3 Sketching Techniques to Improve Collaboration in Meetings

When I do project Discovery or kickoff meetings with clients, I almost always start with goal-setting exercises and end with prioritization activities. In the middle, we work to deepen our shared understanding of the problem we want to solve together or the opportunity we want to pursue. One great way to do this is to sketch.

In this article, we’ll discuss three types of sketching activities that we’ve found valuable for creating a shared understanding of the project, and we’ll give instructions on how to use them in your own Discovery or kickoff session. These activities are inspired by my two favorite resources for Discoveries and kickoffs: Gamestorming and Dan Brown’s Practical Design Discovery.

These exercises get your client and team members actively participating and thinking creatively during the Discovery or kickoff meeting. Many of the ideas you have during sketching won’t make it into a wireframe or even the final product, but the activities enable everyone to share their ideas. And because of that, the team walks away with a shared vision of the path forward.