The Diverge-and-Converge Technique for UX Workshops

Summary: By first working independently on a problem, then converging to share insights, teams can leverage the benefits of both work styles, leading to rapid data analysis, diverse ideas, and high-quality designs.

Are you an introvert who hates meetings and derives pleasure from thinking in solitude? Or do you get excited when you can discuss ideas with others and work side by side with them toward a common goal? Working alone and working with others have each their own advantages and disadvantages. In this article, we define a collaborative technique that combines the two in order to maximize the work quality and efficiency: diverge and converge.

Definition: The diverge-and-converge collaboration method has two stages: (1) a diverge stage, during which team members work independently to produce individual insights and (2) a converge stage, where they discuss the results of the diverge phase as a group in order to decide on some collective output.

When team members diverge, they research, analyze, generate, or design independently, without discussing thoughts or findings with others.  When team members converge, they share their findings, insights, ideas, or designs with one another.