Hey Facilitators! We’re hosting a special Design Sprint-themed Q&A session with Jake Knapp, the creator of the Design Sprint & NY Times Bestselling Author. The session kicks off on Tuesday, July 25th, at 5 pm CEST (Berlin time). Here’s what we’ll cover: - What is the Design Sprint? - When to facilitate the Design Sprint? - Common pitfalls to avoid - What makes a Design Sprint successful? - The best way to learn the Design Sprint - AND MORE! Save your spot here 🎟 If you have ANY questions about the Design Sprint and/or want to know how YOU can leverage Design Sprints in your work, then I’d urge you to come along to the Q&A session tomorrow - it’s going to be fun! Who is joining us? Let me know in the comments below 💛

Hi all! I left my full-time consulting job to start a business earlier this year. One of my main offerings is workshop design and facilitation to help teams solve complex problems more collaboratively. So things like brainstorming, pain point identification, stakeholder alignment, etc. I define workshops as collaborative working sessions with targeted activities that encourage attendee participation and more focused discussion on specific challenges. They are alternatives to traditional meetings to help teams spend their time more productively and reach actionable next steps in a short period of time. However, as I’ve been researching and conducting informational interviews, I’ve realized that “workshops” means something different to different people. Some think of it like I do, others like a training session, and still others have a different definition. While I understand that we could call these workshops anything we want (we could even make up a name!), because the important part is the value we bring, I’m still finding it hard to connect with potential customers at times because of the disconnect with the term “workshops”. So my question to all of you who are facilitators offering similar workshops….what do you call them?! If you call them workshops, how do you communicate with people what that means on your websites and in your conversations? We’ve had some suggestions from people to call them “working sessions” to indicate that work is done in the workshop and it’s not just training. Or, do you stay away from mentioning the “method” (which is a workshop) entirely on your website/marketing materials and use your introduction conversations to focus on the value you bring? For example, something like “We can help your stakeholders create a shared vision and kick off this initiative on the same page and with the same priorities" and then just talk through my definition of a workshop. I am curious to hear any advice from you all!

Anyone else in here who bought the Design Sprint Masterclass recently? I‘m looking for a group of people to keep me motivated to complete the course and discuss learnings. A bit like a book club The plan: - We split up the course (probably around 5 parts) - Everyone watches the videos by themselves - We meet virtually every 2 weeks to discuss our learnings (CET compatible timezone) Comment on this post if you are interested 🙋 I‘ll set something up if we find at least 4 people to join 🎉

The sailboat exercise is great. It can be used as a full-on exercise or as an ice-breaker. I've written about this in the past. But now I'd like to introduce another way to use it. However, this is not just another way to use it. It's a whole other way of using it. Allow me to explain: The sailboat exercise asks people to share the good things that are pulling the organization forward and the challenges that are weighing the organization down. In my experience, I've found it hard to get people to share things that are negative -- especially when their bosses are in the same room. Having people write on sticky notes anonymously helps. But to ease everyone's nerves and really get them sharing openly... Well, here's an alternative, and I'd love to hear how fellow facilitators are using it. Instead of asking: "What's pulling us forward and what's weighing us down?" Ask: "What do you currently like and what do you wish would be different?" This is inspired by the book Creative Confidence by the Kelley brothers.

Are there any Design Sprint groups?