Workshops are an essential component of how UX works. Now that we’re remote, do you overlook whiteboards and post-its? Or snacks and banter of these in-person sessions? I really do! I used to work at a business in which everyone was in 1 office building, therefore private communication was in the crux of everything.
Now that we’re remote, have you ever found yourself talking into the void — black displays with cameras and radios off? Or asking folks to talk, just to hear silence? Or perhaps halfway through the workshop somebody states that they aren’t certain what people are all doing there?
All these and a lot more awkward moments have occurred to me when conducting online workshops from the previous months.
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And so, I’d love to share my learnings about the best way to set yourself up to get a more profitable workshop, making sure it not only works easily but would be the highlight of this afternoon for those participants.
- Planning
Plan beforehand, making sure to provide people notice. Also supply some history and schedule from the invitation, so folks understand why they have been encouraged.
For those who, like me, are comparatively new to your present business, this may also help capture more relevant individuals involved, because the invitation is frequently forwarded to other people. 1 thing to look out for is confirmation that is really attending.
Occasionally there’s this one critical individual, without whom the workshop aim is impossible to achieve — be certain that you convey that clearly and ask individuals to verify their availability beforehand. It is going to also aid with planning how much time to devote to each activity.
- Tech problems
You can’t avoid tech problems (not in my own experience). That means you are always going to have somebody whose web isn’t quickly enough or whose camera isn’t functioning correctly, or perhaps they can’t log in the applications you requested them to utilize. Therefore, troubleshoot beforehand as much as possible.
Everything is dependent upon how much experience people have had with online workshops — the longer they’ve attended, the tech prep you may have to do. If you’re using particular applications, such as Mural or Miro, and you are aware that there are individuals new to it, then you may always send a tiny tutorial movie;or even better, add a couple of minutes of getting used to the software to the session.
You cannot control other people’s Wi-Fi, therefore the one thing you can do, is allow for flexibility — I’d individuals whose microphones failed at work and they needed to write down everything, others couldn’t log into the internet whiteboard and needed to mention in the Zoom phone for their thoughts to be inserted — the very best thing that you can do is stay calm and place your creative problem solving abilities to utilize.
- Workshop time
Now let us discuss the actual workshop. Timing is something which you will learn more about as you conduct more online sessions. Each group of people is different, you can become really chatty individuals, or people who aren’t as comfortable speaking; occasionally when folks are new to internet workshops, they’re unsure how to engage you will find exactly the very same issues in real-life workshops also, but online they may seem trickier to address.
- Next Actions
End of this workshop is a vital time — you do not need the session to become another workshop without a follow up. With a couple of minutes to discuss the next steps is obviously excellent. What works better is writing down dependencies and duties between groups and a deadline for another catch up.
Be certain that you perform a write-up and ship it out following the workshop, so people are aware of what they have achieved, and much more importantly if they will need to do something.
This covers key aspects of establishing online workshops. You can find more nuances on conducting different sorts of sessions such as a plan session . usability findings session or even an electronic layout sprint, which I’ll cover in another report.