Intensive social exchange enables a deep common understanding of the facts

An interview with Franziska Hannß about what makes a good workshop and what experiences she has made over the years in workshops with her team and customers. Franziska, who holds a degree in media informatics, is authorized signatory for creation at the Gesellschaft für Technische Visualistik (GTV) in Dresden and research assistant for media design.

Why do you like workshops?

Workshops are a great way to deal with all kinds of open problems, because they create a framework for social interaction and getting to know each other. This enables a intensive communication, which is very valuable — especially for new project partners. Thus, right at the beginning of a project a common understanding of the problem can be created and expert knowledge from all sides can be integrated. Workshops are therefore good way to deepen or explore problems and to make underlying processes, data landscapes and representations accessible to all parties. Also, they provide a good setting to do handicrafts and develop prototypes together: For example, we use low-fi prototyping and develop small functional prototypes.

Where do your customers come from?

This is very different, we have customers from the automotive industry or even museums and public authorities.

What could a typical problem with customers look like?

What does a process, for example vehicle inspection, look like? There are often questions of visualization, or also process supporting software, which is to be developed. Which data is used for the process? Which information is important and must be included?

What do you think is necessary for a successful workshop?

For me a workshop has been a success when all participants leave the workshop with a good feeling after a lively exchange and we have achieved everything we set out to do. The results always provide a good basis for documentation, so that the next steps should be presented with the material that has been developed. And if the planned timing works out — that is always nice!

Is there a trick to keeping to the schedule?

Well, I’d say that’s mostly experience and strict time management during the workshop.

In your experience, what is often forgotten?

An introduction to the topic is important so that all participants start with an equal basis of understanding. I have also made the experience that time slots are often wrongly estimated.

Are there moments/situations in which you would not recommend a workshop?

If the topic is already very clearly defined or if a fixed target definition exists, a workshop is not necessarily the right thing. I would rather use the workshops for very open topics where it is important to create a structure.

How do your employees like workshops?

From my point of view it is always a popular tool for the analysis phase in projects.

What do you always have on your material list?

Stickers in various colors, thick pencils in various colors (the writing must be legible from far away, coolies or fineliners are not sufficient), a large kapa plate (this is then also transportable with the results and can come with me to my place) or a blackboard. Depending on the topic, some prepared visualization pieces, or personas printed out several times of mood board pictures.

What do you really think of flipcharts?

If brainstorming sessions are possible, then these are useful. But they can also be replaced by sticky notes. We use flipchart paper because it has a comfortable size, headlines or similar can be prescribed. But you can also use the back of an old poster - sustainability ;)

What do you think about when you plan a workshop?

First I try to get a rough insight into the process or problem and then I define the desired goals for the workshop. Usually I also discuss them briefly in the team, especially for workshops with customers. With internal workshops the planning is often shorter and then we look ad hoc how to proceed or what still has to be done. The last thing I do is to create a short presentation to introduce the topic to everyone later.

Can you briefly describe a typical workshop?

A typical workflow looks something like this:

1. Motivation for the workshop
2. Presentation of the agenda with time slots
3. Introduction to the subject area
4. (if necessary) Introduction of the participants and their roles in relation to the problem. We often combine internal workshops with the kick-off of the project. In this case, the main focus is on the distribution of roles within the project team.
5. Apply topic-specific content and methods. For example, we like working with brainstorming, paper prototyping, mood boards, personas, scenarios and create data specifications.
6. At this point the participants should have the opportunity to address what they are missing. For example, do they feel that they miss certain content? Very important: take notes so that you don’t forget any of it later.
7. Present the next steps. What will happen with all the material now?
8. Conclusion / Feedback round

Do you need a moderator?

Absolutely! Usually the moderator is identical with the organizer. The moderator is then often not actively involved in the corresponding development steps during the workshop.

Can there be too many participants?

Yes and no. The more participants, the more structure and planning the workshop needs. It is also advisable to form sub-groups to prepare topics in small rounds and then, by rotating the groups, to deepen the resulting approaches. For example, I once managed a workshop with 15 participants, but it needed 2 more moderators.

How important is the follow-up/documentation?

In my opinion, the follow-up is of great importance, so that you can check everything again later and no misunderstandings arise. If you do this well and keep a record of the next steps, you will have done the documentation right away and can use it as preparation for the conception. This saves you double work. Of course, the documentation should also go to the customer so that he can correct any errors. We can also present our working methods to new customers with the prepared results — visual material is always particularly well received.

What do you think about online workshops?

Well, of course, there’s no togetherness there. But it’s nice that through the internet there is always new picture material available, which you can use directly. And you can also quickly look up and check various facts.

Which tip would you have liked to get yourself earlier?

Most of the time, things don’t turn out as planned. There were workshops, we put a lot of planning and preparation into them and then none of it was needed — a healthy dose is always good there.