Event storming session

Part 1: the 1-hour session

Event storming is a simple way to get everyone's knowledge of a process onto one wall. Instead of starting with screens or features, we start with what happens. Each event goes on a sticky note, written in the past tense, and the notes go on the wall in the order they happen:

• Patient messaged us
• Slot offered
• Appointment booked
• Reminder sent
• Patient asked to move it
• Appointment moved
• Patient arrived
• Invoice paid

An illustration of the kind of notes that go on the wall, not a client's journey.

In the hour, we map:

1. Every event in the journeyWhat happens from the customer's first message to the last, including the awkward parts: the missed payment, the wrong address, the customer who goes quiet.
2. What causes each oneWho or what makes each event happen: the customer, your staff, or a system. This is where the hand-offs and waiting show up.
3. Where the data livesWhich system holds what each step needs, such as a booking slot, an order status or a policy number, and which system should hear about the result.
4. The problems and questionsWhere people disagree, where things often go wrong, or where nobody knows the answer.

Who should attend

It's one hour, so keep the group small. Bring:

• Someone who can make decisions, such as the owner, a director or the product owner.
• Someone who deals with customers every day: front desk, support, sales or claims. They know where the journey really breaks.
• Someone who knows your systems: your IT lead, a developer, or your contact at the software vendor.
• Someone from finance, if money changes hands in the chat.

From our side, the engineers who would build your setup run the session.

Part 2: up to two working days of analysis

The real work happens after the session. Our engineers take what's on the wall apart and build the plan, which takes up to two working days. We:

• Decide where WhatsApp fits: which events WhatsApp should start, carry or report on, and which should stay as they are.
• Work out the capabilities the chats, message templates and WhatsApp Flows need.
• Check each system you named: what we can read from it to make chats and Flows dynamic, and what we need to push back to it.
• Turn the problems into risks and open decisions, with what we'd do about each.
• Price the build from the integration plan.

Then: you receive the full SDF

The SDF is Codeswop's Strategic Decision Framework for your WhatsApp project. When the analysis is done, you receive the SDF. It turns the wall into decisions you can act on. It covers:

1. Project goalsWhat the project must achieve for your business and your customers, in plain terms.
2. Capabilities to buildWhat the chats, message templates and WhatsApp Flows need to do, step by step.
3. Integration planWhich systems we read from to make chats and Flows dynamic, such as live slots, order status or balances, and which systems we push results to.
4. Risk registerWhat could go wrong, how likely it is, and what we'd do about it.
5. Open decisionsThe questions only you can answer, with what each choice means for the build.
6. Fixed development feeThe build price, worked out from the integration plan, so you know the cost before anything is built.
7. Yours to keepThe SDF belongs to you whether or not you build with us. You can take it to another developer or build it in-house.

The price

The session costs R5,000 ex VAT (R5,750 with VAT). That covers the 1-hour session, up to two working days of analysis, and the SDF. The fee is not credited against the build: it pays for the plan, which stands on its own.

Not sure yet whether WhatsApp is right for you? Start with a free 30-minute consultation. We'll talk through what you want WhatsApp to do and whether it's a fit before you book anything.

It can recommend not building

The point of the session and the analysis is to find out whether a WhatsApp project is worth doing, not to sell one. If the wall shows that your customers won't use it, that the systems it needs aren't ready, or that the cost outweighs what it saves, the SDF says so plainly. Learning that before a build costs far less than learning it after one.

How it leads to a fixed build fee

The build is priced from what the SDF finds:

• Base: R15,000, one day, covering the chat logic, message templates and WhatsApp Flows.
• Each integration: R7,500, half a day for every system we read from or write to. Integrations are custom builds against each system's API.

Because the integration plan lists every system, the fee is fixed before we start. For example, a project with two integrations has a R30,000 build. With the R5,000 session, that's R35,000 ex VAT in total.

After the build, a monthly plan covers hosting, monitoring, Meta's API changes, template approvals, bug fixes and support, from R4,950 ex VAT a month. Meta bills your own card for messages, at Meta's rates, and we add nothing to them. See plans and worked totals.

The whole path

1. Free 30-minute consultationIs WhatsApp a fit for what you want to do?
2. Event storming session, R5,000A 1-hour session, then up to two working days of analysis. You receive the full SDF and a fixed build fee.
3. Build, from R15,000 plus R7,500 per integrationIf you go ahead, we build what the SDF describes.
4. Monthly plan, from R4,950We run it, keep it current and support it.

Questions about the event storming session