Ask people to share their screen and show you

At the beginning of a user session today, the user was taking us through their day to day tasks. A few mins into it, I realised that nobody was going to remember any of this so I jumped in at the next opportunity and asked: “would you mind sharing your screen showing us what you do day-to-day?” They were happy to and I think it actually made them feel more comfortable than trying to describe their tasks. They knew the systems like the back of their hand and could easily go through their daily tasks, whereas they don’t normally have to describe to people what they do.

Sharing their screen and showing us what they do was a thousand times better than us trying to imagine what they did from what they were saying. And it was better for them as well. They were much more comfortable and better at taking us through the systems they use than they were at describing what they did.

This happens a lot, in almost every type of meeting:

• Describing work you’ve done or giving updates

• Back and forth discussions to clarify what someone means

• Explaining an idea that people just don’t seem to get

All of these scenarios would be so much easier and quicker by sharing a screen and showing something visually - either a piece of work or a digital whiteboard.

How might you share your screen and show things visually in your work day?
Or open a digital whiteboard or collaborative tool and draw instead of just talking.