Workshop Facilitator: Collaborative Discovery & Design Techniques

Workshop facilitation designs and runs structured collaborative sessions to extract knowledge, align stakeholders, and produce actionable artifacts. Covers technique selection, session design, facilitation guides, and synthesis — from event storming to design sprints. [EXPLICIT]

Principio Rector

Un taller mal facilitado no solo desperdicia tiempo — destruye la confianza del equipo en los procesos colaborativos. La facilitación excelente es la diferencia entre alineamiento genuino y consenso superficial.

1. Descubrimiento colaborativo sobre presentación unilateral. El conocimiento tácito solo emerge cuando las personas hacen, no cuando escuchan. Cada minuto de un taller debe diseñarse para extraer, no para transmitir. [EXPLICIT]
2. Estructura al servicio de la creatividad. Los time-boxes, las técnicas y las reglas de participación no limitan la creatividad — la potencian. Sin estructura, dominan las voces más fuertes y se pierden las ideas más valiosas. [EXPLICIT]
3. Artefactos vivos sobre actas muertas. El valor de un taller no está en el documento de síntesis — está en los modelos mentales compartidos que se construyen. Los artefactos deben ser herramientas de trabajo, no archivos de evidencia. [EXPLICIT]

Inputs

The user provides a project or workshop goal as $ARGUMENTS. Parse $1 as the project/workshop name used throughout all output artifacts. [EXPLICIT]

Before generating workshop design, detect project context:

find . -name "*.md" -o -name "*.miro" -o -name "*.figjam" -o -name "*.pdf" -o -name "workshop*" | head -20

Parameters:

• {MODO}: piloto-auto (default) | desatendido | supervisado | paso-a-paso
  • piloto-auto: Auto para diseño de agenda y selección de técnicas, HITL para validación de participantes y decisiones de formato. [EXPLICIT]
  • desatendido: Cero interrupciones. Diseño completo auto-generado. Supuestos documentados. [EXPLICIT]
  • supervisado: Autónomo con checkpoints en selección de técnica y diseño final. [EXPLICIT]
  • paso-a-paso: Confirma antes de cada decisión de diseño. [EXPLICIT]
• {FORMATO}: markdown (default) | html | dual
• {VARIANTE}: ejecutiva (~40%) | técnica (full, default)

When to Use

• Kicking off a new project and needing shared understanding
• Exploring a complex domain before designing solutions
• Aligning cross-functional teams on scope, priorities, or architecture
• Breaking down epics into deliverable slices
• Running rapid prototyping and validation cycles
• Resolving conflicting mental models among team members
• Extracting tacit knowledge from domain experts

Delivery Structure: 6 Sections

S1: Workshop Selection & Design

Matches the right technique to the workshop goal, selects participants, and designs the agenda. [EXPLICIT]

Technique selection matrix:

• "Understand the domain" — Event Storming
• "Define impact and scope" — Impact Mapping
• "Plan releases and slices" — User Story Mapping
• "Prototype and validate" — Design Sprint
• "Prioritize and decide" — Dot Voting, MoSCoW, WSJF
• "Retrospect and improve" — Sailboat, 4Ls, Start/Stop/Continue

Core facilitation principles:

• Diverge-Converge rhythm: Every activity follows Generate > Cluster > Vote > Decide. Never skip clustering.
• Silent-before-spoken rule: Start ideation with 5-10 min of silent individual writing. Solo ideation produces broader, more creative input. Discussion follows to combine and build.
• Energizer techniques: Quick creative prompts at session start and after breaks to reset attention.

Key decisions:

• Duration: half-day, full-day, multi-day, or compressed format
• In-person vs. remote vs. hybrid: facilitation approach differs significantly
• Participant count: 5-8 ideal; larger groups need breakout strategies
• Facilitation style: structured (strict time-boxes) vs. emergent (follow the energy)

S2: Event Storming

Discovers domain knowledge by exploring events, commands, aggregates, and bounded contexts. [EXPLICIT]

Includes:

• Domain event discovery: past-tense verbs on orange stickies (OrderPlaced, PaymentReceived)
• Timeline construction: events arranged chronologically left-to-right
• Command identification: what triggers each event (blue stickies)
• Aggregate clustering: grouping events around domain entities (yellow stickies)
• Bounded context identification: drawing boundaries around related aggregates
• Hot spot marking: conflicts, unknowns, areas needing deeper exploration (pink stickies)
• Temporal modeling: parallel streams, eventual consistency points, saga boundaries
• Policy identification: automated reactions between events ("when X happens, then Y")

S3: Impact Mapping

Connects business goals to deliverables through actors and impacts. [EXPLICIT]

Includes:

• Goal definition: measurable business objective at the center
• Actor identification: who can help or hinder the goal
• Impact discovery: what behavior changes in actors would achieve the goal
• Deliverable brainstorming: what can we build/do to create those impacts
• Assumption testing: which impacts are assumptions vs. validated knowledge
• Scope negotiation: using the map to cut scope while preserving goal achievement

S4: User Story Mapping

Organizes user activities into a backbone and plans releases as horizontal slices. [EXPLICIT]

Includes:

• Backbone construction: high-level user activities across the top (left to right = user journey)
• Walking skeleton: the minimum set of stories that deliver end-to-end value
• Vertical slicing: each column is an activity; stories arranged top-to-bottom by priority
• Release planning: horizontal lines across the map define release boundaries
• MVP identification: the thinnest horizontal slice that delivers a testable product
• Dependency flagging: stories that block others, requiring sequencing

S5: Design Sprint

Compressed prototyping and validation cycle — understand, sketch, decide, prototype, test. [EXPLICIT]

Includes:

• Day 1 — Understand: map the challenge, interview experts, set sprint goal, pick target
• Day 2 — Sketch: lightning demos, individual solution sketching, Crazy 8s, solution sketch
• Day 3 — Decide: art museum, heat map voting, speed critique, storyboard the winner
• Day 4 — Prototype: realistic facade prototype (Figma, HTML, slide deck), assign roles
• Day 5 — Test: 5 user interviews, structured observation, pattern identification
• Compressed formats: 3-day sprint, 1-day lightning sprint, async sprint

S6: Synthesis & Handoff

Consolidates workshop outputs into actionable artifacts and establishes follow-up cadence. [EXPLICIT]

Includes:

• Insight consolidation: key findings, decisions made, open questions
• Artifact packaging: photographs, digital boards, structured documents
• Action item extraction: who does what by when
• Decision log: what was decided, by whom, with what rationale
• Follow-up cadence: next workshop, check-in meeting, async review
• Knowledge transfer: how to bring non-attendees up to speed

Trade-off Matrix

Decision	Enables	Constrains	When to Use
Event Storming	Deep domain understanding, DDD alignment	Requires domain experts, time-intensive	Complex domains, DDD projects
Impact Mapping	Goal alignment, scope negotiation	Abstract, requires clear business goal	Strategy-to-execution alignment
User Story Mapping	Release planning, shared understanding	Requires known user journey	Agile planning, MVP definition
Design Sprint	Fast validation, reduced risk	Requires 5 days, facilitator skill	New products, risky features
Full-Day Workshop	Deep exploration, relationship building	Calendar cost, energy management	Kickoffs, complex problems
Compressed Format	Time-efficient, lower commitment	Shallow output, risk of rushing	Follow-ups, well-scoped questions

Assumptions & Limits

• Workshop participants are available and empowered to contribute
• Facilitator has access to collaboration tools (physical or digital)
• Workshop goal is defined, even if broadly
• Outputs will be used — workshops without follow-through waste trust
• Does not produce technical specifications — produces inputs for them
• Cannot force stakeholder alignment — surfaces disagreements, doesn't resolve politics

Edge Cases

Remote-Only Team: Use Miro, FigJam, or Excalidraw. Shorter sessions (2-3 hours max). More structured facilitation. Breakout rooms for parallel work. Maintain dual-agenda: external schedule for participants and internal facilitator script.

Remote Facilitation Anti-Patterns (avoid):

• Death by screen-share: make participants DO things on the board
• Phantom consensus: silence does not equal agreement — use explicit polls
• Breakout abandonment: always provide clear instructions, time limit, and a template
• Energy blindness: build breaks at 40 min intervals
• Over-tooling: consolidate to one collaboration surface

Large Group (15+): Split into breakout groups of 4-6. Assign sub-facilitators. Gallery walks and dot voting for convergence.

Conflicting Stakeholders: Surface conflicts explicitly. Use structured techniques (silent brainstorming, anonymous voting) to reduce power dynamics. Facilitator must be neutral.

Domain Experts Unavailable: Event storming without domain experts produces developer assumptions. Either postpone or run preliminary session marking assumptions explicitly.

Workshop Fatigue: Demonstrate follow-through. Keep session shorter, action-oriented. Show how prior outputs were used.

Validation Gate

Before finalizing delivery, verify:

• Workshop technique matches the stated goal
• Participant list includes the right roles (domain experts, decision-makers)
• Agenda is time-boxed with clear activities per block
• Pre-work is defined and distributed
• Success criteria are explicit and measurable
• Facilitation approach accounts for remote/in-person dynamics
• Synthesis plan is defined (who packages, when, in what format)
• Action items have owners and deadlines
• Follow-up cadence is agreed upon
• Workshop outputs feed into downstream activities

Output Format Protocol

Format	Default	Description
markdown	✅	Rich Markdown + Mermaid diagrams. Token-efficient.
html	On demand	Branded HTML (Design System). Visual impact.
dual	On demand	Both formats.

Default output is Markdown with embedded Mermaid diagrams. HTML generation requires explicit {FORMATO}=html parameter. [EXPLICIT]

Output Artifact

Primary: A-01_Workshop_Design.html — Technique selection rationale, detailed agenda, facilitation guide, participant briefing, synthesis template, action item tracker.

Diagrams (Mermaid)

• Flowchart: workshop agenda flow with decision points
• Mindmap: workshop outputs and their connections to deliverables

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Author: Javier Montano | Last updated: 2026-03-12