--- title: I Ran My First UX Workshop and Survived (and So Can You) description: Tips and tricks from a HubSpot UX researcher for running a seamless workshop. image: https://product.hubspot.com/hubfs/My%20First%20Workshop.png --- [UX](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/topic/ux) # I Ran My First UX Workshop and Survived (and So Can You) [ Judy Xu ](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/author/judy-xu) on Oct 9, 2019 Earlier this year, I ran my first workshop with my product team at HubSpot. The goal was to uncover themes and questions they had — and there were quite a few — around improving users’ experience navigating and finding correct tools. The project was a big one that affected navigation, the interaction flows across tools, and how users interact with the tool. So, did I succeed in what I set out to do? Sure. Was it the smoothest experience? Not really. I’ve split this post into two sections to share my experiences running a workshop, and the lessons I’ve learned that might help you do the same.  ### My experience running the workshop Think of a workshop as an opportunity to hear your team in a non-structured meeting space. It aids in uncovering themes and questions you might not have thought of, finding interesting trends, or maybe generating data points about the workshop attendees. For me, this workshop worked on the former: uncovering themes and questions. I was super excited when I first got buy-in to do it, but as the day grew closer, a sense of being woefully underprepared grew. This was the first time I had ever run a workshop. I’ve done focus groups, academic seminars, and other group-type activities, but workshops didn’t map onto those activities the same way. Partially due to focus, but mostly because I wanted to facilitate *divergent* *thinking* — a fancy word for brainstorming — to find common threads across questions. I found my teammates asking “what is the workshop about?” or “what are we going to do in the workshop?” — not in a mean way, but out of genuine curiosity. It was great knowing everyone was on board and wanted it to be successful, but those questions only increased my nervousness. I knew *what* I wanted to achieve, but *how* to get there? That took some thinking. ![Post-Its](https://product.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Post-Its.png?width=300&name=Post-Its.png) I have to thank my colleagues on the HubSpot UX team for sharing their ideas for exercises and activities, so I could go from 0 to 100. Or try to, at least. The result was a workshop that involved sticky notes, sharing, some discussion, and a whiteboarding/categorization exercise. Awkward silences and one slide hiccup aside, I *did *achieve what I set out to do. It  wasn’t the most fun or engaging workshop, but we discovered many unspoken questions that the team had. The best part was that both veterans and newer folks on the team had questions that were focused on similar themes, which told me that we really needed to dig in and answer them.  More importantly, the questions we raised turned out to be similar across team members in different roles. While the framing and wording of our questions might differ, it highlights the importance of involving different stakeholders and communicating with them. Even if engineering comes at or after the end of the UX design process, they likely also have the same high-level questions about your users, who they are, and how they use the product. I’ll be honest: My first workshop wasn’t perfect. There were small bumps and odd silences that detracted from the experience, and that unnerved me a bit. But I didn’t let them derail me from my goals. Despite the hiccups and kinks, it was a valuable experience. Not only was running a workshop a great way for my team to get involved in the research process, it also allowed various team members to hear the questions and gaps in knowledge their peers had. I don’t know when I might run another, but the thought of it is certainly on my mind. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from the experience, and I know I’ll only get better with practice. ### Tips for your own workshop So what makes a workshop successful? Is it the findings? The team aligning on some common theme? Or something else? I’ll leave that up to you. But here are a few things I’ve learned that’ll help make any workshop successful. ![Team_workshop](https://product.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Team_workshop.gif?width=480&name=Team_workshop.gif) 1.   I encourage you to try running your own workshop. It's a great way to inform the next couple of stages of research, design, or product, and align your team. Treat it as one step in the process and not just a one-off or endpoint. The findings you glean will provide new avenues for exploration. Maybe you’ll converge on some common threads or maybe you’ll find more things to chase down. As your products evolve, so will your users, and the questions you might have surrounding them. 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