Planning design thinking workshops

Want to make your next design thinking workshop great? Join us for this talk on planning design thinking workshops.

Design thinking workshops are a great way for a group to work together to come up with creative solutions. When run well, groups can come up with more than they’d ever imagine possible.

Of course, great workshops don’t just happen. They are the result of careful goal setting, structuring and activity planning. Careful facilition helps everyone feel safe, understand what they are doing and contribute their experience and skill.

In this talk Donna will cover what it takes to plan a great design thinking workshop – from goal setting, structuring and choosing activites. Then she’ll talk about what it takes to manage the room itself – getting people warmed up, making them feel safe, encouraging contribution and making group decisions.

Transcript

1. Planning design thinking workshops
2. About design thinking workshops
3. Today Workshop goals (<5m) Workshop structure and activities (30m) Content, then Q&A Facilitating and managing people (15m) Content, then Q&A Then some final thoughts and answers Type questions as you go – I’ll answer them in thematic blocks
4. Workshop goals
5. Facilitate, don’t participate Don’t attempt to facilitate your own workshop
6. Questions to ask to determine goals What do you want to achieve with this workshop? Type: discovery / alignment / design generation What do you imagine will happen during the workshop? How do you want people to feel during and after the workshop? What would you hope people say about the workshop? What will happen after the session? How will you use the outcomes? How does this workshop fit with other work?
7. Is a design thinking workshop right? Good for: Getting people to work together Generating creative ideas for complex problems Generating practical, creative ideas for understandable topics Getting a group to collectively decide on next steps
8. Is a design thinking workshop right? Bad for: Very complex problems Problems with hard-to-understand inputs Detailed solution design
9. Workshop structure and activities
11. Warmups Match the warmup to the workshop goals Make introductions part of the warmup
13. Context Use an activity to discuss the current situation Don’t do boring presentations Have people actively learn Provide engaging support materials
15. Generating ideas Coming up with ideas Use those to come up with more ideas Understand the experience of the group Constrain time Give examples
16. Generating ideas Build the skills (particularly sketching) into warmups Do a test run Provide alternative ways of doing the activity
18. Developing and describing ideas Tell stories, act out a scenario, make models, go into more depth Allow plenty of time for this step
20. Prioritising and deciding next steps
22. QUESTIONS
23. Managing people
24. Warmups Warmups are SCARY Don’t ask people do reveal secrets
25. Getting everyone involved Create a safe place Take turns Have people think then contribute
26. Doing new things Introduce new skills slowly Start at the warmup Do low-risk activities first Break the activity down Provide an alternative
27. Getting unstuck Reverse Restate Try another direction Let them wrap up
28. QUESTIONS
29. Thank you! You can find me here… maadmob.com.au / @maadonna I am writing a book: “Facilitation for design thinking workshops” You can hire me to facilitate or teach 