How do you prepare for a service design workshop?

→ Clarify workshop goals and desired outcomes. → Gather insights about target users and their needs. → Involve key stakeholders relevant to the service. → Choose experienced facilitators to guide the workshop. → Develop a detailed agenda with allocated time for each activity. → Gather necessary tools, resources, and materials. → Arrange a collaborative and conducive workshop space. → Communicate workshop expectations to participants. → Foster an inclusive environment to encourage active participation. → Use various methods to capture and document insights and ideas. → Analyze workshop findings and develop actionable next steps.

To prepare for a service design workshop, define clear objectives, understand your audience, gather relevant information, plan engaging activities, prepare materials, set a detailed agenda, communicate expectations, facilitate logistics, practice facilitation if necessary, and evaluate outcomes afterward.

In addition to defining the workshop's purpose, consider the 'end-user impact' of your service design. How will the decisions made and ideas generated in the workshop affect the final users? This user-centric perspective ensures that the workshop's purpose is not only aligned with project goals but also grounded in the practicalities of real-world application. It's about bridging the gap between theoretical outcomes and tangible benefits for the end user, making the workshop's purpose not just clear, but deeply connected to the service's ultimate success.

Before organizing a workshop, know exactly what you aim to accomplish and how it aligns with your project goals. This clarity ensures your workshop stays focused, and participants understand its value. Plus, it helps in communicating expectations and setting a productive agenda.

Ensuring clarity of purpose before a workshop can transform it from a simple meeting to a pivotal strategy session. How do you ensure that your workshop’s objectives are aligned with your overall project goals to maximize participant engagement and outcomes?

One of the key points of a workshop is effectively defining the challenge. It's crucial to set objectives and understand the reasons behind the need for the workshop. It's also essential that the users invited to the session are the right ones: proactive individuals and profiles that add value to the process. Having everything perfectly planned ensures that the workshop achieves the desired success.

In order to develop and design an equitable service, one must include stakeholders from different parts of the service to bring the diversity of experience to the learning process. For a service design workshop, facilitators should focus on the individuals who have the experience of taking the service to customers/users to ensure they can learn from lived experience. Service delivery or front-line staff is often excluded from the service design or decision-making process, negatively impacting the service in the long run. Especially while (re)designing public services, it is crucial to involve service delivery staff, as they possess a deep understanding of user needs through their frequent interactions.

Selecting participants for a service design workshop is as much about diversity as it is about expertise. Think beyond the usual stakeholders to include voices that often go unheard, like frontline employees or long-term customers. These individuals can offer invaluable insights that might not emerge from management or traditional expert perspectives. It's also worth considering a dynamic mix of personalities and thinking styles to spark creative friction and innovative solutions. Ensuring that every participant understands not just the purpose but also the value they bring can transform a routine workshop into a mashup of collective intelligence and creativity.

Choosing the right mix of participants can make or break your workshop’s success. How do you select attendees to ensure a diverse yet focused group that can contribute meaningfully to your service design objectives?

Special attention must be paid to this issue. The session can be a resounding success or a complete failure depending on the profiles invited to the session. In my experience, it's just as important to invite the client who supports the project as it is to invite the one who does not fully see its value. Of course, the proportion must be controlled, and there should be more profiles that agree with our vision. Despite this, it's true that sessions with clients are excellent for convincing the undecided. I also consider it important to invite profiles that are not frequently heard, including new people in the company or very junior positions, as their perspective will add value.

In choosing methods and tools for a service design workshop, it's important to tailor them not just to the workshop's objectives, but also to the participants' backgrounds and skills. While journey maps and service blueprints are excellent for visualising user experiences, they might be more effective if complemented with hands-on activities like prototyping for participants who are more tactile or visual learners. Integrating digital tools for real-time collaboration and feedback can enhance the workshop's interactivity, especially in hybrid or remote settings. It's about creating a blend of methods that not only achieve the workshop's goals but also cater to diverse learning styles, encouraging a more inclusive & productive environment

I'm very much in favor of customizing workshops: each client is different, each has their own needs and way of working. Many times it's simple because we're looking to improve the client's journey: in those cases, we already know which tool to use. However, sometimes, we need to mix tools and create a session that is completely tailored to the client's needs. There are patterns in every session: there must be a clear structure, teamwork, individual reflection, and organization of materials... It also depends on the profile of our participants and their background. In general, the tools that work best in a workshop are: customer journey mapping, idea generation through brainstorming, prioritization matrix, ideation templates, and blueprints.

Selecting the right methods and tools is crucial for unlocking productive insights during your workshop. How do you determine which service design techniques will most effectively engage participants and meet your workshop's objectives?

While planning the agenda for a service design workshop, think of it as a narrative arc. Just like a compelling story, your workshop should have an engaging opening, a middle where the plot thickens, and a satisfying conclusion. Start by setting the stage with introductions and ice-breakers to build rapport. The exploration phase is where you dive deep into understanding the problem – think of it as developing the plot. The generation and evaluation stages are the climax, where ideas and solutions come to life. Prototyping is the turning point, translating ideas into tangible forms. Finally, the reflection stage is the denouement, where you tie together all the insights. This approach keeps the workshop structured, memorable and impactful.

Crafting an effective agenda is essential to maintaining energy and focus throughout a workshop. How do you balance the flow of activities to ensure that every stage of the agenda is engaging and productive?

Consider creating a dynamic 'workshop toolkit' that goes beyond standard guides and slides. This toolkit could include interactive elements like quick reference cards for each design method, inspirational case studies, and even real-world examples relevant to the service being designed. For the prototyping phase, a diverse range of materials can spark creativity – think beyond paper and markers to things like modelling clay, role-play props, or digital mock-up tools. Set up a digital collaboration board accessible post-workshop to keep the momentum going. This comprehensive preparation not only equips participants with the necessary tools but also sets the stage for a highly interactive and productive workshop.

I usually work with frameworks so that participants can complete them in groups. It usually works out. In addition to the materials, we like to use gamification to fill them out. It's a way to engage and make the workshop more dynamic.

Workshop design is one of the best activities for a designer! I always consider the following items: 1. Who is the audience that will participate? 2. Are there political issues between participants or between areas that will participate? (If so, how can we promote activities that are not impacted by this? Or, even, how can we create mechanisms to promote a good relationship between these parties?) 3. How will we design the information so that it is most attractive? 4. What will be the moments of relaxation, without losing focus? 5. What are the main points to be discussed? And, in these discussions, pay attention to hierarchical levels. 6. What is the main output that everyone should leave with in mind?