- Thousands of workshop exercises exists.
However, few realize at the core of all of them
are the same seven foundational activities.
A post-up, affinity diagramming, landscape mapping,
forced ranking, storyboarding, role playing, and playback.
So first up, post-up.
A post-up is when participants individually generate content
on sticky notes,
and then stick them up on the wall.
Contributions are then captured, shared, and discussed,
maybe even used in an input for a future exercise.
Post-ups are used to generate a wide set of ideas
that represent diverse perspectives
in a time-efficient, democratic manner.
They are helpful tactics
for navigating those dominating participants,
unproductive conversation,
and really encourage full participation.
And then next up,
we have affinity diagramming.
Think of affinity diagramming as an extension or next step
to a post-up.
It is the clustering of information,
often on sticky notes,
into relational groups based on similarities or themes.
The benefits of affinity diagramming are two fold.
First, it helps us to discover patterns
across a wide set of content.
Second, when done collaboratively,
it promotes a shared language.
Participants can identify and align
on what a specific theme or pattern is comprised of,
especially if the theme names are generate collaboratively
in the workshop.
Okay, number three of seven, landscape mapping.
If you're to take those themed groups
from affinity diagramming
and begin to assess if they have relationships
between each other,
it would be a landscape map.
Landscape mapping is a range in content,
commonly on sticky notes,
into spatial significance so that we can understand
the relationships and patterns
across items in time.
Landscape mapping is used in so many other maps.
Empathy maps, customer journey maps, service blueprints
where we're looking at relationship across content.
The fourth foundational activity is storyboarding.
A storyboard communicates a story through images displayed,
in a sequence of panels,
that chronologically maps to the story's main events.
Storyboarding helps us put context, ideas, users,
and helps us tell stories around them.
When based on real data
and then used in workshops,
they can take the focus off of our internal bias,
and help us actually understand user behavior
framing the experiences we create in a more wholistic way.
The fifth foundational activity is forced ranking.
Forced ranking is the foundation
of any other prioritization exercise you may be doing.
This includes dot-voting.
This includes prioritization matricis.
This includes the $100 test.
This includes the NUF test.
Forced ranking is a prioritization activity
used for weighing one thing against another
in a comparative, collaborative format.
So why do we need forced ranking?
Well, as UX practitioners
we're usually caught in a balancing act of user needs,
what's technically feasible,
and what the business wants.
Forced ranking helps us identify the most important things
to focus on.
This structured, objective approach
helps us achieve collaborative consensus,
while still satisfying the varied needs
of the user end business.
And up six, we have role play.
Role play is a technique used in workshops
to challenge biases and assumptions
by shifting the lens that you're thinking about a problem.
Role play, though it feels silly at times,
in a workshop, forces participants
to just change the way they're thinking about something.
By deliberately challenging the way
attendees may already be approaching something
they're more likely to develop new thoughts and ideas.
And last up, we have playbacks or share outs.
It's the act of sharing in a workshop
which is an activity in and of itself.
It's core to all workshops.
It's especially vital
when participants are working primarily in groups,
and you need to align as a bigger group.
A couple of tips when it comes to playbacks.
They should occur across the entirety of a workshop.
The longer the workshop and the more participants,
the more vital playbacks become
to make sure that there's full alignment.
Playbacks can be done in a small group
when each participant plays back ideas
that they came up with.
Or you can go across groups
when the larger group is all sharing.
Playbacks can be as quick as a minute in high level shares,
or formally and prepared where they take up more time.
Maybe in the form of a skit or slide show.
Think of these seven fundamental workshop activities
as ingredients that will be in every recipe you make.
They act as a foundation for every UX workshop done,
and by understanding them,
and how you can combine them, remix them,
and add different constraints,
you can create almost any activity you'll need.