A Detailed Checklist — Smashing Magazine

The more workshops you organize, the better you realize how similar they actually are, regardless of the methodology or tool used. I would like to share a comprehensive checklist that will help you prepare for any workshop and take care of all the tiny details (i.e., enablers of the workshop’s success).

Table Of Contents

You can jump directly to the topic you’re interested in or browse through all the steps. Enjoy!

Step 1: Scoping

Problem

The better you understand a problem, the smoother your workshop will be. If you cannot name a problem, the workshop will fall apart.

What problem are you trying to solve?

Don’t skip this step while striving to come up with a robust solution. If you notice a workshop goes sideways at some point, you can always say, “Wait a minute. What problem are we trying to solve?” and refer to the agenda where it’s written.

Remember to formulate the problem negatively (risk of…, lack of…, low…, prefixes ‘un’ and ‘in’). Otherwise, it might not be a real problem but rather an attempt to push your preconceived solution.

Is a workshop the right choice?

Workshops are a tool. They require much preparation but help tackle problems where conventional methods — presentations or discussions — won’t help. Here is what workshops...