Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: c15b8bdaf7851ddda9b74fa2f2c6b82e9c88312ae201a1f88b45cfb234043f78

# User Experience Fishbowl

A small group with direct field experience converses in an inner circle while observers listen from an outer ring. Observers then formulate questions in small pods and submit them for the inner circle to answer.

**Time:** 50 minutes. Liberating Structures specifies 35 to 70 minutes. This 50-minute plan fits a standard session.
**People:** 7 to 24. Inner circle of 3 to 5 practitioners (limited to 3 when total group is under 8, and at most 4 when under 9); outer circle seated in pods of 3 to 4 observers, with any extra participant joining an existing pod.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Surface firsthand operational knowledge and challenges directly from practitioners so an entire group hears concrete experiences simultaneously.
**Use it when:** Use when a subset of participants has piloted a tool, method, or project and the rest of the group needs to learn practical realities before adopting it.
**Skip it when:** Skip when no participants have hands-on experience with the topic, or when the goal is to negotiate a formal contract rather than exchange field knowledge.

## Materials and tools

- Chairs arranged in an inner ring (3 to 5) and an outer ring (grouped in clusters of 3 to 4)
- 1 index card or notepad per outer cluster
- 1 pen per outer cluster
- 1 shared physical or digital timer visible to the facilitator
- 1 handheld or room microphone for outer circle and hybrid speakers if room acoustics require amplification
- 1 shared digital document or chat platform for remote and hybrid cohorts

## Before participants arrive

1. Arrange 3 to 5 chairs facing each other in the center of the room.
2. Arrange the remaining chairs around the inner ring in small clusters of 3 to 4 seats.
3. Invite practitioners with direct hands-on experience to take inner circle seats, keeping inner seats to 3 or 4 if total attendance is under 9 so the outer ring retains at least 3 observers.

## Say this to open

Welcome. In this session, our inner circle will talk about their firsthand experiences with the pilot project. Inner circle, talk directly to each other as if you are catching up at lunch. Please do not give presentations to the outside ring. Outer circle, your job is to listen quietly for concrete successes and pitfalls. Later you will form questions in small pods.

## How to run it

### 1. Set the frame (3 minutes)

Explain the seating rules and timetable. Invite 3 to 5 experienced practitioners into center chairs, adhering to the inner circle sizing rules: at most 3 if total attendance is under 8, and at most 4 if under 9. Seat remaining participants in outer pods of 3 or 4. If someone is left over, add them to an existing pod so no one sits alone. State clearly that the inner circle talks only to each other and observers stay silent during the initial talk.

### 2. Inner circle conversation (15 minutes)

The inner circle discusses their direct experiences, including successes, missteps, and daily workarounds. They speak only to each other, not to the outer ring. The facilitator does not intervene unless someone starts presenting slides or lecturing the room. Outer listeners take private notes.

### 3. Satellite question formulation (5 minutes)

Outer circle participants turn to their small cluster of 3 or 4. Clusters discuss what they heard and write 1 or 2 concrete questions on an index card or into the shared digital document, noting their pod name or number. The facilitator collects cards and reviews digital submissions at the 5-minute bell.

### 4. Question and response dialogue (17 minutes)

The facilitator reads questions aloud, grouping similar themes. The inner circle responds by talking through the answers together. If time allows, invite brief clarifying follow-ups directly from the submitting pod in person or via chat for remote participants.

### 5. Reflect and debrief (10 minutes)

Open the conversation to the entire room using the W3 sequence (What? So What? Now What?). Ask for observations on what was heard, what implications emerge, and what practical next steps make sense. Take 2 to 3 comments per question.


## Debrief questions

- What facts or experiences stood out most clearly from the conversation?
- So what does this mean for our own work or upcoming rollout?
- Now what practical step should we take first?

**Finished output:** A collected set of participant questions and actionable implementation takeaways recorded on cards or a shared room board.

## Remote

Designate the inner circle as spotlighted video feeds with microphones on. All other participants turn cameras and microphones off during Step 2. In Step 3, place observers into breakout rooms of 3 to 4 people to draft questions into a shared chat or document. In Step 4, the facilitator reads selected questions to the spotlighted panel. Remote pods submit brief follow-ups via chat for the facilitator to voice.

## Hybrid

Seat in-person inner circle members around an omnidirectional microphone and camera. Remote observers join small remote breakout pods during Step 3, while in-person observers group locally. Both in-person and remote clusters post their questions into a unified digital document monitored by the facilitator. For clarifying follow-ups in Step 4, the facilitator reads aloud from the shared document or invites an unmuted remote pod to speak.

## Access and participation choices

- Practitioners invited or volunteering for the inner circle may choose to join the outer circle instead without giving a reason.
- Outer circle members may contribute questions via written cards or digital chat rather than speaking aloud.

## If the session gets stuck

**Inner circle members start lecturing the outer audience instead of talking to each other.**

Step in gently, face the center, and remind the group: 'Turn back toward each other and speak as colleagues having a private debrief.'

**Outer circle clusters submit too many questions to answer in the allotted time.**

Sort cards quickly by shared themes, read the top three recurring themes, and leave the remaining questions for written follow-up.


## Terms used here

- W3 (What? So What? Now What?): A 3-stage reflection structure examining raw facts, then practical implications, then immediate next actions.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Liberating Structures (Keith McCandless and Henri Lipmanowicz), menu item 18.

Retained the core structure from Liberating Structures: practitioner inner circle, outer satellite pods for question generation, dialogue response phase, and W3 debrief. Set total duration to 50 minutes. Clarified inner circle sizing rules for small total cohorts so outer pods always retain at least 3 people. Reconciled agency by explicitly making inner circle seating an invitation that participants can decline. Added explicit tools for remote and hybrid chat and document tracking.

[Liberating Structures](https://www.liberatingstructures.com/18-users-experience-fishbowl/)

[Liberating Structures Menu](http://www.liberatingstructures.com/18-users-experience-fishbowl/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/users-experience-fishbowl/