How to facilitate a remote design jam
By: Lennon Cheng
Tags: Design, Teamwork, Hackathons, Facilitation, Remote Working

10 tips for a stress-free design jam

1. Put your hand up as a facilitator

Tell your new team you would like to be a facilitator for the event. Let them know if this is the first time you are wearing the facilitation hat. Share your reasons, whether it’s to sharpen your facilitation skills or help the team navigate the challenge smoothly.

This encourages your team members to clarify the role they want to play as well. Once your role is clearly established, your team will show more respect when you are fulfilling your facilitation duty (for example, calling out the time or nudging people forward).

2. Understand each other’s context and goals

In addition to the typical ice-breaker activities, make an effort to understand what’s going on with your teammates by asking the following questions:

Do people in your team have to check in on their kids from time to time?

Is your team in the same time zone? If so, does everyone take their lunch break at the same time?

Will anyone be expecting a delivery or a handyman? If so, when and for how long?

Do they need to go to other activities during or immediately after the event?

Do people want to keep working after hours?

Then, ask what everyone would like to get out of the design jam.

Is it about the competition and winning the trophy?

Is it about learning the design process and getting to know the industry a bit better?

Is it to connect with fellow designers?

Is it about mentoring and providing guidance?

Is it about a passion for the challenge your team is working on?

Finally, write down your shared goal as a team, even if it’s really obvious, like ‘we would like to craft the best concept’ or ‘we would just like to have a nice time’. Make it big and visible throughout the event.

3. Create a social contract

One last step to set your team up for success: create a social contract. A social contract is an agreement between the members of your project team regarding how the team will work together. It’s unique to each project and team, because of the context and shared goals. Try asking the following questions and write down the answers from your team:

How would we like to work as a team?

Can we agree on a lunch break or tea break schedule upfront?

Do we prefer to work offline individually after determining a clear direction, or stay online together?

What do we expect from everyone when in collaboration and conversations? Shall we always try to keep our camera on when necessary?

Similar to the shared goal, make sure your team can see and access the social contract at any time. More importantly, don’t be afraid to refer back to it when you are doing the facilitation.

4. Pick familiar tools

This step was easy for my team, since we all worked in the same company:

Google Hangouts for chats

Miro for writing post-it notes and capturing thoughts

Figma for design concepts and the final pitch deck

Picking a familiar set of tools (when possible) will help your team get onto the tasks quicker.

5. Commit and fail fast

When it comes to design jams, a brilliant idea is great. A less exciting but well-defined solution with detailed supporting visuals is way better. Sometimes, the judge will favour a better designed slide deck (okay, most of the time). With your team goal in mind, try to commit to an idea at an early stage. It will allow you to refine with more depth or pivot early.

This means you need to time-box your discovery phase. Some say your team should commit to an idea before lunch on the first day. It also means, as a facilitator, you need to help your team get to the commitment faster by:

documenting people’s thoughts on the fly

summarising and presenting back trends and merging ideas

encouraging your team to commit and start working on an idea

6. Eyes on the prize and work backwards

Start creating your pitch deck and decide on a structure right after your team commits to an idea. Use the deck structure to inform what your team needs to do next. How long your presentation is decides the number of slides in the deck. Consider how you tell the story. Do you need to introduce a user in your narrative? How many supporting visuals or mockups do you need to produce?

7. Plan half a day at a time

Having a timetable that reflects your goal and deadline before diving into collaboration time will help your team stay on track. Put the timetable next to the board you are all working on, and check in on each time stamp. I find it helpful to plan out half a day at a time. By doing so, you make the goal of the next couple of hours clear while leaving some room for potential changes in direction, workload or ideas. Don’t forget to include breaks or throw them in when you know your team needs one.

8. Call out the time

It’s simple: when your team is using up the allocated time for a certain task, call it out. ‘Hey team, sorry to interrupt! I’m just conscious of the time.’ Reiterate the goal of your current session, and ask your team if you have achieved it. If yes, take a break or continue with the agenda. If not, make a plan before you continue on the current topic. It’s easy to get caught up in a heated conversation or an exciting discussion. Again, just call out the time.

9. Leave a buffer for self-doubt

We all do it. Coming up with a brilliant idea on the first day and feeling pumped about it, only to find it almost ridiculous the morning after. I encourage you to leave the first hour of the second day for a recap to bring everyone back to the same page and allow time for the freaking out moment. Refer back to your goal, quickly make a plan to stabilise your idea, or just pivot. Make sure everyone agrees with the plan before resuming your work.

10. Lean on each other

Part of the challenge of being a facilitator is to adapt with your team and its dynamic. You don’t need to have everything planned or figured out, and in fact you never will. Ask for help, state your observation and encourage inputs from everyone. Remember, you can always bring in external help from the organiser if necessary. Lean on each other, and remember you are not alone.