---
title: "Optimal Workshop | Skills We Assign For | Azendo"
description: "Optimal Workshop for IA research — card sorting, tree testing, plus the Azendo roles assigned for it."
url: "https://azendo.co/skills/optimal-workshop/"
---

[Skills](https://azendo.co/skills/) Design and research 

# Optimal Workshop.

Optimal Workshop is a suite of research tools for information architecture: card sorting, tree testing, first-click testing and qualitative analysis, run remotely with quantitative output.

## Where Optimal Workshop fits on a long engagement.

These methods settle arguments that otherwise run on opinion. Tree testing produces a success rate for finding a given item in a proposed structure, which is a number rather than a preference, and it is remarkably effective at ending navigation debates.

First-click testing is the underused one. Where someone clicks first on a page strongly predicts whether they complete the task, so testing that single decision identifies structural problems very cheaply.

## What an assigned team does with Optimal Workshop.

Testing structure before visual design is the sequence that saves effort. Discovering a navigation problem after screens are designed means redesigning them; discovering it in a tree test means changing a list.

Sequencing research before design rather than alongside it is a delivery decision, and it is part of how design work is planned under [outsource ux design](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/).

## What we use Optimal Workshop for.

* Navigation debates settled with numbers Task success rates replacing preference and seniority.
* Structure tested before screens exist Problems found when fixing means changing a list, not a design.
* First-click as an early signal A cheap test that predicts task completion well.

## How Optimal Workshop capacity is assigned.

Structural research is assigned inside design capacity, sequenced before visual design so findings are cheap to act on.

## Service lines it sits in

* [UX/UI design](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/)

Capacity is agreed as a committed monthly capacity across a discipline, not per skill.

## Related in design and research

* [Storybook — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/storybook/)
* [Maze — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/maze/)
* [Hotjar — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/hotjar/)
* [usability testing — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/usability-testing/)
* [design systems — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/design-systems/)
* [design tokens — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/design-tokens/)
* [component libraries — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/component-libraries/)
* [Figma Dev Mode — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/figma-dev-mode/)

## Tell us what your roadmap needs Optimal Workshop for.

A service delivery manager replies with the disciplines we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.

[All skills we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/)