Design Workshops

The primary goal of this article is to showcase a process where design ideas can be validated through a fairly quick run through and discussion, and be measured for potential development.

The goal of these workshops is to quickly glance at new innovative ideas (products or features) that are on a pipeline. By exposing the grounds for these ideas (in reality, their structure), and combining a business perspective with insights into user journeys, product integration and evolution, with a series of tasks, such as sketching activities and finally a voting process, there’s a quick realization of which ideas can be placed in a hierarchy of importance, and therefore assess which ones are due for a far more detailed production strategy, versus ones that can be backlogged (from the standpoint of putting together a rough prototype and eventually a fully functional pilot). Below are some brief insights how these workshops can effectively be run.

• Succinctly showcase the ideas to be discussed. A facilitator starts by showcasing an overall summary of these ideas, including a background of what was their genesis. The facilitator also showcases the research surrounding the ideas that are being tackled, namely:
• Defining the Industry in which these products can potentially exist;
• Showcasing the main users/clients that exist within the industry, identifying voiced pain points, opportunities of growth, tangents with the current Organization which is sponsoring the current solutions;
• Identifying products/solutions existing within the industry, which try to solve problems, or aspects identified as problems;
• Identify trends on the market, across a variety of Industries, which shape users/clients behaviors, and have an impact on the perception of topics such as innovation, celerity of delivery, performance, omnichannel experiences, among others;
• Provide detail on the Organization’s performance on the market/industry, including an overview of its deliverables, the voice of the customer, simultaneously showcasing metrics and analytics for product usage, identifiable opportunities of growth, understanding internal voices and what they’re clamoring for;

Once the contextual setting is defined, the facilitator introduces each idea and defines the expectations for the exercise, and how each group is going to be responsible for building a case study for each of those ideas. The goal is ultimately to produce team integration, but also have each team able to defend their pitch/idea to the best of their capabilities.

The discussion amongst the groups should be anchored on potentially five pertinent axioms:

• How they are innovative;
• What story/narrative do they present;
• What value do they add to the user;
• Why are they relevant to the user;
• In what circumstances does this solution manifests itself, including device cognizance;

Design Workshop Exercise

As the different teams discuss the ideas, and go through the research/documentation that has been shaped, the goal is to marry different viewpoints and backgrounds, in order to build a pitch that is a manifestation of the consistency of the entire team. In order to further substantiate that pitch, there are tasks that can further substantiate the pitch exercise, which include:

• Run a sketching exercise where the ideas are brought to life on the boards — the facilitator should be an aid for this initiative. This specifically means that as the ideas are discussed, and the platforms in which they exist are surfaced, sketching possible flows, and surfacing user journeys helps the teams understand how the products/features can actually exist;
• Prepare the summarization of the pitch for the product/feature, where each team member has to verbally showcase it for an allotted time, using whatever materials have been created;

Following these exercises, the ensuing activities of the workshop include collectively hearing the pitches that have been done, followed by a voting activity, where the ideas are prioritized according to a series of factors already outlined by the Facilitator. The goal of this voting exercise, and ultimately of these quick ideation workshops, is essentially to determine the validity & hierarchy of importance of ideas, as they get through a process of being prototyped and tested, before going into an actual production/development cycle.

This is a potential structure for how design ideas can effectively and collectively be discussed, in an environment where different key players and stakeholders are gathered, and all gain further insight into the Organization’s goals, processes, while simultaneously incentivizing individual collaboration and teamwork.