6 Everything in moderation

While we are fortunate to have two people working together to facilitate and guide the sprints, this may not always be possible for your team. It’s also entirely possible that your team, like ours, are not trained moderators or facilitators and have very little in the way of experience moderating more than an exuberant group chat. If this is the case, then Enter the moderator!

This will be someone who should be recruited independently from the participants, ideally from the moment you recognize a need for their expertise. The ideal is to work with someone who has experience teasing out the intricacies of an idea and who can also speak whichever language your sprints will be conducted in. This moderator can then work with your team prior to the session, helping establish themes and setting the stage to ensure they are able to step in with the full knowledge of the session.

If, like us, you’re planning to run a series of sprints and you’ve found a great moderator, keep them! It’s far easier for everyone if they’re familiar with the format, themes, and organization to help with the flow of the session. It’s likely the moderator will be able to help with the ideation and ice breaking stages, but they’ll also be indispensable during the creation phase. Moderators can help pop into groups and ensure the groups are working smoothly.

Questions to consider:

• – Do I feel comfortable running the session myself? If I’m running it online, is there someone there as co-host if my internet goes down?
• – Can I be impartial when it comes to guiding the ideation process?
• – Do I have the technical skills and know-how to answer detailed questions on, for example, H5P and Pressbooks?