< Back

User experience is … facilitating remote sessions

Facilitating by shifting the focus to the majority being on a call and not in the room.

In my first story ‘User Experience is …’ I promised that …

"over the course of a few stories, I’ll try and cover a few of the sciences we draw upon in our art as a creative community to create engaging experiences."

And in a previous story I talked around the similar field of how User Experience is … Psychology. But this time out I’m zoning in on one specific psychology theory of Gestalt and how we can use it when designing to improve the User Experience.

Now I’m adding my experience of working remote teams and facilitating remote session at this time, to help everyone get into a new ‘normal’. Helping everyone establish and get comfortable with a new way of working and a new way of doing things, so that this becomes the new normal.

So normally working from home is for the odd day and you might be only one of the people on a call not in the same room, but how do you facilitate meetings when most people are on the phone and not in the same room?

I’ve had the good fortune to work with some amazing teams across the world, from San Francisco, through Philadelphia, London, Paris, Amsterdam, then onto Bangalore, Chennai, Sri Lanka and all the way through to Auckland. All have taken something different to work with teams in these different locations, but equally all have also had similar approaches.

On top of normal facilitating techniques and approaches, heres what I’ve learned along the way.

User Experience is … facilitating
Facilitation can be one of the strongest tools we have in our toolbox to influence and lead design, but what does this take?

• Do you want a small group 1 to 1 conversation where everyone is able to chip in?
• A group workshop session where you need people to work together and provide information and ideas?

Remote etiquette

Depending on the session you want, will depend on the approach that you take. But broadly here are some principals to think about in all cases:

• Don’t think that remote is a barrier but embrace it, is there any reasons why teams can’t have a remote cup of tea together or share a beer and a chat on a Friday over a video call?
• Be kind, add natural pauses to the conversation, so that people can join in. This can be harder than in person conversations as you may need to unmute and people maybe waiting for others on the call as well. Purposely leave 10 secs before moving on.
• Be aware of different timezones and arrange suitable times. Think about adding a natural touch point you have with colleagues into your meeting, for instance making a drink or grabbing lunch. These can still be social occasions and will add a slightly different element to you conversation.
• Dust off your web cam and add conference details to all your meetings, check they work and connections before others join, to avoid the dreaded can you hear me for the first 5 minutes.
• Having a look at people’s workspaces is really interesting, comment on their workstation, wallpaper or ornaments, to bring in a social side.
• Mute when not talking, so that the person that is talking has maximum clarity with no background noise.

Smaller meetings

Facilitating a meeting with a small number of people

• If more than 2 or 3 people are joining remotely, then think about everyone joining remotely to give everyone a level playing field.
• Have chat open to allow people to raise points for discussion and asks questions without interrupting the flow of conversation.

Bigger meetings or workshops

• Make sure one person is actively facilitating the conversation and activities. Having short bursts of dedicated time in local groups, is a great way to get local teams to work on an activity and then allow a play backs to the larger group. This is a great way to facilitate and is little or no different to physical workshops, other than a facilitator might be needed in each local group.
• Think about the camera as a participant to facilitate with. Recap and summarise any ‘local’ conversations for camera, to make sure it was heard, but also to pause and get any other feedback from people who didn’t want to interrupt the flow of conversation.
• With the use of a camera specialist software isn’t necessarily needed as you can see what is happening in each local group and you purposely show the camera what you’re talking about, instead of needing to have something digital.
• If you’re working locally capture photos of the work and share with the team in the chat, this provides the detail for others to look at, while the camera can focus on the room and how things are shaping up.
• If you need to make a local change, let the group know what change and why. For instance if you have to move meeting rooms, let the team know so it can be planned in to coincide with a break. Or just so there isn’t an abrupt stop and silence from one group.
• Don’t lean on tools too much, these won’t fill the facilitation gap, you’ll have to work harder and facilitate more. You’ll need to be more considerate of each person and provide them with an opportunity to contribute.
• If you’re using collaborative software, make sure everyone has access and knows how to use it.
• Let people know how you are going to run the session, what tools you might be using (give them links ahead so they can try them out) and how you plan to facilitate the session.

Some tools to consider for your team

• Microsoft Teams (your organisation probably already has a license for this)
• Consider Slack if not
• Mircosoft Whiteboard
• Miro online whiteboard for visual collaboration
• Story estimate
• Fun Retro - improve with fun sprint retrospectives
• Lean Coffee Table - effective online meetings

Some good habits to consider in your team

• Catch up regularly on video to see and be able to interact with each other, this doesn’t have to be work related but could be more socially related around making a cup of tea (plus you get to see everyone’s kitchen) or a beer after work.
• Plan natural punctuations in your day. Consider a walk at lunch to get some fresh air and reset yourself ready for the afternoon. Maybe just venture out into the garden and do a bit of tidying up. Mixed it up to get yourself away from a screen.
• Consider starting you day with some exercise, since you’ve not got your commute time and have a shower and fresh clothes at your disposal. So that you’re bloods pumping, you’re alert and you’re ready for the day.
• Make the most of not having to commute in the evening by moving your creativeness into the kitchen, to spend some time cooking away from any screens. You could even have a cooking club amongst your team.
• You could maybe even take this to the extreme and thing about the money your saving community to donate to a charity?
• Keep safe and be kind to each other.

Next time out I’m going to be looking at what it takes to become a (design) leader. Spoiler alert, it’s not all in the title!

Originally written as part of the ‘User Experience is …’ series for UX Collective.