The Big Agile Draw: Getting People to the Whiteboard

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# The Big Agile Draw: Getting people to the whiteboard

Have you ever sat in a grooming meeting covering complex story relationships without *really understanding how the pieces fit together?* Did someone ever scratch out a drawing that made it all become clear, in a way that *words alone could not capture?* I’ve been in those meetings and was struck by how much a simple drawing can help. That led us to the exploration of whiteboarding and how we can all use it to improve collaboration on agile teams.

Drawings and sketches work because they make the abstract more accessible and bring form to ideas. *“But, wait!”* you say, *“I’m not a designer! I can’t draw!”* Fear not. There is no secret whiteboarding club. The drawing is not about you and your drawing prowess or lack thereof. It’s about having better conversations and communication because people can see – not just *hear* – what you’re talking about.

A Design Thinking evangelist and a Seasoned Agile Coach pair up to shed light on *Why Drawing Works* while giving participants an array of tools that lead to better conversations. Participants will team up to transform simple shapes into meaningful icons that combine to tell a story from a users perspective. *Progressive elaboration* of these user stories will add increasingly complicated layers to the diagram, but fear not as the complexity will be demystified as drawing techniques will be provided ‘just in time.’ The workshop will result in a visual user story that is *split* and participants that have tools and techniques to improve collaboration and communication on their teams.