
Pip Decks®
About us


Hey, I’m Charles Burdett - Designer & Founder of Pip Decks.
I used to work as a user experience designer - I helped make stuff easy for you to use.
Like ATMs. You don’t need an instruction manual to know how to get cash out. You only need to think about how much money you need.
What makes it so easy? ATMs show you exactly what to do at the exact time you need to know - so you never need to learn how to use them.
This is good design. The sort of design I strived for. Invisible and frictionless.
But good design is not a solo effort. I didn’t sit in a corner creating designs on my own. I worked collaboratively with other people. And that’s hard!
And harder still, sometimes we had to bring voices from around the company together.
This meant having meetings. Countless boring meetings. Held hostage by someone droning on about something that could’ve been an email.
“When is this going to end?!” I’d scream inside my head. It was draining.
So when I had a chance to run one of these meetings, I wanted to make it fun and engaging.
I wasn’t going to take any hostages. I didn’t want people wishing my meeting would end!

But I had a secret up my sleeve.
In my previous job, I had a friend called Tom who ran amazing meetings. It was like being in a theatre production. Everyone had a part to play and it was seamless. Not only was it fun, but we got so much valuable work done too.
Tom made everyone feel valued. Even if we didn’t always agree. He knew that people just wanted to be heard, and he made that happen.
He taught me a secret: the secret power of workshop facilitation.
So instead of holding people hostage in a boring meeting, I ran “workshops”: engaging, fun, and highly productive sessions that actually got stuff done.
Then a funny thing started to happen after my workshops.
People kept asking me:
“How did you do that?”
“How do you know what kind of workshop to run?”
“Can you teach me?”
They could see how valuable a great workshop is. But they didn’t know how to do it themselves.

This was my lightbulb moment.
I put all the most useful and productive workshops into a deck of cards. I called it Workshop Tactics.
And channelling my UX design skills, I created a format and a system that removes all the guff and barriers, and gives you the essentials.
The clarity of Workshop Tactics gives you confidence. Confidence to engage your team when you work together. Knowing you won’t be holding people hostage (and no internal screaming either.)
Why is this important?
Because no one wants to run a bad meeting.
When your team is engaged, you’ll get a better end product, no matter what you are working on.
And anyone can run a great meeting. There is no more wondrous thing than getting into the flow and leaving people feeling empowered. It just takes having the right tools to hand, and the willingness to give it a go.

The crazy thing about Workshop Tactics
It’s now sold hundreds of thousands of copies all around the globe.
To consultants, managers, professors and doctors. Designers, engineers, managers and CEOs.
It’s trusted by folks at the BBC, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Stanford University, and Ogilvy. The list is endless. Read why our customers love us.
So what was a little side project has now grown. The Pip Decks library is expanding as we work expert operators in their field (like a world-renowned hostage negotiator) to bring you distilled, timeless knowledge that primes you for action.
Pick up a deck and let me know what you think. We’re always looking at how we can improve our products!
— Charles Burdett
Say Hi on LinkedIn.
When I’m not creating tools to help teams and entrepreneurs thrive, you’ll find me training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, watching Formula 1 (Go Lewis!) - or hiking through the Lake District with my wife and two boys. YNWA.
Trusted by teams at










Meet the team
Miklós FelvidékiIllustrator
David HillIllustrator
Anne BeckerIllustrator
Michael MacdonaldIllustrator
Steve RawlingAuthor of Storyteller Tactics
Dave CunninghamAuthor of Team Tactics
Joel SteinAuthor of Idea Tactics
Ben MosiorAuthor of Strategy Tactics
David HollAuthor of Strategy Tactics
Alex M H SmithAuthor of Brand Tactics
Tom KerwinAuthor of Innovation Tactics
Sue Williams QPMAuthor of Negotiation Tactics
Emily OkeloCustomer Success
Vivi CampbellHead of Operations
Victoria EvansFinance Partner
Jacob WelbyDirector of Marketing
Becky HeapyDirector
Charles BurdettCEO & Founder · Author of Workshop Tactics
PipHead Honcho
FrodgeFrog the size of a fridge
Blob???132 customers on camera
Hear it from our customers
You’re not paying for the cardboard, you’re paying for the genius that was stuffed into the box and believe me it’s worth every single penny and so much more.
Jessika Jake
Facilitator, BetterAndBetterer.comI have all this information in my head, but the Storyteller Tactics helped me frame it and able to frame it in an easy way…
Jordan Schroeder
Cyber Security ProfessionalIt is well worth the investment in terms of the time that you can save…
Don Carter
Transformational Executive Coach at doncarter.co LLCIt’s kind of like a book, but it’s framed in a way where you can use it much more effectively than a book…
Dane Sanders
VP of Employee Development and Performance, CEO of Men & Women Of DiscomfortI thought storytelling was more an art than a science.
Ruy C Aguilar
Tableau Evangelist, KeyrusIf you just make 1% improvement in whatever you’re focusing on, the cost is basically nothing.
Brandon Gould
TektronixI knew what story to tell in what moment and why and it led to the cleanest, fastest sales process I ever had with a new client.
Renee Ostertag
CEO Green Tree MindThings like this save you so much time.
Michael Crabb
Head of Computing Learning and Teaching, University of DundeeWe went off, we found this problem, we found this solution, this worked, this didn’t, remember this.
Christopher Eyre
Software Engineer, Prima ItI could come up with dozens of stories just from this card... So if you’re contemplating getting a Pip Deck, do it.
Beth Lambert
Founder, Fuzzy Face MediaIt gets to the point of the story and really helps you focus on telling a very impactful story.
Karen Tilstra
Educational Psychologist & Innovation ConsultantI was really worried that as an experienced presenter, would there be any new material…
Rob Stringer
Youth Coach Global
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