Workshop Space
in Zurich.

A team arrived early. Coffee and croissants were ready, the day could begin. At some point a tennis net and a few rackets appeared. It was about strategy, but apparently you can think about that differently than at the conference table too.

Around noon it turned Japanese. Some had miso soup, someone had put together a miso burger. Others went next door to the restaurant, a few moved on to the French place. A lunch break is allowed to run a little longer every now and then.

In the afternoon everyone was brought back together. Closing presentation, coffee, cake and ice cream. Outside it was high summer and warm accordingly.

The day could have been over after that. But it didn't have to be. There was still a drink at the bar: gin and tonic with Aarver gin, non-alcoholic too of course. Almost everyone stayed until the end.

At some point our conclusion was pretty clear: we should slowly head home.

The team's feedback too: Loved it. We'll be back.

The product team came with a question that sounded simple at first and then turned out a little more complicated on second look: what should the new product actually do – and what better not?

The morning filled up quickly. Post-its on the wall, sketches on the table, discussions standing up. Every now and then everything was torn down again and resorted. One good idea made it onto the wall three times and off it twice.

At lunch the group split up. A few stayed in the space, others went next door to the restaurant, others again headed to the French place. Pizza was part of it too, of course. The main thing was to get out of the workshop briefly and then back again.

In the afternoon it was about the brand behind the product. Floid took on a session on branding and the question of why brands are becoming more important right now – not despite AI, but partly because of it.

After that, twenty options slowly became a handful. Then three. In the end a pretty clear direction was on the table – including the things you'd deliberately not do.

At 17:30 it was over. Officially, at least.

Two stayed for a coffee, three ordered a drink. The post-its were still on the wall.

The team didn't want a classic workshop. No packed programme, no one presentation after another. A day to talk, for once, about how they actually want to work together.

So the projector stayed off.

In the morning there was discussing, drawing, disagreeing and quite a lot of laughing. One question lingered longer than planned: what do we actually want to keep, even though we've long known it no longer works?

At lunch the group split up. A few went next door to the restaurant, others moved on to the French place. Some stayed in the space a little longer and simply kept discussing. That's exactly what a break is sometimes for.

In the afternoon the whiteboard slowly filled up. Three things were crossed out, two new ones added. And at some point there was an idea nobody had counted on in the morning.

To close, someone wrote three sentences on the wall. No grand vision, no manifesto. Just three things that should run differently from tomorrow.

Then a beer at the bar.