Sketching workshops, with stakeholders, sorry...I mean people

Sketching workshops can be a great thing to get all kinds of stakeholders or even users together and get their ideas down on paper ready for development and refinement. They need to have good stimulus and the group must be commited or interested in the topic. That stuff's up to you, I'm going to talk here about getting them sketching.

Sketching in workshops is a shared thing. It’s about communicating ideas to the group. It’s about getting the ideas that are on your mind out in the open. It’s about building on ideas together.

Many ‘stakeholders’ (lets call them people) are scared to sketch. They think they can't draw. And they think that matters. What you have to convince them is that it isn’t drawing, it’s just representing their ideas in a visual way. (Tricksy, eh?)

Templates can help. I’ve used many: phones, PCs, billboards, tv etc. By giving them the rough shape of a channel or touchpoint (a outline of a mobile held in a users hand for example) and letting them fill in the content your making them show their idea from the users perspective.
This is important. Showing the experience for the user makes the  service and system tangible. There is little point starting with a technical diagram of a service, unless we know what we're trying to get the users to experience.
Once people have started to sketch like this you can get them to build on each others ideas. Do this by having them to hold up a sketch and tell everyone about touchpoint/experience it shows. You can always start by showing one you’ve done. I usually sketch even if I’m running the workshop. Often an outsider or partial outsider you can do a sketch that others wouldn’t dare to do. (e.g. what your service would look like on Facebook) and this can stimulate the session further.

Don’t take any of that “you should be doing this, you’re the designer” crap. Sketching ideas is not just for designers, it’s for anyone who wants other people to understand the ideas they have. They can have the assumption that all design is ‘visual design’ and they cant do that, which is probably true. But service design is another matter, it needs the group to work, it’s multi disciplinary, everyones ideas are valid and sketching is the most instant and easily comuncated way to go.

Pinning-up is the next stage. Getting those sketches on the wall gets them out of the hands of their creators and into the “workshop public domain” so the ideas are seen a collective output, towards a shared goal.

When pinning-up we can also see other no-nos, like signing a drawing (which is the sign of an ego-maniac who needs to get out of their 1960s idea of a designer). The other glaring mistake is the sketch with no sketch. If they just write text, as some people try to do because it’s their comfort zone, they will be shown up as not putting enough into it at this point. (I have some sympathy for these people and will often help them draw their ideas.)

Pens!
I’m a bit of a pen Nazi, I only like black pens, maybe paired with one or two coloured highlighters or Pantones. The point of this is that when you pin-up, all the sketches have the same visual value, nothing can jump out visually, it can only distinguish itself by being a good idea. It can also help things feel on-brand.

But remember, sketches and ideas are only as good as what they become after the workshop. Get the output to the team quickly, get decisions made, get the service made (idealistic I know).

Pens and post-its aren't just for workshops though.