting for any additional information.
Don't forget to ask for feedback focus on what can be improved, not on getting praised.
7.2 Close workshop request
Often workshops are part of a paid or un-paid engagement and the account team should official close the workshop request and confirm it has been delivered completely. Workshop closing should make it clear that the moderator is released, and no additional task are pending. Collecting feedback from the account team is equally important to getting feedback from the customer.
7.3 - Archive share and publish workshop
Once the workshop has been archived it should be shared and published and made available for other consultants for reuse. This includes having a single repository where consultants can search and find specific workshop types.
Remember if you want to hone your moderation skills the
low hanging fruits are
most likely
in step 1-4 and step 6-7 not in step 5 delivering the workshop.
