Design Jam step-by-step with FigJam
A design jam is a collaborative brainstorming activity or event, geared towards generating solutions in a fun and creative environment. Jams can be self- or group-initiated, or planned in advance and facilitated. The format of a jam is flexible to the problem that is being addressed ..
The purpose of Design Jam is within a time frame of 3 to 4 hours, we can nail down the problems/challenges as well as solutions broken down into smaller pieces then come up with potential design solutions for those problems. Since we are all working from home and we also work with some designers in Brazil, our Design Jams are 100% online using Google Meet.
A. Preparation
1. Pick a Tool: Miro, FigJam (we used FigJam). If you want to check out our first Design Jam using FigJam and what I think of FigJam, visit this article.
2. Write down Design Jam Agenda: Put down all Sections of Design Jam that participants will engage. As a facilitator, you want to make sure you write down time for each activity.
Our Design Jam Agenda:
1. Welcome + Intro (5 minutes)
2. Lightning Talk/Problem Statement (15 minutes)
3. Q&A (30 minutes)
4. How Might We (25 minutes)
5. Comparable Problem Research (15 minutes)
6. Break (15 minutes)
7. Comparable Problem Sharing (30 minutes)
8. Boot Up Note Taking (15 minutes)
9. Crazy 8’s (20 minutes)
10. Note & Vote (10 minutes)
3. Make sure all Participants have edit access: You can either invite them directly on the Design Jam file, or go to Contributors and manually edit their access.
4. Send out a Calendar Invite to all Participants:
Number of Participants: 5 people (since each participant will engage and present, we limit the Design Jam down to maximum 5 people)
Find a good 3-hour time slot: Normally a Design Jam takes up to at least 3 hours. However, we can break it down into 2 separate Jams if we can’t find a good solid 3 hours from all participants.
Make sure you include the agenda with timestamps in the Calendar Invite.
5. Find the right stakeholder to be the speaker for Lighting Talk/Problem Statements step: If we do a Design Jam for a Product Feature, the Product Manager will be the one who does the lighting talk. Find someone who understands the facts, problems, challenges, also goals of the feature/product you’re trying to build. This is important as the rest of the team will start asking questions based on the Lighting Talk.
B. Execution
Important tip: As the Facilitator of a Design Jam, you have to be a firm timekeeper. Kindly remind the participants how much time they have left for an exercise and if a conversation is prolonged, you can say something like, “Sorry to interrupt, i just want to be mindful of our timeline…” to nicely interrupt and move on to the next topic/question/exercise.
1. Wait Time + Intro: 5 minutes
Make sure you give everyone time to jump on the call and get settled. Spend about 2–3 minutes for a quick intro (also welcome and thanks everyone for joining) then introduce the Speaker for Lighting Talk.
The facilitator or an assigned moderator can take notes as the Speaker speaks.
2. Lighting Talk/Problem Statement: 15 minutes
As the Speaker speaks, the others can start thinking and write down the questions under Q&A.
3. Q&A: 30 minutes
Give folks additional 10 minutes after Lighting Talk to finish adding question.
To make it easier and more organized, encourage everyone to only have 1 question per sticky note. Facilitator can help organize the sticky notes.
For the next 15 minutes, the Speaker will answer all of the questions and the Facilitator can write down the answer/notes on the same sticky note.
4. How Might We: 25 minutes
Timeline Breakdown (if there are too many questions, feel free to adjust the time):
- 15 minutes: Write down questions
- 5 minutes: All participants present/read out loud their questions
- 3 minutes: Everyone helps put all Questions into Categories and Label each Category.
- 2 minutes: Each participant can vote on the 3 most important questions.
Based on the list of Q&A above, the Facilitator now asks everyone to write down questions starting with “How Might We” (or HMW for short). This exercise helps all participants turn the overall problem/challenge mentioned in the previous exercise into digestible, solvable pieces which later on will be translated into visual.
Tip: Make sure to tell all participants to avoid too broad or too narrow answers (eg: “How can we make the users happy?” or “How can we keep the page short?”)
Tip: The facilitator should give a quick tutorial on how to use Stickers to vote in case someone is new to FigJam.
Tip: In order for the Facilitator to know when everyone’s done, kindly ask Participants to place an additional Sticker on the right side apart from the sticky notes to indicate that.
5. Comparable Problem Research: 30 minutes
With this exercise, the facilitator gives all participants 20–30mins to find examples of apps/websites/applications out there that offer a good solution for the problems/challenges we are trying to solve (in this particular Design Jam, we look for good Landing Page examples.)
6. Break: 15 minutes
If you are doing one 3-hour session, consider giving participants two 10 to 15 minutes breaks minimum. Design Jams are fun, but it’s also a lot of thinking and processing for everyone.
Tip: Make sure you tell everyone exactly what time to be back instead of just saying (eg: “Please be back by 1:50pm” instead of “We are having a 10-minute break.”)
7. Comparable Problem Sharing: 30 minutes
After everyone comes back from the Break, give all participants an additional 5 minutes to finish uploading their screenshots to FigJam. Afterward, all participant take turns present what they like about each screenshot.
This exercise is always a fun one! Everyone always seems to enjoy this a lot.
Tip: Make sure you give this Exercise lots of space and time since the screenshots might be huge and I’ve seen some passionate participants upload a lot of screenshots. The facilitator can help participants organize their screenshots as well.
8. Boot Up Note Taking: 15 minutes
To prepare and make sure we enter Crazy 8's exercise feeling confident and comfortable, the facilitator should give participants 15 minutes to think and write down important notes, features, etc for Crazy 8’s.
Tip: Participants can turn their cameras off to do some deep thinking.
9. Crazy 8’s: 20 minutes
All participants will spend the next 20 minutes coming up with 8 different sketches based on their notes and their findings from the previous exercise.
This is the most challenging exercise of the whole Jam since many participants won’t be confident of their drawing/sketching skills as well as the time pressure factor. As a facilitator, you should ensure them that any sketches are appreciated and encourage them to be as creative as possible.
Tip: We usually as participants to grab a piece of paper and then fold them into 8 drawing rectangles. Each section is one idea. But if we are doing a whole Landing Page design you can ask participants to draw on bigger pieces as well.
10. Note & Vote: 10 minutes
After everyone is done sketching, kindly ask them to take a photo of their paper and upload it to FigJam.
Everyone takes turn to present their drawing. Afterwards, each participant will vote on 3 most favorite designs. The designs they vote on don’t have to be the whole design, but can be a section/part/feature of that design.
C. Final Vote, Ending, Recap
Last but not least, the Product Manager (or the Lighting Talk speaker) will be the one to give the ultimate/final vote on what design he/she thinks is the most suitable to move forward with.
The facilitator then ends the meeting by saying thank you. If there is anyone who couldn’t attend, the facilitator can then send this FigJam file to them along with a recap email.
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I hope you guys enjoyed this detailed article about how I led my first Design Jam. We had lots of fun and always wish we have Design Jam more often. It definitely helps each member of our team know that his/her ideas and voices are heard. Design Jam is also a good team-building activity, especially in this remote working environment!