How To Run a REMOTE Workshop (Lightning Decision Jam)

Do you need a remote workshop solution for innovation and problem solving?! Sure you do! In this video we show you step by step how to run a remote version of our favourite innovation workshop, Lightning Decision Jam!

Align your team, company, or staff on the key pain points, and develop executable solutions in just one hour, that will have the maximum impact for your team, company, or business!

Our Product Design Director and workshop extraordinaire, Tim Höfer takes you through each step of the remote LDJ in our whiteboard tool of choice, Miro! Find our updated Remote LDJ template, plus the timestamps of each exercise below!

Our easy to follow Remote Lightning Decision Jam Miro Template:

** To restore a board from backup, go to the Dashboard and click Upload from backup. A dialogue box will appear, where you will be able to choose your *.rtb board backup file. After you confirm your choice, the board will be restored.

Timestamped stages:

(00:00) Intro from our CEO Jonathan Courtney
(00:47) Intro to Remote LDJ + Overview Slides
(01:02) Intro To Remote LDJ Workshop Participants
(01:34) Step 1 - The Sailboat Exercise - Listing The Positives
(03:42) Step 1 - The Sailboat Exercise - Presenting The Positives
(05:26) Step 1 - The Sailboat Exercise - Listing The Negatives
(06:40) Step 1 - The Sailboat Exercise Pt. 2. - Presenting The Negatives
(07:03) Step 1 - The Sailboat Exercise Pt.3. - Voting On The Negative
(08:06) Step 2 - Prioritising The Problem
(09:33) Step 3 - Reframing The Problem - 'How Might We...'
(11:14) Step 4 - Ideate Without Discussion
(12:25) Step 4.b - Read + Vote On Solutions
(13:25) Step 5 - Prioritising Solutions
(14:29) Step 6 - The Effort / Impact Scale
(16:57) Step 7 - Decide What To Execute On
(18:03) Overview Slide
(18:11) Outro

Miro:

Workshop Requirements:

Ideal group size
To make this exercise worthwhile you’ll need a range of input and opinions, but you don’t want so many people that the logistics of running the exercise gets difficult. You can technically use the LDJ with just 2 people, although we usually recommend a minimum of 3. An ideal size is 4 to 6
people, and the maximum is 8 (more than this and the whiteboard gets crowded and the sticky-notes become hard to keep track of).

Total time needed
The times we’ve suggested in the exercise are more of a guideline and may only be relevant to the first time you run through it. The exercise itself usually takes between 30–45 mins. For larger groups (or tackling multiple problems) all the steps can take up to 1.5 hours.

Choose a moderator
You absolutely need to select someone on the team to take the role of the moderator. They can join in on the process but they must focus on making sure discussions don’t break out and they need to keep the time. We rotate this role at AJ&Smart.

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How To Run A Remote Workshop! Lightning Decision Jam (2020):

[johnthorsson]

Used this video as an inspiration for an LDJ at a leadership conference with 170 people earlier this week. Thanks for sharing!

[shadihariri]

Thank you for this video. I implemented this in our brainstorming session, which was helpful, and we came up with many ideas and solutions. Some notes that we had to deal with during the session that I think worths sharing. First: if it is the first time your team is using Miro, each section might take longer than expected. The team is not comfortable with the tool, so that you might add some extra minutes for each section.
Second: Even though the concept is to work together but alone, I think it is best to ask people to unmute themselves. It is hard to figure out if they are ready for the next step or not since you are continually looking to the Mrio board rather than the team.
We skipped the last part since the challenge we were working on was complicated, and it was hard to come up with actions in the session itself. And for those kinds of decisions, we needed the product owner to be in the meeting. I am not sure if it was the right choice, however.

[eadybaby]

Thank you Jonathan and AJ&Smart!! You are such an invaluable resource during these times (and beyond!!!)

[BlairRorani]

This is a good exercise to run following user testing in a design sprint. You can figure out what to work on based on a summary of positives and negatives from testers.

[mikenichols]

Really like this exercise. Simple yet powerful at the same time

[nobufelipe]

I love you guys! I struggled with people talking over me and listening to me just so they can disagree with me. LOL

Sprint would be the, THE ideal solution.

[antonyakymchuk]

Great job guys!
Just started watching but couldn't resist to leave comment

[mastroale]

Great stuff. Loving the LDJ. Question, I'd like to dig also in the "workshop" you'll run next, after Step 7, the "Execution". Tim mentions a little bit about it but if there are any of your guide videos please share it! Thanks!

[Hrlkothrre]

Great video - thank you! Is there a reason you facilitate impact and effort @ the same time when in the person video made around the same time the facillitator starts with impact?

[jo_vee]

Does everyone attending the have to download Miro? Would an outside client attending have to download Miro?

[sandalsandsox]

Thanks everyone, this was a very informative video. I'm going to be running one of these sessions very soon and this helped me develop some confidence.
Allan Atkinson, Scrum Master

[IggleChris]

really enjoyed that, Jonathon, pretty slick workshop. is the template up or do we make our own, and I'm wondering how you might manage 20 people remotely if all are newbies, or would you recommend having someone who's done one before at each table? .Seperate miro //mural board for each group?
Would it be very messy to bring people in and out of breakout rooms to inform for each step as you go along?

[ThousandAnt]

Great video on a very interesting process! Thanks for all you guys do, and greetings from Berlin :)

[nrastam]

Nice video 🙌. Thanks for sharing!

By experience doing a LDJ on Miro with clients who aren't "tech savvy" is that you really need to educate them first on the basics of Miro. Besides that, try to use the video-call feature in Miro to avoid people to switch between apps..

One question: Why do you use the dots instead of the voting-system in Miro?

[niknazm]

Hi! I'm planning on doing this workshop with my team. I've done it once before with another team(went great!) but this time I'd like to focus it on analysing competitors to our brand. Would that work? If so, should I skip the Sailboat or keep that in but try and focus it to the theme?
Thank you!

[TheMWKH]

thank you for a thorough explanation on this, we totally need this& please keep up yhe good work 😎

[sidverma]

Great Insights. Always a challenge to run workshops remotely. I was wondering, if there was a large group of say 20-30 people in the workshop. Would you arrange them in groups of 4-5 each so that they work together. In that case, is it possible to have their own Miro Boards? Then, they could potentially work well on Zoom with Breakout Rooms. How would (have) you managed a workshop with multiple miro boards?

[JdesignL]

Do you have any tips on how to organise the free discussion sections like during the prioritisation process so that the "loudest" person doesn't dominate this. Also do you have any advice on how to problem frame these workshops so the subject isn't too big/small? I would like to use the workshop for project related decision making as opposed to general team organisation.

[umutaltun]

Thank you so much. it was soooo inspiral for me

[digital-being]

Hi, as a project manager and daily miro user, I appreciate you framing your workshops around PM methodologies. One feedback though in minute 13:44 you voted top items just to depose the most voted two items in the next step at 15:47 (eisenhower matrix). That seems wasteful, especially when one is on the low effort quarant + the other might just not have been phrased specific enough. Just my 2 cents. Otherwise great insights! Thanks.