CRM Workshops: Scoping the design with the teams

1. Preparing workshops in advance: the fundamentals

A successful workshop starts with preparation. A lack of preparation leads to vague discussions and wasted time.

✅ Define the objectives of each workshop: Which problem should be addressed? What decision must be reached by the end of the session?

✅ Identify key participants: Business representatives (sales, customer service, marketing), IT, sponsors... Each profile must be involved according to their expertise.

✅ Gather initial requirements: A pre-workshop questionnaire or preparatory interviews help structure the discussions.

✅ Set an optimal duration: An effective workshop lasts between 1.5 and 3 hours to maintain focus.

🎯 Real-life example: During the scoping of a CRM for a franchise network, an initial workshop with regional managers identified specific needs (tracking local billing, customising KPIs by area).

2. Running effective workshops: best practices

A good workshop must be interactive and productive. Here are some facilitation techniques that work:

✅ Use concrete use cases: Rather than a theoretical discussion, ask participants to describe how they work today and how they would like to function tomorrow.

✅ Encourage co-construction: Whiteboards, digital post-its, mind-mapping... The workshop must be participatory.

✅ Channel the discussions: A facilitator must manage the exchanges to avoid off-topic debates and keep the focus on objectives.

✅ Summarise in real-time: Shared note-taking (Google Docs, Miro, Notion) provides an immediate structured report.

🎯 Real-life example: In an industrial company, a workshop on sales opportunity tracking highlighted an unexpected need: managing prototype orders directly within the CRM. This point was integrated into the project roadmap.

3. Gathering business requirements: avoiding bias and oversights

A frequent pitfall is limiting oneself to expressed needs without digging into the underlying expectations. Here is how to structure information gathering:

✅ Identify current processes: Mapping existing workflows allows you to anticipate the impact on the organisation.

✅ Distinguish essential needs from secondary wishes: Categorise requests into three groups:

• 🚨 Must-have (indispensable for the business)

• ✅ Nice-to-have (useful but not a blocker)

• ❌ Out of scope (outside the project scope)

✅ Challenge requests: Ask precise questions: "Why is this requirement important? What is the alternative if this feature is not available?"

🎯 Real-life example: During the scoping of a CRM for a call centre, teams expressed a need for multi-channel management. The workshop prioritised email and call integration for Phase 1, pushing chat and WhatsApp to a later phase.

4. Arbitrating functional choices: a balance between need and feasibility

Once requirements are gathered, choices must be made. Developing everything is impossible: arbitration prevents projects from going over budget and becoming difficult to maintain.

✅ Verify technical feasibility: IT must validate the impact on the information system and security constraints.

✅ Evaluate Return on Investment (ROI): Each feature must provide measurable value (time savings, increased revenue, reduction in errors).

✅ Adopt an iterative approach: Prioritise essential features and plan progressive improvements after the initial deployment.

🎯 Real-life example: In a CRM project for a retail network, the choice was made to prioritise a stock management module, as it represented an immediate operational gain. Marketing automation integration was planned for the second phase.

Our tip as CRM experts

💡 Do not try to scope everything in a single phase!

A CRM project is an evolving process. Rather than trying to anticipate 100% of needs from the start, opt for an agile approach with successive iterations.

🚀 Best practice: Validate each workshop with a functional prototype (mockups, demonstrations in a test environment). This allows for adjustments upstream and avoids unpleasant surprises in production.

By applying these best practices, your CRM workshops will become a powerful lever for designing a solution tailored to real user needs, ensuring efficient deployment and successful adoption. 🚀

Key takeaways

• A successful workshop is prepared well in advance. A lack of preparation leads to vague discussions and wasted time.
• A good workshop should be interactive and productive. Here are some facilitation techniques that work:
• A common pitfall is limiting yourself to stated needs without digging into true expectations. Here is how to structure the gathering of...
• Once requirements are gathered, choices must be made. It is impossible to develop everything: prioritising prevents projects from going over budget and...
• 💡 Don't try to scope everything in a single phase!

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