People love stories. Telling and listening to stories is a fundamental part of the human experience. Great narrative isn’t only engaging, but motivates cooperation and fosters empathy—exactly what your client workshops should achieve. That’s why you should treat your workshops like stories. Presented by Caris Hurd and Todd Nienkerk on July 27, 2016, in partnership with InVision. Four Kitchens builds digital services focused on content management, content strategy, and multi-channel publishing. We perform user research, create content models, deploy CMSs, design content APIs and microservices, and build websites and apps to engage audiences on virtually any device. Though we mostly build big platforms, we can engage at many levels: consulting, team augmentation, "virtual CDO/CTO“ services for organizations without a web team, and dedicated support for existing sites.

1. Presented July 27, 2016, for InVision
All the Workshop’s a Stage
Kicking Off Projects in Three Acts

2. Who we are

3. Caris Hurd
Director of User Experience
Four Kitchens
@carismarie
caris@fourkitchens.com

4. Todd Ross Nienkerk
CEO, Co-Founder, and Digital Strategist
Four Kitchens
@toddross
todd@fourkitchens.com

5. Four Kitchens
We build digital services
focused on content
management, content strategy,
and multi-channel publishing
@fourkitchens
fourkitchens.com

6. Imagine you have
to leave suddenly
for an undisclosed
location…

7. Hurry! Grab two!
•Laptop
•Knife
•Rope
•Coat
•Sandals
•Canvas tarp
•Camera
•Sunscreen

8. Credit: robmbm on Flickr
Surprise! It’s a desert island
Knowing this, would you change what you brought?

9. To understand what we should do, we
must know why we’re doing it

10. Why tell stories?

11. Why have a
workshop?

12. •Create clarity by setting goals
and direction
•Gather information
•Let multiple people be heard in
a roundtable setting
•Establish trust and rapport
between you and your client
•Have fun doing it!

13. Running a workshop
Exercises, protocols, and tools

14. Act One: Setup

15. Icebreaker
Introduce the characters

16. Protocols
Establish setting

17. Goals
Exposition

18. Act Two: Confrontation

19. Premortem
Inciting incident

20. Success criteria
Rising action

21. Act Three: Resolution

22. Draw your own
homepage
Climax

23. Retrospective
Denouement

24. Bad workshops
•Simply “interview” the client
•Focus on note-taking
•Let the client lead
•Lack variety and interactivity
•Entrench silos

25. Good workshops
•Create a narrative across exercises
•Follow a three-act structure each day
•Observe the energy of the day
•Include SHORT breaks

26. Good workshops
•Create empathy
•Allow for improvisation
•Don’t last too long
•End with a sense of resolution and
trust

27. Learn more
•Gamestorming by Dave Grey
•Visual Meetings by David Sibbet
•Facilitation courses
•Improv classes

28. Questions?

29. Thank you!