Summary
Generative workshops are a critical generative component of any product development process. But in my 20+ years conducting product user research, I have seen more product harm come from so-called "workshops" or "design sprints" than good. In this tutorial, I will share more about my experience and what I've found are critical components of generative workshops -- whether they last five hours or five days. Contrary to popular belief, a design sprint is a highly structured and carefully designed series of exercises, not a brainstorm, design jam or free-for-all. The whole point is to drive a cross-functional team to the right outcome, and this requires a set of structured exercises which weave the thread of user needs, behaviors and attitudes throughout. This involves more than reviewing the research at the start and then moving on to create without that research in context. A true design sprint takes us from user insights -- even broad user insights -- to user-evaluated concepts or designs. The generative phase of a product is deeply impactful, and design sprints are a fantastic tool for driving this needed impact. However, many are practicing brainstorms or design jams rather than true design sprints. One can make a mismatched concept extremely usable throughout the product development process, but that will not remedy the fact that it is not the right concept. Researchers are ideal design sprint organizers and facilitators, but researchers are sometimes not even considered a critical component of the sprint. It's important for knowledgeable researchers to drive design sprint impact.
Key Insights
-
•
Many generative workshops fail due to fundamental mistakes more often than they succeed.
-
•
The 'Sprint as theater' mistake occurs when workshops are done for appearances or political reasons rather than genuine product development.
-
•
Well-structured workshops with specific exercises are crucial to move from research data to human-centered product concepts.
-
•
Integrating research both before and after a workshop grounds concepts in real human needs and allows recovery if initial research is missing.
-
•
Excluding key decision-makers leads to surprise blockers after workshops and risks misalignment with product goals.
-
•
Facilitation is a distinct, practiced skill essential to managing group dynamics, pacing, and adapting exercises during workshops.
-
•
Scaling back workshops too much compromises their effectiveness and the quality of resulting concepts.
-
•
Explicit communication about workshop outcomes and quality is necessary to help stakeholders appreciate the method's value.
-
•
Training facilitators in focused, incremental sessions delivers practical skills necessary for leading effective workshops.
-
•
Ensuring equal participation requires setting clear engagement rules and providing tool training to accommodate varying skill levels.
Notable Quotes
"The outcome of this method really makes the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
"Sprint as theater is not going to result in a product concept that really represents human needs, behaviors, and attitudes."
"If there is no structured way to move from data to concept, you often end up with just a brainstorm, not a grounded concept."
"Lack of research before or after the workshop can be recovered from but at some cost to the concept’s validity."
"Excluding key people might save time but it often leads to surprise blockers and misaligned decisions later on."
"Facilitation is a skill that takes real practice; it’s about managing personalities, stamina, and knowing when to adapt exercises."
"There is a point where scaling back a workshop too much will make it ineffective and that trade-off must be explicit."
"Many stakeholders don’t inherently understand the difference in quality outcomes from workshops, so we must be explicit."
"Getting to know what people care about in the organization helps tailor workshops to support those goals and gain buy-in."
"It’s important to create a sincere environment where everyone feels they can equally participate, regardless of title or skill level."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Building a portfolio of talks, refreshed over time, lets you keep evolving and sharing your ideas in different formats."
Louis Rosenfeld Jemma Ahmed Christian Crumlish Uday Gajendar Chris GeisonCoffee with Lou #3: What Makes for a Successful UX Conference Presentation?
May 2, 2024
"Support software used to be really shitty and expensive, and Zendesk set out to fix that by making it beautifully simple."
Jilanna WilsonDistributed Design Operations Management
October 23, 2019
"It’s actually embarrassing how little code there is and you get these incredible emergent effects."
Matt WebbContext Window: Five Futures for AI
June 11, 2025
"It is very easy to tick all the accessibility checkboxes and still have a poor, ugly, and unhelpful product."
Sam ProulxAccessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
September 8, 2022
"We could become healthcare experts because we actually did have a portfolio in healthcare already."
Theresa NeilDesigning for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare
May 22, 2024
"Evals are everywhere, right? Everybody's talking about evals. It is like one of the key things in developing useful AI products."
Peter Van DijckHands-on AI #2: Understanding evals: LLM as a Judge
October 15, 2025
"Design ops isn’t just a support role; it is a strategic partner involved in decision making."
Rachel Posman John Calhoun"Ask Me Anything" with Rachel Posman and John Calhoun, Authors of the Upcoming Rosenfeld Book, The Design Conductors
September 25, 2024
"You have to ask who the 'we' is in the room, because often the communities you're designing for aren't represented or understood there."
Tricia WangThe most popular design thinking strategy is BS
January 27, 2022
"Who creates the conditions for civic design to slow down? Can we afford to slow down? Can we afford not to slow down?"
Sarah Auslander Betsy Ramaccia Gordon RossInsights Panel
November 18, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
Why is play and hands-on experimentation critical when teaching design and AI to new learners?
What does a successful healthcare UX career look like in terms of accumulating influence and aligning with clinical/business goals?
How should a vision be documented and communicated for maximum organizational buy-in?