Preparation of a remote workshop….

Due to covid-19, we are now all working remote.

I had a workshop planned that I usually do as a Face-2-face workshop, that I had to move to an online version.

The biggest challenge was that I was limited in the tools I could use. Luckily I found an internal tool that could do the trick. The flip side (there is always a flip side) was, almost no one had used the tool before.
As I did not want to loose time in the workshop connecting the people in the tool, I made sure eveyone knew the tool before the workshop.

Here is what I did:

  • Create a testing board.
  • It contained these post it’s:
    • Step 1: Welcome to the board. You have to do three steps. Logging on, was the first step.
    • Step 2: Create your own post it: add you name to it.
    • Step 3: add a thumbs up sticker to your sticker
  • I also added a sticker to each post it: 1, 2, 3

I mailed all participants the link to the board, and asked them to log in, and do 3 steps. They could do it at their own time, yet they had to be finished one week before the workshop. I f they had trouble they could and should ask me for help.

When someone did the three tasks, I added a “medal” sticker to it and I told them they were now certified in the tool.

While the first people tried, I realised that to acces my board I had to give them acces (the url and logging in was not enough)
So gradually I discovered extra things about the tool with them.

The first few days I send a mail to everyone. In the mail I shared:

  • Who was now “certified”
  • An updated version of the manual for all steps. (With every request for help, I learned about more possible challenges and updated the “manual”

When everyone was certified, I also had all the user id’s from the participants and I added them to my board I would use for the workshop.
During the real workshop someone else also joined the workshop. Yet adding one person while everyone else is working that was easy. This person also pick up the tool just by looking at others.