This new approach allows us to drive greater participation, more active engagement, and a larger and richer pool of ideas to draw from.Ĭollaborating this way is actually kinda fun. But we have found they are often a barrier for collaborating with remote participants. However, we have some existing persona work and the team has hopefully had the opportunity to visit customers.Īn example of healthy and diverse participation Does this replace sticky notes and whiteboard? It's challenging but important that participants disconnect a little from the hurried and focused nature of their daily work to approach the journey map activity from the customer’s perspective as much as possible. We typically start a journey mapping session with an activity to help the team build empathy. The gamechanger is preparing key screens within the Freehand document that structure our conversation. One of our talented designers came up with a simple but amazing idea. Previous attempts we tried to create all the structure on the fly. The co-located team still gets the value of interacting and being together. Camera and a large screen still allow us to see each other via Google Hangout. But now all participants bring a laptop regardless of location. The same meeting invite, summary, and agenda go out. We live on computers which provide the opportunity to remove these small barriers. It is easy to be self-conscious about your idea, your handwriting, your appearance, lots of things that create small barriers to engagement. But it can be if it is your first time doing this with a group of people. Writing an idea on a sticky note and putting it on a whiteboard doesn’t seem like a big deal. A tool that allows remote collaboration while still allowing us to see each other is helpful. We rely on non-verbals to enrich communication, hopefully even create a sense of trust and empathy. Google Hangouts isn’t perfect but connecting via video at least allows for some degree of personal connection. Use a shared platform regardless of location. Sitting remotely at a computer in another time zone is very different from sitting together sans computers in a conference room. A handful of engaged individuals would try to pull it all together.Īlong the way, we’ve found a few keys to making these sessions more successful: Provide everyone with a similar experience We muddled through a few sessions which typically fell into the old style of everyone watching the facilitator tap dance. Its collection of symbols is pretty sparse and drawing isn’t intuitive which is a dealbreaker for most participants. The biggest challenge of InVision Freehand is the lack of structure. We struggled to find a tool that was the right degree of structured and open. Some are free-form like InVision Freehand. Some are more structured, like tools where you create and arrange sticky notes. Several times we tried using online collaborative tools with varying degrees of success. Typical journey map swirl of stickies and sketches. This leaves the facilitator trying desperately to draw out the team. Sorting out strategy and ideation through conversation and sticky notes in front of a group made most participants retreat rather than engage with the process. These sort of group workshops are foreign to how most participants are used to working. One would assume those in the room together would be highly engaged, but it typically didn’t go that way. Co-located participants were uncomfortable and fell into group apathy. This left them trying to catch enough of the dialogue to stay on the train of thought and greatly marginalized as a contributor. Not only would they have to request that someone in the room write their idea on the board, they typically did not have a good view of what was already on the board. The problem with this approach is twofold: Remote participants had a severely deprecated experience. Then remote participants joined via hangout. The facilitator and co-located team gather in a large room with a whiteboard, markers, and stacks of sticky notes. Everyone gets a meeting invite, project summary (requirements, scenarios, research), and agenda. Previously, our best idea was to try to have the workshop facilitator travel to the largest, closest team of co-located participants. A particular pain point for our team is the collaborative journey map exercise. Somewhere along the beginning of most projects, we do some version of a design workshop. As part of our ACST design process, a handful of our design activities are much richer if they are done with a group of people. However, collaborating between individual remote workers and co-located teams can be problematic. Working remotely can be a wonderful thing.
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