Inceptions

Inceptions
Starting a Software Project
Enrique Comba Riepenhausen

This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/inceptions
This version was published on 2013-03-22
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©2012 - 2013 Enrique Comba Riepenhausen

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Contents
Preface 1
Acknowledgments 2
Introduction 4
The Art of the Start 6

What is an Inception Workshop? . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Why an Inception Workshop? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Structuring an Inception Workshop 12

Choosing the Right Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Facilitating Inception Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Selecting Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Activities 25
Activity: Who is in the room? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Activity: The rules of the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Activity: Why are we here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Activity: Create an Elevator Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Activity: Design a Product Box . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Activity: Create a NOT List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
CONTENTS
Activity: Meet your Community . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Activity: What Keeps you Up at Night? . . . . . . . . 49
Activity: Show the Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Activity: What’s Going to Give? . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Activity: What’s Going to Take? . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Wrapping Up 72
Appendices 73
Appendix A: The User Persona . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Appendix B: The Design Persona . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Appendix C: Wireframing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Appendix D: Story Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Appendix E: Remote Inception Workshops . . . . . . 78
Bibliography 79
Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Articles & Blogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Preface
This book is a work in progress.
I am still in the process of writing the material found in this book.
Some of the chapters and sections are still very raw as I am trying
not to hold back the flow of writing (don’t worry, my reviewers
will make sure the final product has a much clearer language and
reading flow).
You will notice as I update the book that some parts will change
order, writing stile, etc. You can blame me for not getting it right
the first time or thank my reviewers for making an awesome job.
I am still writing every day. If you purchase the book, you are
entitled to free updates as I write them at no extra cost.
I started writing this book because, after running so many
Inception Workshops over the course of the last years, I feel that
I must share with others my findings and help them start their
software projects better.
By purchasing this ebook you are supporting my effort to create
a guide that will help you and others to start your next software
project with a clearer idea of what the project is all about and
why you should care about it.
I appreciate your feedback!
Any form of feedback is acceptable: a pint of beer in your local
pub when I am in town, a nice email, gentle or harsh criticism,
requesting more material, anything goes!
Thank you.
Enrique
1
Acknowledgments
Writing a book is an amazing experience. It is hard at times,
frustrating and other times you are in the zone and the text just
flows out of your fingers.
Without all the people that supported me while writing you
would not have seen this book today. Thank you!
First of all I want to thank the team at patheleven for reviewing
the book and giving me the first feedback. Also thanks to you
guys we have been running a lot of these and perfecting our
practices over time. Thanks for pushing me and the team day
in and day out!
Very special thanks go to aimee rivers and Spencer Turner for
helping me prepare the very first Inception Workshop I ever
facilitated.
Without the help of Sebastian Hermida you would be looking
at a pretty bland book with only text. I want to thank him for
taking the time of creating the cover artwork and the illustrations
in this book.
Adewale Oshineye and Dave Hoover for taking time in their
busy schedules to review the book and give me guidance. You
have influenced my path over the last few years and honoured
me with a great friendship. Thank you so much!
Aarron Walter for letting me use his Design Persona template in
a modified version and for writing the fabulous book Designing
for Emotion.
And last but not least to all of you who in some way have made
this book possible. Customers, colleagues and friends that I have
2
Acknowledgments 3
met worked with and interacted. You know who you are! Thanks
to all of you!
Introduction
When we talk about Software Craftsmanship we always talk
about techniques revolving around the act of software creation;
how to write clean code, how to test drive, etc. These technical
skills are essential and mandatory. If you want to make a living
out of crafting software you will have to practice these on a daily
basis.
A professional software craftsman has many tools under his belt.
Many are technical in nature, but many others are considered
soft skills. This book focuses on one such soft skill; The Inception
Workshop.
The Inception Workshop described in this book is a tool that will
help your team understand the nature of the project and create
insights that will help you provide the maximum value to your
customers.
The first part of the book will give you the common framework
and setup to run an Inception Workshop more efficiently.
The second part of the book is a collection of activities that
you can use while facilitating a workshop. The activities are
presented in the format suggested in Agile Retrospectives to
give the reader a sense of following a set of recipes. I have
included comments, exercises and some advices gathered from
my experiences facilitating numerous Inception Workshops over
the past years.
4
Introduction 5
Finally you will find, in the Appendices, further clarifications

and in depth explanations of some of the concepts described in
some of the activities. I did not want to include some of them in
the activities itself as it would break the flow of a recipe you can
follow.
This book is the first one of a series of books I am planning to
write: Software Craftsmanship: The Hidden Toolbox. The
aim of the series is to touch on practices and themes that are
usually left untouched in the literature and the agile and software
craftsmanship communities. Stay tuned!
Ready to explore the minds of your customers?
The Art of the Start
Starting a software project is exciting! We are hungry to get our
hands dirty and jump into creating some great software for our
customers.
6
What is an Inception Workshop?
The Inception Workshop is a way to understand at a deeper level

the idea, context and potential difficulties of a project at an early
stage. You can see it as your safety net before you commit to a
project.
It will help you to:
• Decide if you can¹ commit to the project.

• Know who the stakeholders are and who calls the shots.
• Scope the project in size and cost.
• Visualise the forces behind the project (community, com-
petitors, advocates).
• Plan the work that needs to be done in order to ship the
product.
• Understand the product through the eyes of the people
behind the idea.
• Better advise your customers on decisions concerning the
product during development.
An Inception Workshop is a very intensive two day workshop in

which you bring the customer and development team together
in order to learn the details of the product/project.
In some cases an Inception Workshop might be even longer, but
as a rule of thumb 2 days is a good starting point; you will have
to use your experience and judgement to decide if you want to
have a longer workshop.
¹or want to
This is actually a very important thing that most groups over-

look. An Inception Workshop works on the principle of The
More the Merrier. That is, you really want as many people from
the customer side as you can; including sales, human resources,
marketing, operations, in short anyone! If you can get customers
(aka users) of the product you’d be surprised how much great
information you can get from them. On your side it is also great
if you can get as many people as practically possible into the
room. This not only gives you the advantage of having a lot of
different input from different people, but also allows anyone to
actually be working on the project once you decide it is a good
fit between your team and your customers team.
The activities in an Inception Workshop focus on different as-
pects of the product, trying to see it from as many angles as
possible. There are activities that are very creative, some are
emotional² and others analytical. It will be hard at times and
you will be drained by the end of every day you incept.
All the assets that are generated during the Inception Workshop
will be invaluable during the course of the project. You will
be able to write User Stories with the personas you discovered
during the inception, or know exactly why a feature should be a
certain way and not another.
²I had the founder of a startup crying during one activity once.

Why an Inception Workshop?
There are many ways to start a project. Most people start doing a
Story Writing Workshop followed by a Release Planning Meeting.
Once they have done so they will reconvene at the moment of
starting the first iteration to do an Iteration Planning Meeting to
get started.
One of the problems with this ad hoc approach is that you have
to rely a lot on your intuition and making sure you asked the
right questions. I tend to be very forgetful, and I always regret
not having asked this or that question once the Story Writing
Workshop and the Release Planning Meeting are over.
The Inception Workshop has the advantage that, by following a
set of activities, you make sure you will understand the product
to the full and you will be less surprised during the course of the
project.
One of the most important aspects of a project is the acquisition
of knowledge by the team. More often than not this happens in
small doses and we have to steer quite a bit to get it right. This is
not a bad thing per se, but it would be much nicer if at least we
would understand the project at hand to a certain level before
we start.
The materials that you create during an Inception Workshop will
guide the whole project and should be present in the teams War
Room at all times. You have accumulated so much information
in the last two days that it will help you to make most of the
decisions in the future of the project.
An Inception Workshop as a Sales tool
Sometimes we are not sure if a project is a fit between the

prospect customer and our team. We have some conversations
to get a feel about each other, but other than that, the decision
to take on a project is a gamble.
With the common approach to sales you might end up with a
sour project and a broken relationship; you decided to work with
somebody too soon³.
The Inception Workshop gives you a chance to be working with
your prospect customer for two long and exhausting days. When
you are working that hard and close to your customers you will
see a lot of behaviours surfacing from the whole team that might
give you a clue as in how things might work if you really engage
in this project.
Once the Inception Workshop is over you and your prospective
customers have the chance to reflect on the last two days and
decide if you really are a good match and if you want to continue
working together for the rest of the project.
³Obviously sometimes there are other constraints like keeping a healthy cash-flow
in the company, but I am not going to go into these details in this book.
Bonding
Creating an homogeneous group between the business, your

customers, and a technical group is often nearly impossible. The
gap between these two groups tends to be huge and somehow
insurmountable.
When working together for a common goal, specially when it is
hard, people bond. This holds true for an Inception Workshop as
well. You and your customers have spent two or more really
intense days working together, you are exhausted. You have
accomplished really great things and you have shed some light
into the product idea. This will create a special bond between
your development team and the customer. They will understand
much better where everyone is coming from.
Innovation Breakthrough
Entrepreneurs think they have a clear idea of their business. This

is mostly true, but more often than not their idea is based on an
ideal. They have a dream on how something should be and will
be.
Some talk to a lot of people about their idea trying to validate
their assumptions and make sure they are on the right path.
During the Inception Workshop they are suddenly engaged with
a larger group of people that gives input, brainstorms ideas, kills
others. It is a workshop where even the entrepreneur with the
clearest idea in his head will discover that what he wants is not
necessarily what he needs.
Structuring an Inception
Workshop
An Inception Workshop is usually a two day long workshop in
which you want the full attention of the group to help them
discover as much about their idea as possible.
In order to make it possible for the group to work, you have to
be aware of all the factors that will influence the workshop’s
outcome. You want the group to be able to concentrate, be
creative, spew ideas and in general have a productive time
together.
Where are you going to incept? How much time are you going
to spend on the different activities? Which activities are better
suited for what? This chapter will answer these questions.
12
Choosing the Right Environment
It’s surprising how many books on facilitation take seating and

room selection as something that everyone is proficient about.
As if we had a natural gift to know exactly how the room
should be set up in order to be the most productive in a highly
participative workshop.
Ready to become an interior designer?
Size matters
While preparing the Inception Workshop make sure you find

a room large enough to accommodate the whole team without
crowding.
There are some things you have to consider when selecting a
room though; the outcome will be quite different depending on
your choices.
Lighting
If the room has no natural light it will usually tire the group more
quickly. You possibly have experienced that if you have gone to
the cinema in the afternoon. You watch a movie for two hours
in the dark and when you come out to the sun you feel displaced
(your body was already adapting for night time).
When there is no natural light your body will send signals to
slow you down slowly and get ready to sleep. You need to avoid
that when you want everyones attention in the workshop.
Having windows and natural light is a great start, but if the view
is good (a park or lake for example) the better!
Ceiling Height
The height of the ceiling influences the groups creativity big

time!
When you have a room with a low ceiling you will be able to
concentrate better. It is great for your home office or for getting
things done.
A high ceiling helps thinking in more abstract terms which
fosters your creativity. As noted in a study by Meyers-Levy:
“It very much depends on what kind of task you are doingâ€¦ if
you’re in the operating room, maybe a low ceiling is better. You
want the surgeon getting the details right. [â€¦] We think you can
get this effects just by manipulating the perception of space”
You will have to make sure that you find a room with high
ceilings if you want to boost your groups creativity.
The use of the walls
During the inception you are going to generate a lot of material.

It is important that you keep the generated insights at sight.
The obvious candidate for this are the walls in the room. You
are looking forward to let the people working in the inception to
be inside their own inception with all the ideas floating around
them.
You can also use moveable walls if the room offers them. The
important thing here is that the information is visible and that

the group is right in the middle of it.
Walking and Standing
Just as a final observation on room space. Some people need

to move to think; the best of their ideas come from when their
bodies are in movement. It is good that you keep that in mind
when selecting and preparing a room for an Inception.
Seating
The way we sit, stand, kneel or squat affects how we feel and
how we interact during a workshop. The way you arrange the
seating in a room carries coded messages about the intra-group
relationships. They influence our attitude towards the group and
the whole workshop⁴
One important factor is that the group can have eye contact with
each other when listening to the facilitator. This will mostly
avoid quiet conversations between the participants and results in
shorter more interactive conversations. Another benefit is that
naturally quiet people will feel more compelled to speak and they
will usually do so.
There are a few seating setups that I recommend which I will
explain below.
⁴Depending on the seating disposition the group will be put in a disciplined, chaotic,
formal, informal, centralised, decentralised, hierarchic, egalitarian, exposed, private,
threatening or non-threatening position.
Half Circles and Us
The projector wall and the facilitator is visible to all and in a

position of control.
If you are facilitating with a projector this is the preferred seating
arrangement for presenting the activities to the group. You are
sending a clear message to the group that they have to pay
attention to what you are saying at this moment.
Circles and open clams
Sitting in a circle is widely adopted as a democratic and partici-

patory way of sitting.
At the same time this way of sitting arrangement can be intim-
idating, specially when the group is big. Shy people can feel
exposed. Even though the symmetry of this sitting arrangement
is obvious the facilitator can still dominate over the group.
If you are concerned about the sense of exposure a circle can give
you can try out an open clam, with two arcs of chairs facing each
other. This way no seat can command as much attention as in
a closed circle. There is also another advantage of this way of
sitting as it leaves two clear exits from the circle and it gives a
slightly less sense of exposure.
This is a brilliant seating disposition to have group conversations
where it is important that everyone participates.
Buzzing Clusters
When the group has to form paris for the activities presented in
this book it is recommendable for them to buzz in clusters.
This can be achieved by turning the chairs around (when you
had a half circle, U, circle or open clam) and create little clusters
that are separated from each other.
Tables and Desks
I don’t advise making tables or desks the main element in

the room. A boardroom table creates a barrier between the
participants making participation more difficult.
You will need some tables though. I use two tables usually for
an Inception Workshop, but I keep them against a wall and only
to organise the materials we will need during the workshop. I
keep stacks of post-it notes, index cards, A4 paper (in different
colours) and all sorts of other things that will be of use during
the inception.
You will also have to have space on the tables to have water,
glasses and any other food supplies to nibble. I recommend
offering the healthy kind of food as high sugar foods will make
the participants sleepy. Also don’t forget to have a good amount
of coffee, specially after the lunch break!
Place the tables in a secondary space of the room (at the back of
the room works best), but not to far away from the information
that you will be hanging on the wall over the course of the
Inception Workshop. You want people, when taking a little rest,
to have the findings at sight. It might lead them into interesting
conversations with their peers.
Facilitating Inception Workshop
The Facilitator Role
The Inception Workshop needs a good facilitator to keep mo-

mentum, help the group generate insights and make the whole
workshop flow.
If you are not careful you will end up with moments where the
group will be stuck and you will feel like you aren’t moving
anywhere.
As a facilitator you hold the key to the process, but not the
outcome. You have to make sure that you don’t spill your
preconceptions and worldview into the minds of the group and
therefore prime their thoughts (you’d be surprised how easily
this can happen).
You should always bear in mind that you are just channeling the
groups energy throughout the Inception Workshop. You are not
a participant in the workshop, only a guide in the groups journey.
It is important that you keep an eye on the timing of the activities.
You are there to help the group when they are working on an
activity and also controlling the time you have set up for each
activity.
Overseeing Group Dynamics
When facilitating an Inception Workshop you have to make sure

that ideas flow and that everyone gets a chance to speak up and
share their thoughts.
Some people are quiet and more reflective and others speak out
their thoughts with ease. You have to keep an eye on those
group members that speak to much as they might be hijacking
the activities and not giving the more silent members a chance
to share their ideas.
If you notice that someone wanted to speak but was cut off make
a mental note and wait till the person currently speaking finishes.
Once the speaker has finished his train of though make sure you
ask the person who was cut off if she has something to say.
You don’t want to create an antagonistic atmosphere during
an Inception Workshop. Make sure that when someone is
constantly cutting off people or talking to much you address this
in private with that person on a break.
When the group includes founders or managers of a company
make sure that you create a safe space for the employees in the
workshop. Make sure you talk to them before you start the
Inception Workshop and let them know that they should hold
their horses a little and let their employees share their thoughts
with the team. Sometimes it is good to agree to a subtle sign that
you can give them when it is ok to talk (so that they are not the
first ones to speak up when brainstorming for example).
Guiding Activities
Make sure that you introduce each activity with a clear voice and
positive energy. You want the group to be excited and energised
about the next activity about to start.
When you explain the rules of an activity don’t rush the group
to start. Give them some time to assimilate what they just heard
and make sure they can ask you clarifying questions in case they
haven’t understood the task at hand.
Sometimes some participants will not understand the point of
the activity and challenge you as in why they should be doing
it. They will argue that they could be doing something else;
something, in their eyes, more productive. In this cases you have
to try to make them see that the Inception Workshop is a process
by which you will be discovering all the nuances of the project.
Each activity is targeted to discover some key elements from the
project idea.
The more angles you look at the more you will understand the
project and the group will be able to give better advice and create
a better product in the long run. Understanding the context and
details of the project and it’s main idea is key.
Controlling Time
One of the big challenges when working on the activities in an

Inception Workshop is to make sure that the group keeps the
time. This doesn’t mean you should be looking frantically at the
watch all the time heckling people into going faster though.
When you work on the activities you should always announce
how much time they have to complete the task at hand and make
sure they see you turning on the timer as you do (make a little
ceremony out of it).
I find a common kitchen timer to be excellent, it has a ticking
sound that gives some sense of urgency (although it might not
be heard in some activities as the group is engaging in some lively
conversations). You can also use some more visual timers as the
ones you can find for an iPad for example (I am using the iPad as
an example as you can easily turn the timer towards the group
for them to see the time ticking.
Selecting Activities
An Inception Workshop usually follows the same order of activ-

ities. You can change the order of some of them, although I don’t
really advise it. The order of the activities has a purpose.
The order presented will engage the creative thinking of the
group early. This is important as you want them to start being
creative as soon as possible. We want this to happen as we need a
good deal of creativity to come up with solutions for the problem
at hand in later activities.
Here is how it might work for a common two day Inception
Workshop:
Day One
Who is in the room? 30 minutes
The Rules of the Game 30 minutes
Why are we here? 15 minutes
Create an Elevator Pitch 20 minutes
Create a Product Box 1 hour
Create a Not list 40 minutes
Meet your Community 1 hour
What keeps you awake at night 2 hours
Day Two
Show the solution 4 hours
What’s going to give 1 hour
What’s going to take 1 hour
Wrap up 15 minutes
The times here are just an approximation and depend largely on

the group size. You also need to consider that all the exercises
create discussion in which you will discover more about the
product and your schedule will slip slightly as you go.

Make sure you take time for breaks when there is a logical
stopping point or the energy levels of the participants will
drop considerably. You want creativity to be flowing and it is
important that everyone is well rested.
The only activities that I would advise to change are “Who is in
the room?”, “The Rules of the Game” and “Why are we here?”.
Sometimes you will want to let the main stakeholders to explain
first why we are in this Inception Workshop and what this is all
about. You will find the best way that suits you.
Activities
The activities described in this chapter will help you to facilitate
a successful Inception Workshop.
I do encourage you to experiment a little with the activities so
that you get used to them. During the workshop it is important
that the flow is not interrupted because you do not know exactly
how to explain an activity to the group.
Some of the activities are optional; as you saw in “Selecting
Activities” in the previous chapter.
I have separated these optional activities, that are purely meant
for a business or startup, into their own chapter as they are less
common in most cases.
Inceptions are a wonderful tool that can be used to start almost
any endeavour⁵.
⁵In fact we did a 3 day long Inception Workshop before we set up our company,
patheleven, back in 2011.
25
Activities 26
Activity: Who is in the room?
You are going to spend the next couple of days locked up in

a room conducting an Inception Workshop together, maybe it
would be a good idea to get to know each other.
Purpose
Get to know everyone who is participating in the Inception

Workshop.
Time Needed
Ten to thirty minutes, depending on the size of the group.
Description
Form pairs of people who have never worked together. Each pair
has five minutes to interview the other person.
Activities 27
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “Before we start it would be a great

idea to get to know each other”. Then explain the process
(see the description earlier).
2. Let them form pairs. Once the pairs have been formed and
are sitting together hand each pair a pen and two index
cards.
3. Describe the process: Each interviewer has to write the
following about the person he is interviewing
• Name
• How to contact
• Likes
• Dislikes
• Draw a picture
4. Start the timer and let the interviewing begin. You should
make sure that you pay attention to the interviewing
process to see if someone is stuck so that you can help
them out.
5. Once the interviewing is done ask each pair to present the
person he interviewed to the group by standing in front of
the group.
6. Post all the interviews on the wall so that they are visible
to the group during the course of the Inception (you might
want to look again now and then to learn something from
the people you are working with).
Materials and Preparation
Index cards and pens.

Activities 28
Observations
Conducting the interviews at the beginning of the Inception

Workshop makes sure that you know everyone in the room
before you start working together.
Knowing their likes and dislikes also gives you the opportunity to
understand them better. During future conversations or during
the activities to come you can make use of the information
you gathered in the Who is in the Room Activity to be able to
accommodate for everyone. Make sure you make a mental note
about their dislikes, it will give you a clue of how to talk to that
person.
Drawing the person you are interviewing helps to slowly let the
right side of the brain to activate. We will need a lot of creativity
in the following activities!
Try it out!
Try interviewing a friend or colleague using
this technique. Who knows, maybe you
find out something you did not know about
them!
.
Activities 29
Activity: The rules of the Game
Working together as a group in a workshop is not an easy

task. Different people react differently to situations and express
themselves in different ways. Some are more silent and others
more outgoing.
When starting an Inception Workshop it is a good idea to set up
some time to decide the engagement rules you are going to apply
during the workshop so that you have a common ground to work
more effectively during the activities.
Purpose
Create a set of behaviours that will support the team in having

a productive Inception Workshop. Make sure that every team
member understands them. Everyone is responsible of monitor-
ing the interactions of the team making sure that the rules are
applied and kept.
Activities 30
Time Needed
Ten to thirty minutes, depending on the size of the team.
Description
The team will work together to generate a set of rules for having
an effective workshop. From the rules generated five to ten
should be chosen (we don’t want to have to many rules, do we).
It is important that everyone agrees to the rules set by the team.
You can use different techniques for this.
The simplest voting would be to ask if everyone agrees to this
rule. If someone is opposed to the rule let them explain why. If
he can convince the group the rule is discarded.
You can also use dot voting if you prefer, but I would try not to
spend to much time on this activity as the group has a long day
ahead of them and you don’t want to get bogged down this early.
Activities 31
Steps
Once everyone has presented themselves the group will again

split up in pairs (or little groups; no more than four) to develop
candidate rules.
1. Introduce the activity: “We are going to define a set of

rules that will help us to work better during this couple
of days. It will be each team member’s responsibility to
ensure that the rules we agree on are kept. The purpose of
these rules is to help us work together more effectively”.
2. Form pairs or small groups.
3. Ask each pair to develop three to five rules that if followed
by the group would help the team to have a productive
workshop.
4. Once every pair has finished writing down the rules ask
them to report their most important rule to the group. The
group then will discuss the validity of the rule and write
it on a flip chart page if they consider it to be a good rule
to follow. Continue until you have discussed all the rules
and have a working set of rules on the flip chart page.
5. Explain that for the duration of the Inception Workshop
everyone should be looking out for the rules and don’t let
anyone break them.
6. Post the rules on a visible space that everyone can see at all
times. It is good to have them visible as you might want
to point to the rules when someone is infringing them.
Flip chart, markers and index cards.

Activities 32
Observations
When letting the group create their own set of rules they will
feel more comfortable following them.
Don’t forget to remind them that maybe it is a good idea to set
up some rules for breaks.
Sample rules
I usually give these rules as examples so that
the group I am
working with has a good starting point and
idea what we are looking for:
• No phone calls (all phones on silent)
• Breaks every X minutes
• No interrupting when someone is
talking
• No monologues (some people talk re-
ally for a long time)
.
Activities 33
Activity: Why are we here?
Before you start dwelling into the creative activities of the Incep-
tion Workshop you should give your customers the opportunity
to tell the group why they are all there and what the project is
all about.
Purpose
Give everyone an overview of the product/project they are about

to start.
Time Needed
Depending on the customer and how much he likes talking about

his idea (which is usually a lot!), but limit it to a maximum of
fifteen minutes.
Activities 34
Description
The customer team will explain to the group what their idea is
and what they are aiming for.
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “Jim is now going to let us know

what his product is all about. We are not expecting the full
detail, but a little introduction that will help us get going
with the rest of the activities, so Jim, be brief please.”.
A customer! ;)
Observations
Sometimes it is good to add a Questions & Answers session right

after the customer has told the group about the idea to clarify
anything that you did not understand. You can obviously do
this while they are presenting, but that will depend on them⁶.
⁶Some people take issue when interrupted or loose their train of thought when
someone interrupts them while they are talking in front of a group. Make sure to clarify
beforehand if it is OK to interrupt while they are talking or if it would be better if you
ask the questions after the introduction.
Activities 35
Activity: Create an Elevator Pitch
When trying to get your idea across to others you have to be

able to state what you are talking about in a concise way and to
the point. People loose interest in your idea very quickly if they
don’t know who you are or what you are talking about.
A good elevator pitch tells people what your idea is, who it is for,
and what makes it special.
Purpose
The idea of creating an elevator pitch is to train you to figure out

the essence of your product idea. What’s the key benefit of your
product?
Time Needed
About twenty minutes

Activities 36
Description
The team will work in pairs to create a pitch that they will present
to the team.
You can use the following template as a starting point.
Elevator Pitch Template

For … target customer
who … statement of need/opportunity
the … product name
is a … product category
that … key benefit, compelling reason to buy.
Unlike … primary competitive alternative
our product … statement of primary differentiation.
.
Activities 37
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “The next (first) thing we are going

to do is create an elevator pitch of your product. We want
to concentrate on the key benefit of your product and make
a killer statement that we could use to explain our product
to anyone that asks.”
2. Show them the sample template for an elevator pitch:
“This template might help you keep going. You don’t need
to follow it verbatim, but it might be a good idea to start
that way”.
3. For pairs or groups (no more than 4) and let them work on
the pitch.
4. Once every group has finished writing their pitch let them
present it in front of the group.
5. Discuss the strong and weak points of every pitch once
they have all been presented.
6. Select a pitch to be the one that you want to use for the
product.
Variations
Once you have discussed all the pitches presented by the group
you can try to work on one pitch collaboratively creating a
pitch that contains all the good parts of the pitches presented
previously.
Pens and paper.

Activities 38
Observations
When presenting your pitch be succinct, an adult’s attention

span is eight seconds⁷. Make sure you give just enough infor-
mation so that after hearing a sentence or two someone knows
what you need and is sufficiently engaged to want to hear more
about it.
Hook them! The main idea of your pitch should be to get the
people you are talking to wanting to listen to you for the next
minute more intently⁸ than they would have otherwise.
Be clear. Use language that everyone understands. Avoid using
technical terms of fancy wording (which might make you sound
smarter). You will only disengage your listeners as they will not
understand you.
Tell a story. The best pitches puts the listeners right into the
centre of a story they relate to. If you get this one right you will
hook them up for sure.
⁷http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_span
⁸http://readwrite.com/2010/01/11/how-to-ride-elevator-pitch-new-heights
Activities 39
Activity: Design a Product Box
Imagine you could buy your product or startup in a supermarket.

What would attract the customers to grab it between a myriad
of other products in the shelves? How would it convince them
to buy yours and not an other box?
Purpose
This activity will highlight the benefits of your idea.
Time Needed
Twenty to sixty minutes.

Activities 40
Description
Design a product box in which you come up with a name of your

product, a snappy slogan and the main benefits of the product.
Try not to focus to much on the features you are offering, but on
the benefits of using your product or service.
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “We are now going to design a

product box. Imagine your product or service was at
display in a supermarket. What would attract people to
buy it? The aim is to turn every feature you offer into a
benefit.”
2. Let the team form pairs (or groups of no more than 4) and
hand them the product box template⁹.
3. Once everyone has finished their product boxes let them
present them to the team.
4. After every group has presented their box have a discus-
sion about the findings.
Paper (or better the product box template¹⁰), pens, colour sharpies,
coloured paper, scissors, glue, etc. Basically anything that could
be used to get your creativity going.
⁹http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21727846/SoftwareCraftsmanshipTheHiddenToolbox/
Inceptions/product-box.pdf
¹⁰http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21727846/SoftwareCraftsmanshipTheHiddenToolbox/
Inceptions/product-box.pdf
Activities 41
Observations
This is one of the more creative activities in an Inception Work-

shop. You will have to make sure that you have all the materials
needed accessible and visible to the team. You want them to be
focusing on the task and not having to ask for things.
Sometimes it might be interesting to have a printer at hand as
some of the pairs might want to print out media from the internet
to cut it out and glue it on the box.
I sometimes explain to the groups the different styles of product
boxes you can find. The most obvious differences are an Apple
iPad or iPhone box as opposed to the box from a competing
company.
Tales from the trenches:

During the presentation of a product box during an
Inception Workshop a group chose to role-play two
friends “finding” the box in a supermarket and com-
menting how cool that new product looked and how
they would buy more than one for family and friends.
.
Activities 42
Activity: Create a NOT List
When we define a product we always fall back into saying what

the product is all about. It’s easy to do because we have spent a
lot of time thinking about it.
Purpose
Figure out which things are out of scope for the project we are
about to embark. This will help limiting the scope of what we
want to do, helping us to concentrate on what’s really essential.
Time Needed
Twenty to forty minutes.

Activities 43
Description
What is in scope? What is out of scope? We want to focus our

brainstorming around the things that are out of scope in terms
of the product we want to build.
Out of Scope examples

Cheap, low quality, difficult to use
.
Steps
1. Introduce the activity by pointing to the flip charts: “We

are now going to focus on what is out of scope for this
project. The goal is to brainstorm as many ideas as we can
and stick them to either the ‘Out of Scope’ or ‘In Scope’
flip charts. When you come up with something go to
the corresponding flip chart and announce what you are
sticking to it”.
2. Give each participant a stack of post-it notes and a pen.
3. Once the energy get’s lower (i.e. the group starts posting
less and less ideas) ask them if that is all. Give them about
two minutes to wrap up.
4. Discuss the findings. What do they mean in the context
of the product? How will they dictate the direction of the
project?
Activities 44
Flip chart paper, pens and post-it notes.

Set up 2 flip charts (the flip chart paper stuck to the wall should
be sufficient) before you start. Name one of them (with a big felt
pen) Out of Scope and the other In Scope and makes sure they
are accessible and visible by the group.
Observations
I find it easier to come up with something that I would consider

out of scope as an example and stick it to the “Out of Scope” flip
chart first so that the group can get the gist of the idea. It also
helps them to unblock and participate.
You will notice that most people will try to come up with things
that are in scope. It is natural. Try to remind them that they
should concentrate on the things that are out of scope.
When the energy levels get lower I tend to count to 30 in my
head from the moment the last idea was posted to a flip chart
before I announce that they have only two minutes left.
Another good thing to do when the energy starts to fade away is
to ask the group to come forward (if they aren’t already standing
in front of the flip charts; which they will be) and read the items
that are already there.
Activities 45
Activity: Meet your Community
Your product or business idea seldom lives in a vacuum. People

are going to interact with you at many levels. Figuring out who
these people really are and how they can influence your product
can help you shape a great product.
Purpose
The people around your product are the lifeblood of your prod-
uct. By recognising who they are you can make more educated
guesses in how to shape your idea. You have to think about user
personas as a way of doing user research. It will help you to be
aware of your target audience and focus on their needs as well
as your competition.
Time Needed
Thirty to sixty minutes.

Activities 46
Description
In this exercise we want to create user persona documents¹¹

to describe the characteristics of a person somehow related to
your product or service and the implications these have on your
product. Some sample communities around your product could
be Customers, Suppliers, Competitors, Advocates.
¹¹You can read more about how to create a user persona document in Appendix A:
The User Persona
Activities 47
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “Knowing the community that

revolves around your product helps you to figure out their
needs and desires. We are going to try to identify your
community and flesh out some of the stereotypes creating
user persona documents for them”
hand them the user persona document template¹².
3. Let them know they have about 10 minutes to create their
first user persona.
4. Once every group has finished fleshing out their user
persona let them present it in front of the group.
5. Ask the group if these represent the community there
is around their product. If not let them change pairs
and create another user persona. Repeat till everyone
is satisfied that they have covered all the angles of the
community around the product.
6. Discuss the findings and what they will mean for the
product.
Paper (or better yet, the user persona document template¹³) and
pens.
¹²http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21727846/SoftwareCraftsmanshipTheHiddenToolbox/
Inceptions/persona.pdf
¹³http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21727846/SoftwareCraftsmanshipTheHiddenToolbox/
Inceptions/persona.pdf
Activities 48
Observations
Later, while you are developing the product, the persona docu-
ments will help you to create better solutions. By understanding
the audience of the product you will address their needs better.
They will help you implement your Features/User Stories much
more targeted, as you will be developing them with a person in
mind you can relate to (albeit a fictitious one). It is quite different
to develop a story for a User than to develop it for Mary.
Sometimes you will encounter customers that don’t feel like they
want to do this, they might be even allergic to doing so.

In one particular Inception Workshop we held in Lon-
don one of our customers was really opposed to doing
this activity; he was really upset about the idea.
I was curious and tried to tease out the why of his
aversion for this activity. He got even more upset. So I
fell back to telling him that maybe we can just name
some stereotypes that will interact with his business
which he gladly accepted to do.
I learned a valuable lesson: Try to get your prospect
customer upset at some point in the Inception Work-
shop! If he regains control, and is able to continue with
the activities, you know that he will behave rationally
with disagreements during the course of the project.
.
Activities 49
Activity: What Keeps you Up at Night?
Talking about your fears can make them less scary.
Purpose
Find ways to avoid or mitigate project risks and fears.
Time Needed
Thirty minutes to two hours (or more!).
Description
In this activity we want to let all the fears and concerns we have
out. Once we have shared all our fears we can find ways to avoid
them or at least to mitigate their risks.
Activities 50
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “Sometimes talking about our fears

makes them less scary. In this activity we want to find
out what keeps us awake at night, what we fear or dread.
Don’t be afraid to share even personal fears that might
affect the project. The important thing is that we discover
them and find together a solution or a way to remedy
them. They can range from technical problems, the setup
of the team, the idea, anything counts!”
2. Give each person a stack of post-it notes and a pen. We are
looking to brainstorm fears and stick them to the flip chart
to share them with the group (and for later discussion).
3. Once no one is sticking any fears on the flip chart (or the
time is over) introduce the next part of this activity: “Now
that we have shared our fears we are going to cluster them
together. Look for fears that seem to be related. There is
one caveat though, you have to do it in silence; no one is
allowed to talk or signal anyone.”
4. Now that you have the clusters and everyone is looking at
them tell them to name those clusters.
5. With the names on the clusters give each member a set
of sticky dots (I recommend to use one or two less than
the number of clusters you have) and introduce the voting:
“Now that we have clustered our fears and given each
cluster a name we are going to cast votes on them. This
will give us the order in which we are going to discuss the
fears”.
6. This is when the hard part begins. From the most voted
cluster to the less voted start talking about each one of the
fears listed in the cluster. Let each member of the group
Activities 51
explain the item he wrote and then let the group find a
solution or a way to mitigate it.
7. This activity is usually the last one of the first day. Make
sure to debrief it giving a general overview of what the
group has done during the day. Send them home with a
message of hope; tomorrow you are going to start looking
into the solution and shape the product!
Flip chart paper, post-it notes and sticky dots.
Observations
This is possibly one of the hardest parts of an Inception Work-

shop. Depending on the group there will be a cloud of gloom
hanging over them after this activity. They will see only the
problems and concerns and will doubt about the whole idea of
this project.
It is fundamental if this activity is the last one you’ll do in the
first day (like I do in the Inception Workshops I run) that you do
a proper debriefing exercise. What you are looking for is to give
the group an overview of the accomplishments that they have
done during the day.
Tell them something about the Elevator Pitch and the Product
Box and how this helped you to reduce the product to it’s core to
understand the benefit it has and why customers to the product
should care. You have found out what things are important in
the scope of this project by knowing what is not building a NOT
Activities 52
List when you figured what is in scope and out of scope. You
have found out the communities that have an influence to your
product when you met your community. And finally you have
been talking about the risks and fears and have found ways to
mitigate those and found solutions that you can apply if some of
them happen.
Sometimes though there might be fears or concerns that have no
real solution. This is a rare case, but if you have a situation where
the group decides that there is no way to continue pursuing this
project unless those unresolved items get sorted out you will
have reached the end of your Inception Workshop.
There might be a way to get past these hurdles though, so don’t
give up on the project that easily. Offer support and help! You
might even set a date to resolve the pending issues before you
continue.
The good news is that you only lost one day of you and your
customers time!
Activities 53

During one Inception Workshop I did at a startup the
founder broke up in tears. She was afraid that they
would not be able to secure business. She dreaded the
day she’d have to take the decision to let her people go.
The whole group actually ended up in tears. The good
news though was that when we started the next day
everyone was even more committed to the project than
ever before!
.
Activities 54
Activity: Show the Solution
This activity is split into multiple different activities that have the
same aim. It is time that you start thinking about the product in
terms of a real application.
The next set of activities will help you to flesh out some of the
details of the product without going into an excessive level of
detail. It should help the group to get a better feel of the product
in terms of developing it in the near future.
Again some of these activities are totally optional and depend on
the grade of detail you want to achieve.
In Give your App some Personality we are treating the product
as if it was a real person to grasp it’s essence. This is a great tool
for when you are designing for emotion, but in some cases you
might not want go into this level of detail.
In Let’s make it flow we are going to find out how our application
flows from the first contact a person using the application makes
till the moment we provide real value (or cash in some money).
In Wireframing you are going to work on some really early
mockup ideas of some of the possible screens that your appli-
cation might have. You are not looking to create a high fidelity
representation of your application, but just to create an overview
of some of the key elements of the product.
In Story Mapping you will create a set of User Stories and weave
them into a coherent story; a natural flow for their occurrence.
This will help you to visualise the functionality that lies ahead
of you and how it relates to one another. It will also help you to
create a Release Plan before the project begins.
Activities 55
Activity: Give your App some Personality
In Meet your Community we learned that using user persona

documents we can have a clearer idea of the people that will
interact with our application. It helps us to create a relationship
with our products audience.
We now know who our audience is, but who are we?
Purpose
Fleshing out the personality of the application by creating a de-

sign persona will guide our visual design, copy and interactions
of your application once we develop it. It will help setting the
mood of your application.
Time Needed

Activities 56
Description
In this exercise we want to create a design persona document¹⁴

to describe the characteristics of our application.
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “If our application was a person,

who would it be? Giving our application some personality
will help us understand how the application will react. Is
it like Batman’s butler Alfred Pennyworth? Or rather like
your buddy, cracking jokes and making the most boring
tasks funny?”
hand them the design persona document template¹⁵.
design persona.
4. Once every group has finished fleshing out their design
persona let them present it in front of the group.
5. Ask the group if the design persona presented reflects how
the application should be and why. Make a list of the traits
you like.
6. Once everyone has presented their take on the design
persona and the group has discussed it, it is time to create
one design persona collaboratively (the one that really
represents the application).
¹⁴You can read more about how to create a design persona document in Appendix
B: The Design Persona
¹⁵http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21727846/SoftwareCraftsmanshipTheHiddenToolbox/
Inceptions/design-persona.pdf
Activities 57
Paper (or better yet, the design persona document template¹⁶) and
pens.
¹⁶http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21727846/SoftwareCraftsmanshipTheHiddenToolbox/
Inceptions/design-persona.pdf
Activities 58
Activity: Let’s make it flow
After having spend a lot of time talking about everything that

revolves around our product and setting the stage of what we
are actually trying to build it is time to see how the application
flows.
Purpose
Discover the flow of the application to discover the way we can
create value from our customers (or cash in money).
Time Needed
Description
During this activity we want to create some very high level
diagrams that show the application flow. How the users will
interact with it (in terms of how they will be guided through the
application and not how the screens will look like).
Activities 59
We are interested in the high level logical components that make

up the application and how these interact with each other at this
point.
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “Now that we have seen a lot of

your product from a very high and creative level let’s start
narrowing our focus down into more and more detail. We
are going to create together a flow for the application”.
2. Let someone from the group start by drawing how they
think the application flows from one architectural element
to the other; focusing on the value proposition (features)
of the application.
3. Once the flow is drawn let the group discuss it. Can it be
simplified? Is there a different way to do this?
4. Iterate over the flow till the whole group is satisfied with
the results.
White board and white board markers.
Observations
This activity is a little more technical in nature. You have to be

careful not to dwell to much into the details though (at this point
you are not interested on the kind of database you are going to
use or similar technological decisions).
Activities 60
It is best if you let someone technical stand in front of the group

drawing the flow diagrams, but make sure that this person is not
a person from the development team unless necessary.
Looking at the application flow from the perspective of a busi-
ness person is very enlightening and might give you some
insights you did not have or expect.

During a recent Inception Workshop one of the most
experienced team members from the customers team
stepped forward to explain how he thought the flow of
the application should be.
During the discussions that resulted from there the team
was able to reduce nearly the whole backend of the
application by declaring that this should be done by
them manually till they validated their business with
real customers.
They had been thinking about their application for a
long time and never considered that they could reduce
the application to a really slim Minimum Viable Product
that would allow them to find customers and get their
business of the ground.
.
Activities 61
Activity: Wireframing
Now we have a clearer idea what the product is all about and we
have understood the different elements that make it up product.
With this in mind we want to focus on some of the elements (i.e.
screens) that make up our product.
Purpose
Focus on one particular part of the application and sketch out

ideas on how to present it.
Time Needed
Description
In this activity we want to create some sketches of some of the

screens in the application to see how what we have learned so far
translates into the general user experience we want to deliver.
Activities 62
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “We have been focusing on the

application at a very high level so far. We now want to
concentrate on some of the details by sketching out some
of the screens of the application. The idea is that you
choose one of the possible screens and create 6 different
versions of how we could present it to the endusers”.
hand them the six up sketching template¹⁷.
6 up designs.
4. Once every group has finished brainstorming and sketch-
ing the screens let them present it in front of the group.
5. Once everyone has presented let the group discuss the
pros and cons of the different designs. What does the
layout and functionality shown in the designs convey to
the users?
Paper and pens.
Observations
Try to make sure that no group picks the same screen.
¹⁷http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21727846/SoftwareCraftsmanshipTheHiddenToolbox/
Inceptions/sixup.pdf
Activities 63
Activity: Story Mapping
At this point we have reached a fairly good understanding about

the product our customers have in mind. We have looked at the
“whole” from different angles and have tapped into the mind and
idea of the business.
It’s time to flesh out the product by creating some user stories
and place them into a map that will tell a coherent story.
Purpose
We want to see which features the product has, which of those

are the most important, in which order we should implement
them and how they flow in the general scheme of the application.
Time Needed
Three to four hours.
Description
During this activity we first want to figure out the features (or
user stories) we envision for the product. For this we are going
to brainstorm all the user stories we can come up with for the
time being. After we have brainstormed most of the stories (or
we cannot come up with new ones) we are going to place them
on a story map which will show us the flow of the application
and how the stories are related to one another.
Activities 64
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “Now that we have been working

really hard on understanding the context of the product
from every angle we are going to find out all the features
our product has. Once we have done so we will prioritise
these features and place them in a map sequentially.”
2. Hand out each member of the group a set of post-it notes
and a pen.
3. Ask them to write down user stories (or features) they
think the product should have and place them visibly on a
flip chart.
4. Once the group thinks they have found all the stories that
they can think of let them take a closer look at them.
Reading the stories they have come up with might make
them discover things they have forgotten before. At this
point the group might want to discuss about the stories;
let them do so.
5. Once everyone in the group is happy with the outcome
place the stories on a story map ordering them from left
to right and top to bottom¹⁸.
Post-it notes, flip chart paper and pens.

¹⁸You will learn everything you need to know about Story Mapping in Appendix D:
Story Mapping.
Activities 65
Observations
During this exercise some discussions will evolve around the

features. You will need to make sure that you don’t kill a valid
discussion and clarification, but make sure they don’t last to long
as you will need the time.
Activities 66
Activity: What’s Going to Give?
Compromising on certain aspects of a project will help make sure

you will be able to deliver the project. It is important to make
sure that everyone is aware of the constraints and which ones
will take precedence over the others.
Sometimes time is critical (the marketing team needs to launch
the service before the christmas campaign starts or the business
will be lost), others there is a budgetary limitation that needs to
be considered.
Purpose
We want to make sure that everyone involved in the project is

aware which compromises we are going to take in the scope of
this project.
Time Needed
15 to 30 minutes.
Description
You are going to present the group a set of 5 constraints (scope,

budget, time, ease of use and quality). They need to decide which
are more important and prioritise them.
Activities 67
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “In order to work on this project

we will have to compromise on certain things. A project
doesn’t live in a vacuum, there are certain forces at play
that influence each other. Because they will affect each
other we will need to prioritise them in order of what is
more important to us.”
2. Show them the flip chart with the constraints written on
it.
3. “Take some time to think about this constraints, you have
5 tokens to place on them (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) showing how
important and relevant this particular constraint is for
you.”
4. Let the group ask questions about what these constraints
mean in the scope of the project and what they can
compromise on.
5. Once the group has placed all the tokens on the constraints
discuss with the group how these constraints will affect
the development of the product.
Flip chart depicting the 5 constraints and a flip chart marker.

Activities 68
Observations
Sometimes your team is very opinionated. If this is the case

you might start with one of the constraints, usually the most
important one to you, already with a token placed on it.

At patheleven, when we do inceptions we reserve the
most important token (5 points) to the quality of the
final product. We consider that the quality of the code
and the design of the application cannot be played
with (it’s part of our working ethos and believe in good
workmanship).
.
Activities 69
Activity: What’s Going to Take?
It’s time for the team to make some commitments. We have seen
the whole application from every angle and now we should have
a clear idea on the nature and scope of the project.
Purpose
We are looking to tie some loose ends and commit to the project.
Time Needed
Ten to thirty minutes.
Description
This activity is really meant to tie the loose ends; the more
bureaucratic issues at hand if you will. We are looking to
assemble the team that is going to work on the development of
the idea, figure who calls the shots (who is the point man), how
much the project will cost (roughly) and how long it will cost.
Activities 70
Steps
1. Introduce the activity: “Now that we have dissected your

product and we know every nuance of it it is time for us
to decide what’s going to take for this project to succeed.”
2. Show them a flip chart paper with the four loose ends
(Assemble your team, Who calls the shots, How much will
it cost? and How long will it take?).
3. Work your way down the list and try to answer all the
points. Don’t shy away from discussions that will arise
while doing so, it will be helpful.
Flip chart with the loose ends written on it.
Observations
If you, like us at patheleven, develop software using agile method-

ologies, it will sound odd to discuss the points about the cost and
length of the project. You have to think it as a rough pointer;
you have done software before, you can have a sense of time
about this project as well. Does it sound like a long project? A
short and sweet one? Use you past experiences and judgement.
If you have no idea you should also say so (it is better to set the
right and honest expectations with your customers than to make
something up that you cannot keep).
If you haven’t signed any contract with your customer up until
now (we usually have only signed an Non Disclosure Agreement,
Activities 71
if anything, before an inception workshop), it might be a good

idea to sign the contract at this point if the situation permits.
Wrapping Up
72
Appendices
73
Appendices 74
Appendix A: The User Persona

Appendices 75
Appendix B: The Design Persona

Appendices 76
Appendix C: Wireframing
Appendices 77
Appendix D: Story Mapping

Appendices 78
Appendix E: Remote Inception

Workshops
Bibliography
Books
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language. Oxford University

Press, 1999.
Belsky, Scott. Making Ideas Happen (Overcoming the Obstacles
Between Vision and Reality). Penguin Books Ltd., 2010.
Berkun, Scott. Making Things Happen (Mastering Project Man-
agement). O’Reilly Media Inc., 2008.
Berkun, Scott. the myths of innovation. O’Reilly Media Inc.,
2007.
Chambers, Robert. Participatory Workshops (a sourcebook of 21
sets of ideas & activities). Earthscan Ltd, 2002.
Cohn, Mike. Agile Estimating and Planning. Pearson Education
Inc., 2006.
Coplien, James O. & Harrison, Neil B. Organizational Patterns
of Agile Software Development. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.
DeMarco, Tom & Lister, Timothy. Peopleware (Productive Projects
and Teams) 2nd Edition. Dorset House Publishing Co. Inc, 1999.
Derby, Esther & Larsen, Diana. Agile Retrospectives (Making
Good Teams Great). The Pragmatic Programmers LLC, 2006.
Elssamadisy, Amr. Agile Adoption Patterns (A Roadmap to
Organizational Success). Pearson Education Inc., 2008.
79
Bibliography 80
Hoover, Dave H. & Oshineye, Adewale. Apprenticeship Patterns

(Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman. O’Reilly Media
Inc., 2009.
Hunt, Andy. Pragmatic Thinking & Learning (Refactor Your
Wetware). The Pragmatic Programmers LLC, 2008.
Kawasaki, Guy. The Art of the Start (The Time-Tested, Battle-
Hardened Guide of Anyone Starting Anything. Portfolio, 2004.
McBreen, Pete. Software Craftsmanship (The New Imperative).
Addison Weasley, 2002.
Osterwalder, Alexander & Pigneur, Yves. Business Model Gen-
eration. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2010.
Rasmusson, Jonathan. The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters
Deliver Great Software. The Pragmatic Programmers LLC, 2010.
Rothman, Johanna. Manage It! (Your Guide to Modern, Prag-
matic Project Management).The Pragmatic Programmers LLC,
2007.
Shore, James & Warden, Shane. The Art of Agile Development.
O’Reilly Media Inc., 2008.
Walter, Aarron. Design For Emotion. A Book Apart, 2011.
Tabaka, Jean. Collaboration Explained (Facilitation Skills for
Software Project Leaders). Pearson Education Inc., 2006.
Weinberg, Gerald M.. The Psychology of Computer Programming
(Silver Anniversary Edition). Dorset House Publishing, 1998.
Bibliography 81
Articles & Blogs
Brechin, Elaine. Reconciling market segments and personas.

Available online: here¹⁹
Calabria, Tina. An introduction to personas and how to create
them. Available online: here²⁰
Goodwin, Kim. Perfecting your personas. Available online:
here²¹
Jardine, Mark. Designing Convertbot. Available online: here²²
Meyers-Levy, Joan & Zhu, Rui (Juliet). The influence of Ceiling
Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That
People Use. Journal of Consumer Research Inc, Vol. 34, August
2007. Available online: here²³.
Rasmusson, Jonathan. The Agile Inception Deck. Available
online: here²⁴. November 6, 2010.
Walter, Aarron. Design Personas. Available online: here²⁵
¹⁹http://www.cooper.com/journal/2002/03/reconciling_market_segments_an.html
²⁰http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas
²¹http://www.cooper.com/journal/2001/08/perfecting_your_personas.html
²²http://tapbots.com/blog/design/designing-convertbot
²³http://www.csom.umn.edu/assets/71190.pdf
²⁴http://agilewarrior.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/the-agile-inception-deck/
²⁵http://aarronwalter.com/design-personas/

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Inceptions

Starting a Software Project

Enrique Comba Riepenhausen

This version was published on 2013-03-22

This is a Leanpub book. Leanpub empowers authors and

©2012 - 2013 Enrique Comba Riepenhausen

The Art of the Start 6

Structuring an Inception Workshop 12

Activity: Meet your Community . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Finally you will find, in the Appendices, further clarifications

What is an Inception Workshop?

The Inception Workshop is a way to understand at a deeper level

• Decide if you can¹ commit to the project.

An Inception Workshop is a very intensive two day workshop in

This is actually a very important thing that most groups over-

²I had the founder of a startup crying during one activity once.

Why an Inception Workshop?

An Inception Workshop as a Sales tool

Sometimes we are not sure if a project is a fit between the

Creating an homogeneous group between the business, your

Entrepreneurs think they have a clear idea of their business. This

Choosing the Right Environment

It’s surprising how many books on facilitation take seating and

While preparing the Inception Workshop make sure you find

The height of the ceiling influences the groups creativity big

The use of the walls

During the inception you are going to generate a lot of material.

important thing here is that the information is visible and that

Walking and Standing

Just as a final observation on room space. Some people need

Half Circles and Us

The projector wall and the facilitator is visible to all and in a

Circles and open clams

Sitting in a circle is widely adopted as a democratic and partici-

Tables and Desks

I don’t advise making tables or desks the main element in

Facilitating Inception Workshop

The Facilitator Role

The Inception Workshop needs a good facilitator to keep mo-

Overseeing Group Dynamics

When facilitating an Inception Workshop you have to make sure

One of the big challenges when working on the activities in an

An Inception Workshop usually follows the same order of activ-

The times here are just an approximation and depend largely on

product and your schedule will slip slightly as you go.

Activity: Who is in the room?

You are going to spend the next couple of days locked up in

Get to know everyone who is participating in the Inception

Ten to thirty minutes, depending on the size of the group.

1. Introduce the activity: “Before we start it would be a great

Materials and Preparation

Index cards and pens.

Conducting the interviews at the beginning of the Inception

Activity: The rules of the Game

Working together as a group in a workshop is not an easy

Create a set of behaviours that will support the team in having

Ten to thirty minutes, depending on the size of the team.

Once everyone has presented themselves the group will again

1. Introduce the activity: “We are going to define a set of

Materials and Preparation

Flip chart, markers and index cards.

Activity: Why are we here?

Give everyone an overview of the product/project they are about