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Leading design critiques and workshops
Hey there! Welcome to the monthly updates where I share more introspective insights in my experience within my current work journey. One of the key uphill battles as I started on a senior / lead role stems from this question: How do I optimise design critiques and workshops sessions to achieve the optimal outcome for end-users and the team?
Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay
Let's be real about the challenges
Communicating design to stakeholders is a critical challenge that requires flexible adaptation while running the session
One of the motivation behind the sessions I conduct is this: Inspire them with your presentation to achieve empathy and alignment towards developing solution outcomes.
Challenges
- Stakeholders may not know what they truly want
- Stakeholders may not care about design principles and aesthetics as much as you do
- Stakeholders aren't seeing the same vision as your team
- Stakeholders have minimal time for you to make an impact
- Stakeholders have strongly established but varied opinions within themselves
- Stakeholders may throw curveballs which throws the team off guard
- Stakeholders who are more outspoken may seek to dominate the discussions
Frame and establish a clear context to achieve baseline alignment
"Hey, I don't even understand the purpose of this session and the solutions you are presenting how could I provide feedbacks?"
Even before we begin to delve into the deep discussions and engagement, set the outcomes clearly for your audience! Define the outcomes that's tied to their business objectives to re-instate the purpose of the session. Set the stage with familiar and comparable products that's commonly known to the audience to help them connect the dots to the solution and workflows you are going to present to them next.
Frame the design proposals in the context of actual use
"What's the use if I'm not able to imagine how the end users could interact with the product"
The best design proposals could be drown among the crowds if it's not clearly tied in to how the user could incorporate to their workflow. Walkthrough with the audience on the current workflow before presenting specific touch points which the design proposals could be integrated and what are the specific outcomes that could be achieved.
Be specific with your questions based on the maturity of your designs
"Oh no, the audience is going off track again! Hey, but you have control over this :)"
Establish clear guidelines on what are the feedback you hope to receive from the audience and there after, setting this as a firm guardrails to prevent audience from going off track. Moreover, based on the maturity of your designs, you may generate wireframes for discussions to avoid the over fixation on the smallest UI details.
Prioritise promptly to avoid stalling over a decision
"There you go again...we have been on this topic for the last half an hour :("
I guess it has been a really common scenario where UX designers who had started running their first critique sessions getting stuck and pulled in multiple direction by varied stakeholders. Be specific on your time box for each topic of discussions and steer the conversations by asking them this question on the operational and business impact of the suggested feedback. Be proactive in following up on pending decisions from your stakeholders by capturing clear action items for the next follow up.
Create intentional spaces for introverted participants to reflect
"Ah! He has been dominating the discussions the whole time again! But...this could be avoided :)"
In an open discussion session within a workshop or critique, it often increases the chance for opinionated and outspoken stakeholders to dominate and steer the entire direction of the discussions. Instead, creatively ideate and introduce intentional activities to advocate for times of silent reflections before going around the table to give everyone a chance to speak and justify their whys.
Leverage on the strengths and contributions of each participant
"Hey, although they aren't UX designers they have their expertise to bring to the audience."
Oftentimes, UX designers may view non UX trained stakeholders as their nemesis in achieving optimal outcomes for the users. However, this is not the case! Clearly understand the roles of your participants before structuring your content and customize to elicit optimal insights based on their expertise and experiences.
Last but not list, handling challenging curve balls
"Oh no, I do not know how to answer this at this time! It's possible to answer truthfully while seeking clarifications."
It may seems to be the best outcome if UX designers were able to always answer every questions that's presented to the team on the spot. However, the truth is it's not a 100% truth in all case scenarios. Instead, seek to always clarify the intent of the question and understand where they are coming from. If you are not confident of your initial assessment, seek to counter propose with a data driven approach to debunk any ambiguity or assumptions made to continually establish trust with your stakeholders.
Adios! Do continue to check out this reflection piece as I will be updating along with more participations in critiques and workshops :P
