Why we start with a Tech Workshop at Devwiz
I have found myself recently talking in detail about our processes at Devwiz, in particular why we often recommend that before we do any kind of design or development, we start with a 1 to 1 tech workshop.
The short answer to this is that it's our desire to see our clients succeed. We are not here just to create a beautiful design or a functional piece of software, we are here to support our clients to ensure that when we do eventually start a build, we are working on the best version of the idea. No matter what the project is, in order to get to this best version, the clients needs to perform validation on their idea. In our experience, the best way to do this is by taking the client through our tried and true validation frameworks in a 1 to 1 format, i.e. our tech workshops.
It is our goal to ensure that, through these tech workshops, our clients fall into the 10% of startups that succeed by avoiding all the usual pitfalls. Like most situations, it's better to be proactive and lay great foundations for a project, rather than reacting when things don't go to plan.
What's part of a Devwiz Tech Workshop?
The Devwiz tech workshops are actually much more than just the work done on the day. Our team engages in various pre-workshop preparations to make the session as effective as possible. Then afterwards, when we have collected all the key information about your idea/project, we create a feasibility document that becomes the Software Development Plan.
We do have a few different tech workshops pertaining to the specific project and situation our founders are in but the general process is the same:
- We start with a specialised workshop questionnaire that enables us to collect the core information about the project and the market it's in.
- Using this information as a basis, we then do market research, analysing any key competitors, whilst starting to familiarise ourselves with the target user.
- From there we jump into the tech workshop, which no matter the product, will work on validating the idea and defining a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
- After the workshop, we then create user stories, which defines the proposed functionality of the software we are going to build.
- Finally we document all of the above, along with a feature by feature price breakdown, in our Software Development Plan.
The 3 Most Important Value Adds from our Idea Validation Tech Workshops
Conceptually, it's great to say that we are validating the idea or increasing a project's likelihood of success but I often get asked practically what a person gets out of the tech workshop.
Therefore I wanted to quickly outline the 3 key value adds as I see them:
1. The Software Development Plan – this is essentially just like having architecture drawings fro building a house. Each plan is accurate and detailed enough that it could be handed to any developer and they would understand exactly what they need to build.
2. The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – defining an MVP properly is actually much more work than it seems. First you have to highlight all possible features and then highlight which are the "must haves". These final features have to be lean enough that you can launch quickly and pivot if needed but substantial enough that they add enough value that users need to use the software.
3. The User Profile – understanding your customer is by far the most important goal fo any tech provider. This understanding forms the basis of the features you choose, the design and the launch strategy. When you know with certainty how to add value to your client, you end up delivering a product that your customers can't live without.
There are other benefits that will come out of these workshop from UI/UX insights to marketing strategy but the three above are those universal value adds that truly stack the odds in your favour.
Our 2 most Popular Tech Workshops
As a bit of a summary, our workshops tend to be targeting either an entrepreneur, who has a new idea for an app, or a business owner that either wants to launch a new product or create a new internal system to streamline their ops.
On the startup side of life, our most popular tech workshop is called "Build Your Idea" and includes:
- Market Research
- Customer Profiling
- Idea Validation
- MVP
- Feature by feature price breakdown
- High level marketing strategy for launch
- Software Development Plan Doc
If you're interested in booking this workshop, you can do so here.
Existing businesses tend to go for "Business Tech Strategy" workshop, which includes:
- Market Research
- Customer Profiling
- Idea Validation
- MVP
- Feature by feature price breakdown
- High level marketing strategy for launch
- Software Development Plan Doc
If you're interested in booking this workshop, you can do so here.
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