Design Thinking workshops – conducted remotely or in-person –

are essential to defining and delivering exceptional customer

experiences.

Remote Design Thinking workshops can perform the same

activities and accomplish the same goals as traditional work-

shops—with some minor modifications

During remote Design Thinking workshops be sure to leverage

the use of videoconferencing features and vendor platform

design activity and exercise templates

When facilitating a workshop, create and maintain an agenda

but stay flexible and fluid

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Design Thinking – the workshop-based methodology used by

design shops, consultants and thousands of companies around

the globe – has traditionally been practiced in large rooms filled

with facilitators, subject matter experts, business leaders and

other project stakeholders. All that workshop activity came to a

crashing halt in the middle of March 2020. As the workplaces

and offices we visited on a daily basis shut down, so did the

possibility of assembling in-person groups to perform the

activities that make up a Design Thinking workshop or a Design

Thinking-led project.

Key Insights

POINT OF VIEW

by Anthony Butler – Partner, CX Transformation, TCS and

Cory Fritzsching – Engagement Manager, CX Transformation, TCS

Design Thinking Goes Virtual

Much like the digital video-conferencing platforms that have become part

of our everyday lives (such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams), many online

tools have stepped into the spotlight to provide the capabilities required to

conduct Design Thinking workshops remotely. Some of these visual collab-

oration tools and platforms come highly recommended, like Miro and

MURAL. One of best things about these platforms is they come with a

substantial prepackaged library of Design Thinking activity and exercise

templates, most of which can be customized to fit the exact requirements

of your project.

In fact, many companies have had success using a variety of vendors for a

specific Design Thinking phase. For example:

Design Thinking uses a combination of user interviews, persona and scenario creation, prototyping and testing that embraces failure and rapid iterations to identify and develop essential criteria for successful product and service outcomes.

Amid our enthusiasm to embrace these new tools it is easy to lose sight of

the fact that remote Design Thinking workshops are – in many ways –

simply another online meeting. Just as much has been written about the

Zoom fatigue everyone has experienced over the last few months, Design

Thinking in a remote setting has a time limit on its productivity. In the past,

workshop attendees would happily contribute ideas and feedback from

8am to 6pm, as long as you kept everyone fed and scheduled enough

breaks for attendees to answer urgent emails and check in with their teams.

What we have found, however, is that most people simply do not have the

ability to focus and be productive on a single topic for an entire day in an

online setting.

Design Thinking: Online and On-the-clock

POINT OF VIEW POINT OF VIEW

Empathize: Typeform, Zoom, Creatlr

Define: Smaply, Userforge, MakeMyPersona

Ideate:SessionLab, Stormboard, IdeaFlip

Prototype:Boords, Mockingbird, POP (for mobile)

Design Thinking

Phase

Test:UserTesting, HotJar, PingPong

As a result, we find ourselves reducing workshop session times by up to

two-thirds. Short, time-boxed sessions that structure the flow and

motivate people to stay on time and on topic. One of the best ways to

accomplish this is to share the workshop agenda in advance – giving

participants a sneak peek into what they should expect during the

session. Also, allowing people to turn off their webcams during

scheduled breaks helps your participants feel they are not constantly

being scrutinized. (Remember to ask everyone to turn it back on when

your workshop starts up again.)

Figure 1. With remote workshops, you need to limit both the amount of time and the number of participants to get the best results. Our recent experience indicates around 12 attendees for your workshop is most effective and easily manageable.

Since your remote sessions will be shorter, you need to preserve as much

time as possible for Design Thinking exercises and playback, so it’s best to

send out a pre-work packet prior to the session. Pre-work is especially

beneficial for remote sessions because it allows you to jumpstart the

brainstorming process with attendees. Any workshop invite should also

include links to sign up in advance for any tools being used during the

workshop, along with instructional videos. This will save you time in

teaching the basics of tool usage during your workshop. When using a

Prepare for your remote Design Thinking workshop

POINT OF VIEW POINT OF VIEW

platform like MURAL, make sure to have all workshop templates and

activities planned out ahead of time and provide written directions in

the workspace for users to read and follow. It is also a good idea to have

a second or third facilitator – depending on the number of participants –

to help with on-the-fly directions, agenda changes, and any IT/connec-

tion issues. Just make sure to clearly communicate the roles of each

facilitator in prior to your workshop.

To get the most value from these workshops, a best practice that

ensures success in your project (service or product design) is to make

sure you use an experienced design thinking facilitator who

understands your larger business strategy and goals. This person leads

groups in working sessions that utilize design thinking methods,

including ice breaker exercises, structured brainstorming sessions,

innovation workshops, executive summits, design sprints, multi-day

workshops, and long-term projects.

In a remote session, ice breaker exercises are more important than ever.

With the compressed timeframe for remote workshops and new tools

for participants, ice breakers serve a dual purpose: Introduction to the

concepts and activities of Design Thinking plus the opportunity to learn

how online tools work. (Don’t assume everyone has watched the

instruction videos you sent out).

When deciding on your ice breaker exercise, consider how they provide

an opportunity for participants to introduce themselves in a fun way,

but also how it can inform what is expected from them during the

workshop. This is a great way to save time and get people involved from

the outset.

Tips to facilitate Design Thinking workshops remotely

POINT OF VIEW POINT OF VIEW

Post workshop you’ll want to make sure to schedule a read-out meeting

between your facilitators and your major client and project stakeholders.

While you would typically do this for any in-person workshop, in the

Be inclusive while brainstorming. During remote workshop session

playbacks, it’s okay to ask who wrote what and have them explain their

ideas. This provides facilitators the opportunity to understand the user

more intimately and their priorities for within a discrete task or interaction.

While we would never recommend holding a workshop without a detailed

agenda, workshop facilitators must be ready to think fast on their feet and

change things on the fly. Accept that agendas and activities may not go

exactly as you planned. Some exercises take longer than expected in

remote workshops than in person. You need to be able to adjust the

exercise or agenda in real time.

Design Thinking workshop follow-up activities

Figure 2. Remote workshop warm-up exercises include activities like “Genie in a Bottle,” where participants share three wishes with their fellow workshop attendees.

Own an animal sanctuary with

many cats, dogs, feeretts,

sloths, etc

Have enough money to retire my

whole family & buy them land

To change the world into the Harry Potter

universe

World PeaceOne billion

dollars

A really affectionate

cat

Enough $ to not worry

about $$ and live

comfortably

Own / live on my dream

boat

To be fluent in at least 3

languages

Have a dog that never

died

Solve Climate change

Get paid to travel the

world

Write a New York Times bestselling

novel

Own a healing center that

mixes western medicine with natural healing

modalities

Genie in a bottleIf you has three wishes, what would they be?

?Open a

business that is part breakfast

place / part aerial yoga

studio

Organic food costs same as “regular ” food Be fluent in Sanish See Every Ocean

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POINT OF VIEW POINT OF VIEW

case of a remote workshop you have some other things to consider

beyond the quality of your output.

For instance: How well did the technology perform? How well did your

agenda fit the length of the workshop session? Did you have to spend

more time teaching workshop tools, leaving less time to facilitate

innovation? These are a just a few of the questions you’ll find yourself

asking. This will be valuable information for refining your technology

support and preparing for your next workshop.

Remote Design Thinking recap: Learn by doing (virtually)

POINT OF VIEW POINT OF VIEW

There is one way in which Remote Design Thinking is very similar to

in-person workshops. To build your confidence and expertise, real-world

(albeit remote) experience is your best teacher. Define a set of problems

your customer needs solved, identify a couple of online tools you’re

comfortable with, and gather a group of participants willing to jump in

with both feet.

In this new world in which we find ourselves, people are becoming

increasingly more comfortable with a virtual mindset. And, we’re even

more convinced Remote Workshops will stand the test of time as a go-to

solution for your CX, marketing and business challenges long after we’re

all allowed to be in the same room together.

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that

delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match.

TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled infrastructure, engineering

and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery ModelTM,

recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata Group,

India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has a global footprint and is listed on the National

Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com

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