Workshops by Apps with love

In most projects, the first step in a collaboration is a workshop of one kind or another. Classically, this is called a project kickoff. However, in a kickoff meeting, we often do more than just clear up administrative matters. We dive straight into the subject matter. To do this, we use various methods and techniques that we also offer as standalone services.

Kickoff workshop

Once the groundwork for a joint project is in place and we’re ready to get started, we start the collaboration with a kickoff workshop.

The aim is to establish a shared understanding: we get to know each other, clarify expectations, and define communication rules, tools, and general conditions. We also sharpen the content, goals, and roadmap. The kickoff workshop is the first step in a joint project, and it is important to us that everyone involved is present. It’s about ensuring that from the very beginning, everyone knows who is who, what the project is about, and what the mutual expectations are - giving everyone a chance to "get a feel" for one another. After all, we will be working together quite intensively, at least for a while.

The agenda for a kickoff workshop covers topics such as vision and goals, roles and organization, target audiences and scope, as well as communication, planning, and next steps. Depending on your needs, specific points can be explored in more depth, added, or omitted.

Even if that sounds like a lot: thanks to our experience and a clear structure, the effort remains manageable. Typically, a kickoff lasts between one and two hours.
We believe it is essential that everyone involved has heard these topics discussed at least once. This is the only way to truly understand a project in its entirety.

If your plan is not yet concrete enough to jump straight into a project, a non-binding Discovery Workshop is a great place to start.

Discovery workshop: defining the "what" and "how" of your idea

When your idea is still in its infancy and not quite ready for a full-scale project, it’s time for a discovery mission: What are the plans? Which problems need solving? What is desirable? What is feasible? What do we already know about the end users, and what remains a mystery?

We’ll address these and many other questions together in the Discovery Workshop. We bring expertise from all the necessary disciplines, such as design and concept development, technology, user research and Marketing to develop concrete solutions and requirements for the future app or website from initial ideas, rough concepts and thoughts.

This workshop gets straight to the heart of your project idea and sets the stage for a successful digital product. We work together using a Human-Centered Design approach, ensuring from the very start that the product aligns with both your business goals and the underlying needs of your target audience.

The output of the workshop is a board containing all workshop deliverables, the contextual information developed for the project, and an overview of the jointly developed user requirements for the planned software. Depending on the scope of the planned project, this first workshop may be sufficient to then provide an estimate of potential costs and the timeline.

The main items on the agenda are:

• Understanding context – clarifying the starting point and framework conditions

• Approaches & Core functions – Outlining potential solutions and identifying priorities

• User Requirements Engineering – Derideriving, discussing, and documenting potential requirements

• Initial discussions on architecture and technology selection

• Defining workshop feedback, outstanding issues and next steps

How much detail we can go into for each program point during the workshop depends on the existing information and the complexity of the idea. Such a workshop usually lasts about half a day: we don't get very far with less, and longer is hardly efficient because the program is intensive and, after a few hours, heads start to spin. Additionally, of course, thorough preparation and follow-up are required.

Business-Model-Workshop

With many digital products, the question of the business model arises. Start-ups need figures for a pitch or business plan, whilst established companies need to be able to calculate budgets. Even the best workshop cannot predict the real willingness to pay or actual revenue – that requires market insights – but we can think and work in scenarios.

To do this, we first conduct a comprehensive review of potentially applicable monetization options and what their advantages and disadvantages are. On the expenditure side, we’ll discuss factors such as resource requirements, scalability and fixed costs.

And then we look at the customer journey and identify possible models. In doing so, we make assumptions and think through the respective best- and worst-case scenarios. This does not replace market experience, but it helps to get a sense of the potential scale and the necessary conditions: thinking in orders of magnitude.

A prerequisite for the workshop is a clear target group and a more or less defined product vision. The result of the workshop is at least a customer journey for the primary target group plus a dynamic excel file or google sheet that gives you the opportunity to further fine-tune the business model yourself. What may matter even more than the specific deliverables is a clearer view of the business model – which options are realistic, what they require, and what consequences they can have. This knowledge creates a solid foundation for decisions regarding the business model and shows which next steps make sense.

Make it fancy workshop

We usually use this format with a select group from the project team – sometimes entirely in-house. The question is: how does a product become not just good, but excellent – or simply "fancy".

In this session, experts from the fields of concepts, design, user experience, animation, and UX writing sit down with frontend developers to "take an app or website apart." We specifically look at the details that are often overlooked or that non-experts might not even think about, but which can make all the difference.

This includes, for example, micro-interactions involving buttons, icons, banners, empty states or loaders. We also look at advanced patterns like transitions, gestures, or all types of widgets. Likewise, we examine how push notifications or cookie banners appear and consider where small, surprising moments might work well within the interface.

Following the analysis, we identify what can be easily improved and what needs to be examined and specified in detail. In other words: what is low-hanging fruit and what belongs in the backlog.

If this sounds too technical or obsessed with detail, or if it all sounds like Greek to you: that’s why we often just run these workshops in-house. But it’s also the reason why the final product achieves that "with love" quality. 

If you can and want to join the conversation, or if you’d like us to "deconstruct" your product together: we’d be happy to do so!

Workshops on request

Our extended "standard workshop range" also includes:

• Brand & naming workshop: using creative methods to generate ideas for potential names and brand identities for a product or company

• Taking a step back: overcoming project challenges using the targeted methodology of root cause analysis 

• Short hackathon: jointly and creatively resolve technical issues and bugs in a focused session  

We develop custom software solutions tailored to the wishes and needs of end users and the requirements of our clients. Accordingly, we also design our workshops based on your specific requests and needs. Our staff possess a very wide range of knowledge, experience and hidden talents:

• 3D printing? Check ✅

• Hardware & electronics development? Check ✅

• Photography and image editing? Check ✅

The list could go on and on. In other words, if you’re looking for an exchange of experience, consulting, or are interested in a transfer of know-how, feel free to contact us anytime with your thoughts and questions. Sharing our knowledge is one of our core values, and we are happy to put together the right workshop program with you.