Introducing workshops to the organization’s process had positive long and short term effects

The problem to solve: I had to find out what information was most important to include on the dashboard of the organization’s supply chain platform. It was also critical to understand user’s expectations of the hierarchy of information. 

Using the methodology: This was early in the project. I had done dashboards in different companies, so I had a good idea of the architecture. Our platform was used by a variety users of different levels and from different business units. With all that information, the goal was to keep the information high level with simple portals to the desired information. The two most important features were high situational awareness and a progressive disclosure structure.

Building the optimal participant list was important, so I asked directors and senior managers to nominate members of their staff to send to the workshop (this is more favorable than sending random invitations). I got a great cross section of participants.

So the room is booked, the itinerary is made and RSVPs in. Time to go!

Workshop exercises: Believe it or not, the most important exercise is the ice breaker. Starting out with a brief, fun game not only allows everyone to speak, it gets the creativity flowing. I make sure the wallflowers are comfortable right away. ?I also identify the dominant people to make sure I keep them from hijacking the workshop.

The first of the larger exercises was a post up. I asked the participants to write down some of their common daily tasks. Then I revealed a matrix of frequency and complexity. This revealed commonality between staff in different departments. This led to inclusions that were useful to everyone like days before selection is due, critical path of product and product comparison module.

The second, more creative and fun exercise was the Storybook Cover exercise. I split everyone in groups and asked them to create a book cover (with spine, inside flap and back cover) for the story of their day at work. After the exercise, I had six collaborative covers that told me how people view their jobs and what the most important tasks and pain points are. This informed the hierarchy of information and the details that needed to appear in the second and third levels of the progressive disclosure model. Did they know what I was up to? Nope- they were just having fun! 

But in the closing feedback and summary, I explained what we were doing and how their efforts would result in a better dashboard experience. 

Outcome and Impact: This was one of my early workshops with the company and one of my most successful. We got so much user data to present to the product owner, that we took much of the guesswork out of the content. That helped us get the dashboard into development much quicker than the company was used to.

Another great result was how the participants felt engaged and started to take ownership early on, another new thing to the organization. This not only helped with familiarity and adoption of the dashboard, but it also started word of mouth of how fun and positive my workshops were. I never had much trouble getting willing participants as time went by.