No one should ask “what is this meeting about?” just before the meeting starts. Every participant is ready for the discussion. I prefer to get a summary of the meeting from facilitators before the meeting so that we can do research or study beforehand. Most often the facilitators are ahead of participants who are behind with their thoughts.

Do you take photos with your mobile phone? What then do you do with it?.

Do you wait for someone to summarise the meeting and send it to you by email?.

Would you be able to read someone’s handwriting? Are they worth keeping?.

Do you keep these sticky notes and go over them by yourself later?.

Then, we stick these large papers and stick them together. We use sticky notes on walls, whiteboards, large (A2) sticky papers on the other smaller sticky notes.

Potentially and most often, these notes go into the garbage bin. Then the facilitator will clean these up but just gathering the papers. I am sure most of us just leave the room after the meeting. The other thing about the sticky notes is that I often wonder what happens with these bits of paper after our meetings. The whiteboards are also filled with sticky notes, and some whiteboards have signs saying “Do not erase and take off the notes on the board.” Even hard copy of JIRA stories are on the wall (!) I pass by the wall, but I rarely stop and look at them carefully. My workplace is filled with sticky notes on the wall. I think slower and more in-depth than others (which is not necessary at every meeting) so that I end up contributing fewer ideas while the others are putting their messy handwriting on sticky notes.

I need to review them later to make sure these make sense. Soon after seeing all the sticky notes on the wall, I cannot map them myself with all the notes because of my thought is still in the middle of what I want to say. I became reactive, watching others and what they say, and try to think about what to write on the sticky note. In the end, my thoughts and brain circuits are blocked like rusted machinery. I feel embarrassed to write in front of people and cannot concentrate in the environment where others are putting on the wall quicker than me so then I feel rushed. Again design sessions with sticky notes are not may favourite things.

I like the colourful and different shapes of papers going around, but I find having all these meetings with sticky notes are challenging, and after each session, I feel a little depressed. Working together in a mixed group of experts in a team, we have many opportunities for “sticky note meetings.” The occasions where we might be brainstorming, workshopping, and retrospective meetings at the end of a design sprint, sticky notes are everywhere. Building a digital product, designers work and interacting with a broad range of people with different expertise in the team.

Sticky notes not working