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User experience fishbowl

User experience Fishbowl creates a dynamic space for peer learning and authentic dialogue by bringing real experiences to the center. 
What Is Made Possible
  • Learning from lived experience: A small group of people who’ve made progress on a shared challenge share their stories in conversation with each other, making their insights accessible and relatable.
  • Inclusive, two-way dialogue: The surrounding participants listen in and can ask questions or join the inner circle, creating a fluid exchange between those with experience and those seeking it.
  • Breaking down barriers: The informal setup encourages openness and trust, making it easier to surface real challenges, lessons learned, and practical solutions.
  • Accelerated adoption of new practices: Hearing directly from peers who’ve “been there” helps others see how innovations can be adapted to their own context - without top-down mandates.
  • Empowerment through visibility: It shifts the focus from external experts to internal wisdom, showing that the answers often already exist within the group.

  • Time needed

    35-70 minutes 

  • Preparation

    1. Miro Board (online) or paper (F2F)
    2. 3-7 chairs in a circle in the middle of a room (inner circle)
    3. One outer circle in multiple small satellite groups of 3–4 people (F2F)
    4. For online prepare small breakout rooms for 3-4 people

  • How to start

    1. Ask those in the fishbowl to describe their experience—the good, the bad, and the ugly—informally, concretely, and openly. Invite them to do it in conversation with each other as if the audience wasn’t there and they were sharing stories around a watering hole or stuck in a van on the way to the airport. Firmly, ask them to avoid presenting to the audience.
    2. Invite the people outside the fishbowl to listen, observe nonverbal exchanges, and formulate questions within their small groups.

  • Step-by-step and timing

    1. Explain the fishbowl configuration and steps. (2 min).
    2. Inner circle conversation goes on until it ends on its own. (10 to 25 min).
    3. Satellite groups in outer circle formulate observations and questions. (4 min).
    4. Questions submitted to the inner circle are answered, and back-and-forth interaction between inner and outer circles goes on as needed until all the questions are answered. (10 to 25 min).
    5. Debrief using W³ (What? So What? Now What?) and ask, “What seems possible now?” (10 to 15 min).

  • Hints

    1. For inner circle, pick only people with direct personal experience
    2. Encourage inner-circle people to share concrete, very descriptive examples rather than opinions
    3. Encourage everyone to share both successes and failures, “the good, the bad, the ugly”
    4. If online ask everyone in outer circle to mute themselves
    5. Collect ALL the questions from the outside circle before the "fish" restart their conversation

  • Examples of use

    1. Build skills in listening, storytelling, pattern-finding, questioning, and observing
    2. Celebrate early adopters and innovators who have gained field experience
    3. Get down-to-earth field experience and all the questions and answers about new endeavors out on the table for everyone to understand at the same time

  • Link with other Liberating Structures

    Link with:

    1-2-4-All

    25/10 Crowd Sourcing

    Ecocycle planning

    Improv prototyping

    Shift and share

    Simple etnography

    What 3 debrief

  • Link to Liberating Structures page

    Users Experience Fishbowl

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