W10: Designing more Effective Workshops

Abstract

Ethnographic data can be very effective in helping organizations innovate. While it often takes weeks or months to collect and analyze ethnographic data, much of the work that needs to be done comes afterwards, meeting with and sharing insights with stakeholders to ensure that the data has lasting impact. One way to generate change from ethnographic data is to use it in a workshop setting. But how do you conduct a workshop that is really well received and effective?

Approach

In workplaces, in educational institutions, and for work with clients, workshops are often used to generate ideas, develop concepts and goals, and to prioritize work based on ethnographic research. The effectiveness of workshops like these can be measured by the extent to which the participants feel that the experience is beneficial, and the degree to which that affects change afterwards. We will explore why some workshops more effective, and develop activities with an understanding of how and why they will be successful.

Structure

Part 1: Start at the end: Understanding the goals of your workshop
You will learn how to set goals for your workshop and identify what success looks like. What does it look like during a workshop? Immediately after a workshop? Six months after a workshop?  We will share and explore definitions of success.

Part 2: Workshops: end-to-end  
You will learn about and review core workshop activities.  Specific activities that have been used to increase the effectiveness of workshops will be explored.  We will cover the stages of planning for a workshop, and running a workshop, as well as specific facilitation tips and tricks.

Part 3: Workshop follow-up
Part 3 will include an activity to understand how to develop resources and activities to support the development of workshop deliverables. The importance of perseverance, and practicalities of enabling a workshop to affect change will be discussed. We will also consider how to evaluate the short-term and long-term effectiveness of workshops.

Target Audience

The workshop will be of benefit to those who have been running workshops for some time, as well as those who are new to workshop design and facilitation. It is relevant to professionals working inside organizations (industry or education), and those working freelance or as part of consultancies.

Organizers

Jennifer Gove
Jennifer Gove is a Manager and Senior User Experience Researcher at Google. Her work is focused on user-centered approaches to privacy. In prior roles Jennifer has conducted user research at Sun Microsystems, and worked at an internet start-up, Zadu. She started her career as a University Lecturer at the Open University in the UK. Jennifer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southampton, UK.

Kathy Baxter
Kathy Baxter is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Google.  Her work is focused on taking a user-centered approach to the development of products for Enterprise users.  Previously, Kathy worked as a Senior User Experience Researcher for eBay and Oracle.  Kathy has co-authored a book on usability methods titled, “Understanding Your Users: A practical guide to user requirements methods, tools, and techniques". She holds an MS in Engineering