You might cover expert insights before the workshop with the client. Still, there’s a huge value in letting client workshop participants ask questions to an expert in the domain and creating a joint set of insights.

The first thing is to identify experts who can provide you with insights on the client’s company and the domain. Some usual suspects:

• CEO or CPO
• Marketing managers
• Customer support managers and reps
• Sales managers and reps
• Industry thought leaders and SMEs – this is easier said than done. You can leverage your own business network, look for SMEs withing Infinum or ask your colleagues if they know someone who’s an expert in that domain

Depending on the relationship you have with that expert, you might need to give them the incentive to join the call. These can be small ticker items like a voucher or a small gift.

You should plan 30-45 minutes per expert in your agenda. Usually, up to four experts are okay. Anything more than that, and you’ll start hearing similar things.

There’s no one-size-fits-all for questions you should ask the expert. But there are some guidelines when you’re preparing those questions:

• Break it down into smaller sub-topics or themes: Prepare questions that address different aspects of the subject matter. May not be applicable to all clients and domains.
• Practicality vs Vision: Practical questions focus on the current challenges, best practices, and actionable insights. Visionary questions encourage experts to think ahead and explore innovative ideas and future trends related to the topic.
• Experiences and examples: Ask for specific examples or case studies from their professional experiences. This helps bring abstract concepts to life and understand how were solutions applied successfully in real-world scenarios.
• Challenge assumptions: Go for counterfactuals and ask experts to challenge their or their industry’s assumptions. You’re looking for alternative viewpoints or potential risks and drawbacks.
• Future opportunities and trends: Inquire about emerging trends, technologies, or market shifts that may impact the topic at hand. Encourage experts to share their insights on potential opportunities or disruptions in the future landscape and how they foresee the industry evolving.
• Ideation and problem-solving: Ask them to brainstorm potential solutions, share their strategies for overcoming challenges, and discuss any lessons learned from previous experiences. Ask the participants to keep their notes in the rose-thorn-bud fashion. Roses are positive things like trends that are beneficial for us; thorns are bad things such as pain points, and buds are things that could be opportunities in the future.

After each expert have a quick round of sharing insights and ask participants to stick their top 5 insights to the joint board. You want to avoid information overload, so you want them to filter out things that may not be that important.