A Shopping List for Facilitators
My design thinking cohort, Beautiful Nerds, synthesizing our insights from user interviews. The Beautiful Nerds are Shikha, Victoria, Jason, and me (left to right) and Ismail (not pictured). Photo by Lindy Drew.
These are my essential design workshop faciliation tools. With a lot of great input from Lance at d.behavior, I created an Amazon wishlist for my own reference, then decided to share it here. My selection criteria were:
- Choose the most useful, reasonably-priced options from among the many choices.
- Choose only items that are elibible for Amazon Prime (as of the date of this post) so they can be delivered quickly, cheaply.
If you have recommendations that meet these criteria, let me know.
3 × 3 Sticky Notes (Super Sticky)
As the wrench is to the plumber; as the scalpel is to the surgeon; as the coffee mug is to the systems administrator; so is the 3 × 3 sticky note to the design thinker.
I'm sure there's a way to facilitate a design workshop without one, but why would you?
These notes are super sticky because falling notes dampen ideation. Some vertical surfaces don't hold sticky notes as well as glass, porcelain, and shower board. While I'd all love to have rooms paneled floor-to-ceiling with whiteboard, I'm not usually that lucky. So I buy these notes in case I need to work somewhere with exposed brick or fabric-covered air walls. I don't want the size of the whiteboard and windows to constrain the size of the ideation canvas.
8 × 6 Sticky Notes (Super Sticky)
Larger notes are handy for writing complete sentences like How Might We? questions and design principles. And sometimes a larger group needs larger notes so everyone can see.
Sticky Dots
Vote visually.
Permanent Markers
Markers are legible from a distance; pens are not. Always use markers to write on sticky notes. Never use pens.
Dry Erase Markers
Bring your own, because dry erase markers exist in a vicious cycle: Nobody throws away dried-out dry erase markers, so it always looks like there are plenty, until you go to try and write with them. Be a champ and BYODEM. And throw away dried-out ones (unless your organization's support staff refill them)!
Flip Chart with Peel-and-Stick Pages
Works like a whiteboard you can stick anywhere.
Flip Chart Markers
These markers show up better than permanent markers. Their stroke is too big for writing on sticky notes, but it's just right for flip charts.
Note: As an Amazon affiliate, I'll receive a small percentage of anything you purchase after clicking on it here. I promise to never link to any product I wouldn't use myself.