Invite the Right Participants
With any group exercise, the quality of the workshop is determined by the participants. Too many people in a workshop makes for an expensive meeting. The wrong people in a workshop can limit how wide you explore and might even bump constructive discussions off course. As the host, you need to balance two variables: size and diversity.
Right-Size the Workshop
Effective collaboration breaks down in groups larger than about seven people. Large groups are difficult to manage, require more time for communication, and are impossible to coordinate for scheduling. One way to manage a large group is by dividing it into smaller ones. Even then, a single facilitator can realistically handle only three or four subgroups at a time.
Depending on what you want to achieve and whether you have a co-facilitator available, limit the size of an architecture design studio to about ten people. As a rule of thumb, work with the smallest group that can still effectively explore. If you need to pair with only one other person to work through an idea, then work with just that one person. A group of about 3–5 people seems to be a good sweet spot for many software architecture design tasks.
Invite a Diverse Audience
The ideal architecture design studio always includes at least one person who can offer a dissenting opinion or who brings a different perspective. Including someone with a different background or a fresh perspective creates greater opportunities for eureka moments.
Start by inviting essential stakeholders. Also include someone who knows little about your particular problem and can attack it from a different perspective. If your team is programmer heavy, invite a tester or product manager. If you are all systems developers, invite someone knowledgeable in front-end development. Bring in people who are good at asking questions or thinking about complex ideas. Ensure you have a range of experience across a variety of topic areas.
Everyone has a unique perspective. These differences can help the group explore further and wider than if everyone thought the same about the design.
Harness the Power of Groups Wisely
While all design is social, this does not mean all design must be done in groups. Group collaboration does have a potential dark side. Groupthink is a phenomenon where the group loses its individuality and worries more about harmony and consensus than satisfying the goals of the workshop. When a workshop falls into groupthink, the decisions they make will be suboptimal and sometimes even be harmful.
Seasoned basketball coaches can tell how well their team is doing by listening to the squeaks players’ shoes make on the court. Likewise, a healthy design studio workshop has an unmistakable hummm of collaborative brainstorming. There are some specific things to listen for to determine if your group is collaborating well in the table.
If the group… | It might mean… |
|---|---|
Asks questions to clarify meaning, politely challenges ideas, and discusses implications of an idea | Everyone is collaborating well |
Goes along with whatever seems to be the prevailing idea; hesitates to share their thoughts | Potential fear of conflict or lack of confidence in collaborating |
Does not share a wide range of ideas; acts as an echo chamber; comes back to the same themes | The group didn’t diverge their thinking widely enough |
Always lets the same people do the talking | Not everyone understands the discussion; dominant personalities are overwhelming quieter individuals |
Proactive facilitation is our best tool for effectively harnessing the power of the group. Look out for the silent majority who seem to just go with the flow. Discussions lacking in disagreement may seem like positive progress but is more likely to be the opposite. Conflict defines the boundaries of exploration and highlights important concepts.