Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

How Your Organization's Generative Workshops Are Probably Going Wrong and How to Get Them Right
Gold
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Share the love for this talk
How Your Organization's Generative Workshops Are Probably Going Wrong and How to Get Them Right
Speakers: Anne Mamaghani
Link:

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."

Ask the Rosenbot
Louis Rosenfeld
Coffee with Lou
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Peter Morville
The Architecture of Understanding
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Steve Sanderson
Discussion
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Meghan Hellstern
The Next 100 Years of Civic Design: How Might We Better Rise to Meet the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow?
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Giff Constable
Financial fluency for product leaders: AMA with Giff Constable
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Meaghan Waters
Lack of Product Thinking will Doom Your Legacy Modernization
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Nathan Shedroff
Redefining Value: Bridging the Innovation Culture Divide
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Emily Eagle
Can't Rewind: Radio and Retail
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Uday Gajendar
From AI to Zeitgeist: Theory as the design antidote to AI hype
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Catt Small
What's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Sha Hwang
The First Fifty Years of Civic Design
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Kavana Ramesh
Meaningful inclusion: Practicing accessibility research with confidence
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Building impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 2: Evals are your moat
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Anna Poznyakov
Get The Most Out Of Stakeholder Collaboration—and Maximize Your Research Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Democratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community

More Videos

Malini Rao

"Re-platforming is transformative not just for the product but also for the people, teams, and organization."

Malini Rao

Lessons Learned from a 4-year Product Re-platforming Journey

June 9, 2021

Katie Hansen

"A literature review pulls together different perspectives to paint a bigger picture, not just averages."

Katie Hansen

Finding the unknown in the known: Harnessing meta-analysis and literature review

March 12, 2025

Peter Merholz

"You build trust by showing you understand what it takes to get something shipped and by knowing the subject matter."

Peter Merholz

The Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX

July 13, 2023

Maria Rosala

"We made it mandatory to have a one-pager summary for every research project to make insights easy to manage."

Maria Rosala Shivanjali M.

Research Repositories

March 12, 2026

Dane DeSutter

"The computer metaphor of mind does not do a very good job of explaining what we see people do with their bodies."

Dane DeSutter

Keeping the Body in Mind: What Gestures and Embodied Actions Tell You That Users May Not

March 26, 2024

Ebru Namaldi

"Design ops is a way to care for the people who design."

Ebru Namaldi

Designing the Designer’s Journey: Scaling Teams, Culture, and Growth Through DesignOps

September 11, 2025

Aaron Stienstra

"The equity executive order calls for a whole-of-government transformation—think about the scale of that."

Aaron Stienstra Lashanda Hodge

Leveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government

December 8, 2021

Dave Malouf

"Constraints are a key element to creativity; without them, design can become ungrounded and chaotic."

Dave Malouf Amy Thibodeau

Panel: Design Systems and Documentation

November 7, 2017

Scott Plewes

"The story of the Indian king and grains of rice perfectly illustrates exponential growth."

Scott Plewes

Why Isn't Your UX Approach Going Viral?: A Mathematical Model

March 28, 2023