Nov 7, 2018, Consulting, Mobile, Web

Why Workshops Matter That Much

Gabriela Cendrzak Content Marketing Specialist
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You have the most brilliant idea. You have the support. You have the money. You even have the agency – you have chosen them carefully, having seen their portfolio so many times that you could draw their logo from memory. Your wife moved to the couch two weeks ago, complaining that in your sleep you mumble about someone who is agile (and you should probably tell her already that you don’t have a lover – or at least not in the sense she perceives it).

You are ready! What else is there for you to wait for? A few emails back and forth between you and the agency  and your beloved app child will be ready to be developed. Of course. There is only one problem – it won’t.

Imagine that you need a cake

You have your birthday coming soon. And you need a cake for you and your friends to enjoy. But not just any cake – it has to be truly special, delicious, tempting, done your way. So you call the bakery, tell them that it is supposed to be a birthday cake, that you like vanilla and strawberries, and you are sending them an email with photos of the cakes you find appealing. You wait for the results in excitement.

Time passes. The bakery calls you from time to time, asking about many things. You change your mind constantly, suddenly not so sure about your earlier decisions. That’s why when your birthday comes, the cake still isn’t ready. It is late in the evening when your special delivery finally arrives. You unpack your little miracle… and you are disappointed. Yes, it looks pretty yummy, but this is not what you expected.

You like vanilla and strawberries – you demanded so many times for the bakery to use both – but suddenly you realise that you don’t like them combined. Also, on the photo you found and sent to the bakery, you liked the look of tiny meringues all over the top of the pastry, but on your cake you don’t like it anymore. Plus, meringues are far more expensive than you thought! Finally, you just found out that you are allergic to a certain type of  sour cream that was used in your cake.

The cake is well made, that’s for sure. All of the ingredients are really top-notch. The bakers, the decorators, the entire team are true professionals. And the final impression would be so great, if only… if only they knew what you exactly wanted!

Creating an application is a complicated process which requires involvement of far more people than baking a cake. You don’t want the situation like the one mentioned above to happen. Every project, little or big, requires spending a couple of days on just planning itself.  And this is where the workshop steps in.

Communication is everything

As a product owner, you want it to be just the way you imagine it. Yet you have to remember – this beautiful picture exists only in your head.  You need a couple of deep conversations and brainstorming sessions with our team to make us understand it.

When you go to the workshop, you take all the ideas, notes, printed pictures and examples of products that you want to take the inspiration from. You have time to talk about your project – and we want to listen. We will ask you many questions to fully understand what you desire. We will analyze every single piece of content you brought with you. We will research competitive products that you would like us to take an inspiration from. Prepare to talk, talk and talk even more.

Dream team

During the workshops, you are treated very seriously. Designing an app has many aspects that have to be handled by professionals of every kind. That’s why you will meet the project manager, the UX/UI designers, the iOS and Android developers, also Front-end and Back-end experts, working with .NET or Python. Team members are fitted for your project and chosen accordingly to the technologies and type of expertise you need.

Speaking from our experience, the developers are also the valuable part of the UX team, as they know the best practical solutions. Our designers will prepare low-fidelity wireframes to visualise your ideas. Then also the high-fidelity ones in Sketch. As an output, you’ll get a clickable prototype made in InVision – a model of your application that you can see and test on your own smartphone.

Creative experience

Workshops are more than just a  meeting with your agency – it is an experience. You have – depending on your preferences – up to three days to tell us what you need. And we can assure you – those days will be very intense.  And it is not only us who will be using our creativity. You will take an active role in designing the product, as well. We will be asking for your feedback at every stage. At the end of the day you will be richer in experience and knowledge, probably really tired but really excited at the same time.

What do you receive?

Workshops are very valuable for us. Thanks to them, we get to know you as well as your idea, needs and expectations, so we can serve you better. Now we can start creating your app. And for all the things that you get…

  • Mutual understanding of needs and ideas

  • Experience of direct participation in developing your product

  • Knowledge about the process of making an application

  • More accurate estimate of the service

  • Functional feedback

  • Having your ideas verified immediately, and you are told how to implement them in most effective and efficient wayErrors are being corrected continuously

  • Time (you don’t waste it on waiting for feedback, big amendments caused by misunderstandings and developing ineffective concepts)

  • Mockups and wireframes

  • Sometimes the technical specification, as well

and last but not least,

  • New friends among our team and lots of pizza ?

Better safe than sorry

It is easier to invest your time and money at the very beginning so as a result, further development comes out much smoother. As you can see, thanks to our workshops we can serve you as an advisor and validate your idea not only from technical, but also business point of view.  It is the most effective way to begin our cooperation. And trust us – through this form of communication, developing your application will be a piece of (birthday) cake for both of us.

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