Workshop Activities · Design Thinking
A workshop is not a lecture. Participants spend most of the day making, sketching, sorting and testing. Here are the activities we use in each phase, what the facilitator says to start them, and a filled sample sheet you can download.
Browse the activities →Understand real people before you design anything. Participants step out of their own assumptions and into the world of the user.
Teams turn interview notes into a picture of one person by capturing what they say, think, do and feel.
Facilitator says
“Take one user from your research. In ten minutes, write one observation per sticky note in each quadrant. Keep what they said separate from what you think they felt. Stay with facts, not solutions.”
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Pairs practise open-ended questions and record quotes, behaviours and surprises from a real conversation.
Facilitator says
“In pairs: one person interviews, one person takes notes. Ask "Tell me about the last time you..." and follow every answer with "Why?". Write down exact quotes. You have eight minutes, then swap roles.”
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Participants watch real behaviour in context and record what people do, not just what they say.
Facilitator says
“Spend fifteen minutes watching how people actually behave in the real setting. Record what you see, not what you assume. Note workarounds, hesitations and anything that surprises you.”
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Turn messy research into a clear, shared problem. Teams agree on who they are designing for and what actually needs to change.
Teams compress their research into one sentence that names a user, a need and a surprising insight.
Facilitator says
“Complete the sentence: [User] needs a way to [need] because [insight]. Make the need a verb and the insight something surprising you learned. Write three versions, then agree on one.”
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Pain points are reframed as open, optimistic questions that invite many different ideas.
Facilitator says
“Turn each pain point into a question starting with "How might we...?". Not so broad that it's vague, not so narrow that it has one answer. One question per note. Aim for ten in five minutes.”
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Teams chart a user's experience stage by stage and mark the emotional highs, lows and opportunities.
Facilitator says
“Draw the stages across the top. For each stage, write what the user does, thinks and feels, and rate the emotion from 1 to 5. Circle the lowest point. That is usually where your best opportunity lives.”
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Generate a wide range of ideas, then converge on the ones worth testing. Quantity first, judgement later.
Eight ideas in eight minutes. A fast, sketch-based exercise that pushes people past their first obvious idea.
Facilitator says
“Fold your paper into eight panels. Set a timer for eight minutes. One sketch per panel, one minute each. Quantity over quality, no erasing, and stick figures are welcome.”
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A rules-based brainstorm where wild ideas are welcome, followed by silent voting to surface the group's favourites.
Facilitator says
“Defer judgement, build on others with "yes, and...", and go for quantity. After ten minutes, each person gets three dots. Vote for ideas you would love to see built, not just the ones you wrote.”
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Shortlisted ideas are placed on a grid of user value versus effort, so teams pick what to build first.
Facilitator says
“Place each shortlisted idea on the grid: how much value it gives the user (vertical) against how hard it is to build (horizontal). Start with the quick wins, and challenge anything that is high effort and low value.”
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Make ideas tangible, quickly and cheaply, so they can be tested with real users before anyone commits to building.
Participants sketch a short story of a user meeting the idea in a real situation, frame by frame.
Facilitator says
“Draw six frames: the situation, the trigger, the discovery, the use, the result and the aftermath. Use stick figures and one sentence per frame. Show the moment the user's problem disappears.”
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Teams sketch each screen on paper and link them in the order a user would tap, ready to test within minutes.
Facilitator says
“Sketch one screen per sheet of paper. Draw only what is essential, label every button and number the screens in order. You have twenty minutes, after which a teammate must be able to "use" it.”
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Teams list what must be true for the idea to work and decide which assumption to test first.
Facilitator says
“Write every assumption as "We believe that...". Rate each one by how risky it is if wrong and how little evidence you have. Test the riskiest assumption first, before you build anything more.”
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Put prototypes in front of users, watch what happens and turn feedback into the next round of improvements.
Participants take turns as facilitator, observer and tester, using a script to see where users struggle.
Facilitator says
“Give the tester one task and read it exactly as written. Ask them to think aloud, then stay silent. Do not help or explain. Note where they hesitate, tap the wrong thing or ask a question.”
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Teams sort what they heard from testers into likes, wishes, questions and new ideas.
Facilitator says
“After each test, write feedback into the four quadrants. Likes tell you what to keep, wishes show what to fix, questions reveal gaps, and ideas are free gifts from users. One note per point.”
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Test findings are grouped into themes and turned into prioritised changes with owners and dates.
Facilitator says
“Review all feedback and group it into themes. Pick the top three changes, and give each an owner and a date. Decide what you will retest in the next round and with whom.”
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Run these with your team
I tailor the mix of activities to your challenge, your people and the time you have, from a half-day sprint to a multi-day programme.
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