Designing the Conversation (eBook)

While user experience design is a topic of exploding popularity, facilitation is a skill that is largely missing from books in the field. This book is for people who are interested in learning more about facilitation, they've seen the various types of activities that they are told that they can perform, and they are looking for an approach that takes them to the next step. By removing a lot of guesswork from the process of interviewing stakeholders, users, and/or teammates, the book aims to enable designers to fully engage a group of peers, clients, and even strangers, moving individuals and teams toward solutions by focusing on their strengths and expertise. This book provides a chapter-by-chapter guide through common facilitation activities, providing clear and concise approaches to each.

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Facilitation skills are the foundation of every successful design practice, yet training on this core competency has been largely unavailable-until now. Designing the Conversation: Techniques for Successful Facilitation is a complete guide to developing the facilitation skills you need to communicate effectively and design fully engaging experiences. Learn to take control as Russ Unger, Brad Nunnally, and Dan Willis show you how to use your skills as a facilitator to deftly extract information from different types of people in various scenarios and address any problems and needs that arise along the way.With this book, you will learn how to: Bring together different cross-functional project teams, stakeholders, and clients while balancing their needs, goals, and requirements with those of users Prepare for activities through agenda setting, planning for different types of personalities, and identifying the method of practicing that works best for you Perform group facilitation in workshops, brainstorming sessions, and focus groups Manage individual facilitation activities through interviews, usability testing, sales calls, and mentoring Conduct one-to-many facilitation activities such as presentations, virtual seminars, and lectures Understand how to manage Q & A from audiences of all sizes