Prototype your story!

Ask participants how they usually decide on the stories/messages they use in their personal/professional social media campaigns. Tell them that during the workshop they will learn to use design thinking process in prototyping their messages before launching any communication campaign.

Present the design thinking steps and the use of design thinking in innovation. Present them the steps of the design thinking and the basic principles (see the theory available in this chapter). Tell the participants that during the workshop they will experience the prototyping step of the process.

Split the group into teams (3-4 people), and give each team one of the problems/“bad behaviors” you selected, such as a high number of people refusing to recycle; high number of homeless people on the streets; increasing discriminatory speeches/undignified stereotypes about young people with migrant/refugee backgrounds; high number of young people dropping out of school; high number of young people addicted to drugs or gambling, etc.

Express the problems from a clear point of view (see the PoV structure from the design thinking theory available in this chapter).

Give each team three printed Story-maps (or give them access to an online form for the Story-Map, such as Google Form), and ask each team to develop three different stories they could use to: edu- cate young people about the problem or to motivate/move them into action to solve the problem or change the behavior of the audience.

Pair the teams and ask them to present to each other the three stories they developed. Each team should ask the other team questions about the stories and provide feedback and relevant input, imagining their are the real audience of that message. Based on the questions, feedback and input received from the “audience” (the other team), each team selects one of the stories they want to further develop.

Give each team a printed Storyboard and ask them to develop now the story they chose from the three ideas they received feedback on. They should think that at the end they would make their story into a three-minute video or animation.

Once they have finished, the teams go back in the pair of teams and presents their new ideas and receive again feedback and inputs. The teams ask questions from their users, learning to further develop their stories (develop dialogue, slogans, etc.).

The teams refine their stories and develop the three-minute movies/animations

The teams share their videos/animations in the common social media group created for the work- shop, and a common watching session is organized.

Conclude the session reflecting with the participants on the process of prototyping: where they started, how the story changed in the process, why it changed, what they appreciated or disliked when receiving feedback and inputs from the “audience”, how and why the prototyping process could be useful in developing messages for their campaigns, and how they would prototype their messages before starting a real campaign.