Step 4 - Hotspots

Questions or challenge can be captured using pink sticky notes. These are known as "hotspots." Whenever something arises that you cannot answer now, or that you know is a problem, capture it as a ping sticky note and place it on the board near the event that it relates to.

Hotspots are a good tool to time box discussions that seemingly have no end. After a few minutes of discussion a facilitator may ask participants to capture a question as a hotspot and move on. Conversations are valuable, but a conversation that goes on for 30 minutes without a resolution or decision doesn't help. The team will need to come back to questions in the hotspots after the workshop.

It's possible that a team may get started with writing and sequencing events and end up with more pink than orange sticky notes. This is a clear sign that the team has a lot more work to do before running a successful EventStorming session. Having more questions than answers could also be a sign that you need more domain experts in the room.