Coming out of Phase Three you will have a group of people who are connected, who understand what their shared vision is, and have been let loose to brainstorm ideas. There’s likely a lot of momentum. But it may feel slightly messy or overwhelming. Enter: Phase Four.
This is Part Four of a four-part series on how to facilitate virtual co-design sessions. If you haven’t already, read Phase One on Sharing Diverse Perspectives and Phase Two on Forming a Common Vision and Phase Three on Building New Ideas.
PHASE 4: ALIGNING ON IDEAS
There will always be more good ideas than is possible to implement, so the goal of Phase Four is to work together to understand these two main components:
Phase Four involves teasing out these two components in an iterative way to funnel the momentum into a plan forward.
Developing the Top Ideas
To what fidelity should you develop ideas is an important question, and the answer will depend on the complexity of the situation you are co-designing. You could use a worksheet to expand upon the idea further, or on the other end of the fidelity spectrum, you could develop an entire prototype.
Let’s start with the worksheet.
From the list of ideas brainstormed in Phase Three, have participants self-select which idea they want to work on further (not forever, just for the next block of time). This is a quick and easy way to gauge the energy behind the ideas too.
When facilitating this virtually, you need a way for people to indicate which idea they want to work on and some time to set up these virtual groupings.
Facilitating the Idea Exploration (Time Required: 20-50 minutes + shareback)
If a higher fidelity prototype is needed—like a model, or a pilot, or a sample—move the work to a sub-process and then bring the group back together when there is a prototype to share and respond to.
Prioritize Ideas using the Effort/Impact Matrix
Before doing any kind of voting or prioritization always come back to your shared vision. Bring it on screen or read it aloud, and ask participants to reflect on the vision and to use it as a guide to evaluate the ideas you have brainstormed, the key question being: To what degree will this idea help achieve this vision?
I use the Effort/Impact Matrix (template below) frequently as it provides a collective process for prioritizing ideas. How it works virtually:
Another prioritization option looks at the balance between passion and resources available:
From here the process moves to work planning! Check out Trello if you’re in need of a great virtual work planning tool.
I hope this series has helped you to think through what your next virtual co-design process might look like and increased your confidence in facilitating your own.
This is Part Four of a Four Part Series: