# Alignment Workshops: Facilitation Guide

## Purpose

A diagram is a means to an end — to get team alignment around the experience. Diagrams don't provide answers; they spark conversations. They are like campfires that people gather around to share stories and make sense of the experiences they create.

Your role switches from researcher/mapmaker to **facilitator**. The goal is twofold:
1. Align the internal perspective of the organization to the outside world
2. Use that insight to generate new ideas

---

## Workshop Structure

An alignment workshop alternates between three modes:

| Mode | Purpose | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| **Empathizing** | Walk in the user's shoes | Read-through, persona immersion, video clips |
| **Envisioning** | Generate solutions | Brainstorming, How Might We, sketching, storyboarding |
| **Evaluating** | Assess and prioritize | Dot voting, impact/effort matrix, critique |

### Recommended Flow (Half-Day Workshop)

| Time | Activity | Mode | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | Welcome + context setting | — | 10 min |
| 0:10 | Walk through the diagram together | Empathizing | 30 min |
| 0:40 | Identify moments of truth + pain points | Empathizing | 20 min |
| 1:00 | Break | — | 10 min |
| 1:10 | "How Might We" generation | Envisioning | 25 min |
| 1:35 | Solution sketching | Envisioning | 30 min |
| 2:05 | Break | — | 10 min |
| 2:15 | Present and critique solutions | Evaluating | 30 min |
| 2:45 | Prioritize with dot voting | Evaluating | 15 min |
| 3:00 | Next steps and owners | — | 15 min |

### Full-Day Workshop Additions

Add to the half-day schedule:
- **Morning:** Deeper research review (video clips of user interviews, analytics walkthrough)
- **Afternoon:** Storyboarding selected solutions, lightweight testing with 2-3 outside participants, iteration round

---

## Workshop Activities in Detail

### Activity 1: Walk Through the Diagram

**Time:** 30 minutes
**Supplies:** Printed diagram at wall size (or shared screen), dot stickers in 3 colors

**Process:**
1. Post the diagram on the wall. Give everyone 5 minutes to read it silently
2. Walk through phase by phase. For each phase, read aloud: actions, thoughts, feelings, pain points
3. After each phase, ask: "Does this match what you know? What's missing? What surprises you?"
4. Give everyone three types of dot stickers:
   - 🔴 Red: "This is a major problem"
   - 🟡 Yellow: "This surprises me"
   - 🟢 Green: "We do this well"
5. Everyone places dots on the diagram simultaneously (silent voting)
6. Debrief: Where did red dots cluster? Where did yellow dots cluster?

**Output:** Annotated diagram with team consensus on problem areas.

### Activity 2: Identify Moments of Truth

**Time:** 20 minutes
**Supplies:** Star stickers or markers

**Process:**
1. Define moments of truth: "The 2-3 moments that define whether this customer stays or leaves"
2. Each person silently places a star on the 2-3 moments they think are critical
3. Discuss where stars cluster: "Why did you pick this moment?"
4. Agree on the top 2-3 moments of truth
5. For each moment: "What is the customer's expectation? What actually happens? What's the gap?"

**Output:** Flagged moments of truth with expectation-reality gaps.

### Activity 3: "How Might We" Generation

**Time:** 25 minutes
**Supplies:** Sticky notes, markers

**Process:**
1. Focus on the top 3-5 pain points or moments of truth from the previous activities
2. Reframe each as a "How Might We" question:
   - Pain point: "Users can't find the invite function"
   - HMW: "How might we make team invitations obvious at the moment users need them?"
3. Set timer for 5 minutes per HMW question
4. Everyone writes solutions on sticky notes silently (one idea per note)
5. Post all notes under each HMW question
6. Quick affinity grouping — cluster similar ideas

**Rules for HMW questions:**
- Not too broad: "How might we improve onboarding?" → too vague
- Not too narrow: "How might we add a button to the sidebar?" → already a solution
- Just right: "How might we help new users discover features when they need them?"

**Output:** Clustered solution ideas for top pain points.

### Activity 4: Solution Sketching

**Time:** 30 minutes
**Supplies:** Paper, markers, templates (optional)

**Process:**
1. Each person picks one HMW cluster to sketch a solution for
2. Use the "Crazy 8s" format: Fold paper into 8 panels, sketch 8 variations in 8 minutes
3. Then: Pick the best idea and create a more detailed sketch (single frame or storyboard)
4. Write a one-sentence description of the idea below the sketch
5. Post all sketches on the wall

**Output:** Visual solution concepts ready for critique.

### Activity 5: Critique and Vote

**Time:** 30 minutes for critique, 15 minutes for voting

**Critique process:**
1. Gallery walk — everyone reads all sketches silently (5 min)
2. Each person presents their sketch in 2 minutes (no longer)
3. After each presentation: 2 minutes of "I like / I wish / What if" feedback
   - "I like that it surfaces the feature contextually"
   - "I wish it also worked for mobile users"
   - "What if we combined this with the progressive disclosure idea?"

**Voting:**
1. Each person gets 3 dot stickers
2. Place dots on the solutions they think should be pursued
3. Dots can be spread across solutions or stacked on one
4. Tally and rank

**Output:** Prioritized list of solutions to pursue.

---

## Running Remote Workshops

Remote workshops require more structure and shorter sessions.

### Recommended Approach

- **Break into 90-minute sessions** over 2-3 days (avoid full-day remote workshops)
- **Use a collaborative whiteboard** — Miro, FigJam, or similar
- **Pre-load the diagram** onto the whiteboard with clear instructions
- **Assign async pre-work** — Have participants review the diagram and add comments before the workshop
- **Use timed activities strictly** — Remote attention span is shorter
- **Camera on for discussions, camera optional for silent work**

### Remote-Specific Tips

| Challenge | Solution |
|---|---|
| People talk over each other | Use structured turn-taking or "raise hand" features |
| Hard to read body language | Ask for explicit reactions: "Give a thumbs up if you agree" |
| Quiet participants | Use silent sticky-note activities before discussions |
| Technical issues | Have a backup plan (phone-in option, pre-loaded materials) |
| Zoom fatigue | Keep sessions under 90 minutes; take breaks every 30 minutes |

---

## After the Workshop

The workshop generates energy and ideas. Your job is to convert that energy into action before it dissipates.

### Immediate Follow-Up (Within 48 Hours)

1. **Send a summary** — Top findings, agreed-upon moments of truth, prioritized solutions, next steps
2. **Update the diagram** — Incorporate new insights and annotations from the workshop
3. **Create tickets** — Turn prioritized solutions into backlog items with clear acceptance criteria
4. **Assign owners** — Every action item needs a name and a date

### Ongoing Rhythm

| Cadence | Activity |
|---|---|
| **Weekly** | Reference the diagram in design reviews and sprint planning |
| **Monthly** | Review whether the top opportunities are being addressed |
| **Quarterly** | Reassess the diagram — has the journey changed? New pain points? |
| **After major releases** | Update the diagram to reflect changes |

### Keeping Momentum

Alignment doesn't stop with the diagram. To keep the momentum:

- **Make it visible** — Post the diagram in a high-traffic area (physical or digital)
- **Tell stories** — Reference specific user quotes and moments in meetings
- **Measure progress** — Track whether pain points are being addressed
- **Celebrate wins** — When a pain point is resolved, mark it on the diagram
- **Invite skeptics** — People who weren't in the workshop need to see the data, not just the conclusions

---

## From Workshop to Strategy

Alignment workshops typically focus on identifying pain points and generating solutions. But diagrams can also serve a strategic function — helping organizations see the broader landscape of value they create and where they can innovate.

### Strategic Workshop Extension (Add 60-90 min)

Add this after the standard workshop activities when the team needs to connect experience insights to business direction:

| Time | Activity | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | **Competitive overlay** (20 min) | On the diagram, annotate where competitors serve the user better. Where are they absent? Where do they excel? Identify white space |
| 0:20 | **Value type analysis** (20 min) | For each phase, ask: what type of value does the user seek here? (Functional, emotional, social, epistemic, identity.) Where are we only delivering functional value when users want emotional or social? |
| 0:40 | **Jobs to Be Done reframing** (20 min) | For each phase, articulate the job: "When I [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]." This reframes the experience around user intent, not product features |
| 1:00 | **Strategic opportunities** (20 min) | From the competitive overlay + value analysis + JTBD: where can we create new value? Where should we double down? Where should we stop investing? |

### Overcoming Barriers to Getting Started

Organizations often resist mapping efforts. Common objections and responses:

| Objection | Response |
|---|---|
| "We already know our customers" | "Let's test that — we'll draft a map from assumptions and mark where we're guessing. That alone will be valuable" |
| "We don't have time for research" | "Even 5 interviews + an analytics review produces a credible map. We can start small" |
| "This isn't a priority right now" | "Which pain point is costing us the most support tickets / churn / rework? Let's map just that one journey" |
| "We tried journey mapping before and nothing happened" | "The map is a means to an end. This time we'll schedule the workshop before we finish the diagram, and assign owners before we leave the room" |

**Find a champion.** Identify one stakeholder who is already frustrated with cross-functional misalignment. Pilot a small mapping effort with them. Demonstrating firsthand results goes further than any presentation about methodology.

---

## Workshop Anti-Patterns

| Anti-Pattern | What Happens | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| **HiPPO dominance** | Highest Paid Person's Opinion overrides research | Use silent activities before discussion; reference data, not opinions |
| **Solution jumping** | Team skips empathizing and jumps to solutions | Enforce the empathize phase; don't allow solution talk until HMW generation |
| **Scope creep** | Discussion wanders beyond the mapped journey | Park off-topic items on a "Parking Lot" board; return to the diagram |
| **Analysis paralysis** | Team debates endlessly instead of acting | Use timeboxes strictly; voting breaks ties |
| **Absent stakeholders** | Key decision-makers skip the workshop | Get commitment before scheduling; share compelling preview |
| **No follow-through** | Great workshop, no action | Assign owners and dates before leaving the room |

---

## Workshop Planning Checklist

### Before

- [ ] Diagram is complete and reviewed
- [ ] Room or virtual space is booked (large wall or whiteboard needed)
- [ ] Materials ready (printouts, stickers, markers, sticky notes) or digital board prepared
- [ ] Participants confirmed (product trio + stakeholders + frontline staff if possible)
- [ ] Agenda sent with pre-read (the diagram and a 1-page research summary)
- [ ] Facilitator role assigned (ideally not the project lead — someone who can stay neutral)

### During

- [ ] Rules posted: "No laptops during discussions," "One conversation at a time," "Data over opinions"
- [ ] Timer visible for all activities
- [ ] Parking lot board for off-topic items
- [ ] Someone assigned to capture photos and notes

### After

- [ ] Summary sent within 48 hours
- [ ] Diagram updated with annotations
- [ ] Action items in the backlog with owners and dates
- [ ] Follow-up session scheduled (2-4 weeks out)
