My company is fully remote, and I need to facilitate a process mapping session to identify bottlenecks in our client onboarding. Does anyone have advice on keeping remote participants engaged during a 2-hour virtual whiteboard session without losing the granular details of the "As-Is" process?
3 answers
Facilitating remote sessions requires more preparation than in-person meetings. I recommend sending out a pre-session survey to gather basic steps of the "As-Is" process beforehand. This allows you to walk into the virtual meeting with a "strawman" draft that participants can react to, rather than starting with a blank canvas. Use tools like Miro or Lucidchart where everyone can see updates in real-time. Break the session into 45-minute sprints with 5-minute breaks to maintain focus. Also, ensure you have a dedicated "scribe" so you can focus entirely on facilitating the conversation.
While the strawman approach is efficient, do you find that it sometimes biases the participants toward the existing draft rather than encouraging them to think critically about how the process actually functions on a daily basis?
Using "Swimlane" diagrams during these sessions is a lifesaver. It clearly defines who is responsible for what, which is usually where remote teams have the most confusion.
Exactly, Jennifer. Swimlanes add that layer of accountability that is often missing in high-level maps, making the transition from discovery to implementation much smoother.
It definitely can, Christopher. To avoid bias, I always frame the draft as "intentionally incomplete." I tell the group that my draft is likely 40% wrong and I need their expertise to fix it. This actually encourages them to speak up more because they want to correct the errors they see on the screen.