Discovery Workshop Synthesis

Transform your Action Mapping workshop outputs into all four key discovery documents through a guided interview process.

What This Skill Does

After you've facilitated a discovery workshop with stakeholders and SMEs, this skill helps you:

1. •Synthesize raw workshop notes into structured insights
2. •Generate four key deliverables:
   • •Meeting Summary
   • •Formal Needs Analysis
   • •Action Map Summary
   • •Design Brief
3. •Create Learner Persona(s)
4. •Ensure all documents align with your adapted Action Mapping methodology

Your Adapted Action Mapping Process

This skill follows your team's adapted methodology:

1. Content Audit → Review existing training/content BEFORE stakeholder sessions
2. Business Goal → Define measurable business outcome with stakeholders
3. Behaviors + Obstacles → Map both what people should do AND why they're not doing it
4. Practice Activities → Design realistic scenarios for behavior change
5. Knowledge Pull → Identify what info learners need during activities

For detailed methodology reference, see adapted-action-mapping.md

How to Use This Skill

Option 1: Full Guided Process

Say: "Help me process my discovery workshop outputs" or invoke /discovery-workshop

I will interview you through each phase:

1. •Content audit findings
2. •Business goal identification
3. •Behaviors and obstacles mapping
4. •Target audience insights
5. •Document generation

Option 2: Specific Document

If you only need one output:

• •"Create a needs analysis from my workshop notes"
• •"Generate a design brief for this project"
• •"Build a learner persona for [audience]"
• •"Summarize my workshop into a meeting summary"

Option 3: Process Raw Notes

Paste your workshop notes and say: "Synthesize these into discovery documents"

Interview Process

I'll guide you through these questions:

Phase 1: Content Audit

• •What existing training or content did you review before the workshop?
• •What were the key findings? (What's good? What's outdated? What's missing?)
• •Is any existing content reusable?

Phase 2: Business Goal

• •What business problem are we trying to solve?
• •How is this problem currently measured?
• •What does success look like? What metrics will change?
• •Who requested this training and why now?

Phase 3: Behaviors + Obstacles

• •What specific actions should people be doing on the job?
• •Which behaviors have the highest impact on the business goal?
• •Why aren't people performing these behaviors now?
  • •Knowledge gaps?
  • •Skill gaps?
  • •Environmental barriers?
  • •Motivation issues?

Phase 4: Target Audience

• •Who exactly needs this training?
• •What do they already know?
• •What's their attitude toward this training?
• •What constraints do they have (time, technology, environment)?

Phase 5: Constraints & Context

• •What's the timeline?
• •What technology/platform will be used?
• •Are there compliance or accessibility requirements?
• •Who are the key stakeholders?

Output Documents

1. Meeting Summary

Quick reference document capturing:

• •Key decisions made
• •Action items with owners
• •Open questions
• •Notable quotes and insights

Template: meeting-summary-template.md

2. Formal Needs Analysis

Comprehensive discovery document including:

• •Business goal and success metrics
• •Current vs. desired state gap analysis
• •Target audience profile
• •Key behaviors and obstacles
• •Content requirements
• •Constraints and considerations
• •Recommended solution

Template: needs-analysis-template.md

3. Action Map Summary

Text representation of your action map:

• •Business goal at center
• •Priority behaviors listed
• •Obstacles mapped to each behavior
• •Practice activity ideas

Template: action-map-template.md

4. Design Brief

Concise document for handoff to design phase:

• •One-sentence project summary
• •Business goal
• •Target audience summary
• •Key behaviors to address
• •Proposed solution overview
• •Success metrics
• •Constraints

Template: design-brief-template.md

5. Learner Persona(s)

Detailed fictional profiles:

• •Demographics and background
• •Goals and motivations
• •Challenges and pain points
• •Learning preferences
• •Technology profile
• •Design implications

Template: learner-persona-template.md

Tips for Better Discovery

Before the Workshop

• •Review existing content/training first
• •Prepare a clear agenda
• •Identify who needs to be in the room

During the Workshop

• •Focus on behaviors, not content
• •Capture specific examples and quotes
• •Challenge assumptions ("How do you know that?")
• •Note disagreements—they reveal important tensions

After the Workshop

• •Process notes within 24-48 hours while fresh
• •Send meeting summary for validation
• •Flag open questions that need follow-up

Examples

See examples/sample-discovery-outputs.md for sample outputs from a completed discovery process.

Related Commands

• •/objectives - Generate learning objectives from behaviors
• •/synthesize-notes - Quick note synthesis without full workflow
• •/learner-persona - Generate a single persona quickly
• •/bloom-verbs - Reference for objective writing

Getting Started

Ready to process your workshop? Tell me:

1. •What project is this for? (client/project name)
2. •Do you have raw notes to share? (paste them or reference a file)
3. •Which outputs do you need? (all four, or specific documents)

Or just paste your workshop notes and I'll guide you through the process.