Observation & Insight

(@elledog)

I realized something yesterday: at some point over the past year or so, we stopped making client presentations (that’s a PPT deck in a hotel lobby I was in recently). I don’t mean we stopped sharing ideas, content, outputs, deliverables, but we don’t really do “presentations” like we used to, instead we share insights and facilitate activities.

Last week four of us facilitated, and participated in, what’s become a regular activity for us: the persona workshop (in that same hotel). Because much of what we deliver are tools meant to be used in the practice of design, the presentation format just doesn’t work. The introduction of design tools to client teams versus documentation presents an inherent need to demonstrate how to use the tools, and thus, makes everyone part of the design process.

In this particular instance, we did a scenario design activity to get team members excited about, and using, personas. In teams, participants had to design a future scenario by acting it out and role playing with their persona at centre stage. Also known as bodystorming, this activity got participants out of their chairs, thinking like the customer, and testing ideas to see if they might work in the “real” world.

But it wasn’t the final scenarios that were most valuable in all of this. I was so happy when one of our clients commented that it was really time spent working out the design of the scenario, having conversations, reviewing persona details, drafting ideas, throwing them out, testing ideas by bodystorming and realizing they don’t work (or that they do) that is critical. The upfront time spent “designing” the scenario is like a microcosmic design process the group goes participates in to come to a good future scenario to be presented to the group. This is the activity of prototyping. Here are some of the elements that made this a success:

• the brief: what is the “problem” you are trying to solve?
• the teams: multi-disciplinary groups of people dedicated to “solving” the problem
• the environment: the right tools, defined space to work in, good lighting, time constraints, work table
• permission: participation of senior level management

Give people tools and they will create!