Workshop and event programme
The CivTech workshop and event programme is a mandatory part of the CivTech process, designed to run alongside your product development and help you build the skills and knowledge needed to develop both your MVP and a scalable product-led business.
It’s a unique and exceptional programme that’s been refined through many CivTech cohorts. Without exception, the workshops are delivered by outstanding people with real and recent experience in their field — these are not trainers, they are people who’ve been there, done it, and continue to do so.
Exploration Stage | Accelerator Stage
Accelerator Week 1
📣 Welcome to the Accelerator
A big welcome to the CivTech Accelerator Stage, and a briefing on what to expect. You’ll also meet the rest of your cohort, learn about their Challenges and solutions, and how you can support one another on the journey you’ve all just embarked on.
📣 Programme Overview and Briefing
Our Accelerator Lead will talk you through every step of the Accelerator programme, before asking all your team members to set out the skills and experience they bring to the cohort, what you hope to get out of the programme, and identify any gaps that might need to be filled with additional workshops, support and mentoring.
🎓 Workshop: The Value Proposition
Your value proposition — or how you articulate a differentiated benefit to your customer — should be your guiding light when making every decision about your product. Using lots of real-world examples this workshop helps you create some clarity around that proposition, and explores the different ways value can flow between a product, its customer and users.
🎓 Workshop: Mission, Vision, Values
Companies with a strong Mission, Vision and Values allied to a clear strategic plan outperform those that do not. In this unique workshop you'll get the chance to find out why this is, and what you can do to develop the kind of Mission, Vision and Value statements that will serve you best — and then act of them. It also forms a key lead-in to the Branding and Company Narrative workshops later in the programme.
👍 Checkgate 1 meetings
Approximately every four weeks through the Accelerator you’ll meet with your Challenge Sponsor and members of the CivTech team to formally review progress and plans, discuss remedies to any issues or blockers, and agree the next stage payment. During this first Checkgate meeting we’ll review your development plan and the support needed from your Challenge Sponsor, making sure you’re off to the best possible start.
💬 Workshop programme one-to-one planning sessions
The majority of our Accelerator workshops are a mandatory part of the CivTech Programme, and we expect every team to send at least one person along to each. During this one-to-one planning session we’ll discuss and agree which members of your team are likely to get most value from each workshop, and any areas where additional support could be targeted. We may in some circumstances — and when there is good reason — agree for you to forgo certain workshops (but don’t bank on it, no matter your experience there’s always something you can learn or contribute).
Week 2
🎓 Workshop: Lean Start-up and Growth Hacking 1
This workshop kicks off with a look at lean start-up ideas and how they can be used to validate your approach as early as possible, with minimum risk and investment. It then moves on to introduce several fundamental building blocks which can be used by a business of any shape or size to rapidly analyse customer behaviour and get a proper, measurable handle on growth: customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, cohort analysis and the sales funnel.
🎓 Workshop: Agile Methodology and Continuous Delivery
When building products as quickly and flexibly as we expect our CivTech teams to, an agile approach is essential. Delivered by a highly experienced agile coach and complemented by the lead of large digital projects inside government, this workshop will show you how agile works in principle and is applied in practice.
👏 Two-minute updates
Every couple of weeks the whole cohort gets together to share a quick update on progress: what’s gone well, what’s keeping you awake at night, and anything you need some help with. This is a great opportunity to draw on the expertise of your fellow teams (and sometimes share your pain!).
🔥 Fireside chat
Throughout the Accelerator we host a series of intimate fireside chats with highly successful businesspeople, entrepreneurs, investors and others. These have always provided a unique and privileged insight into the experiences of others, the opportunity to ask questions and build your network.
Week 3
💬 Accessibility one-to-ones
Following on from the Exploration stage workshop, you’ll spend an hour with an accessibility expert discussing your specific plans and any accessibility considerations particular to your product.
🎓 Workshop: Agile and Team Roles
Building on the previous week’s Agile workshop, this session takes a closer look at the roles in an agile team.
🎓 Workshop: Business Modelling introduction
Business modelling and planning are key elements to successful growth, and the Opportunity Matrix is a highly sophisticated and extremely robust approach to developing these things. It turns received wisdom about how you model and plan on its head, developing a clearly articulated understanding of the proposition, USPs, competition, product possibilities, with hard-numbered outputs in regard to all potential revenues streams.
🎓 Workshop: Equality and Diversity
It’s widely accepted that diverse teams build better and more successful products, because they have access to a much wider range of ideas and opinions, which better represent the population as a whole—and their customers. In this workshop we’ll look at how you can build a company and product that appeals the widest and most diverse audience possible.
Week 4
💬 User Research one-to-ones
Building on the Scottish Approach to Service Design workshop from the Exploration Stage, you’ll have an hour one-to-one with a Scottish Government User Research specialist. They’ll look at your ideas and help you build a plan to engage with users and citizens throughout the development process.
🎓 Workshop: Cyber Security
Cyber security is vital. It’s vital for growing businesses, for the citizen, and the public sector. All expect and need data protection and security — something demanded by legislation. Beyond the basics and the legal requirements, it’s often hard to fully grasp the challenge. This workshop looks at cyber security first principles: how it impacts tech SMEs, the statutory requirements, additional public sector requirements and the citizen’s expectations and awareness.
🎓 Workshop: Brand and the Company Narrative introduction
These days the company story — or narrative — is all-important: your brand and logo are really just a couple of the manifestations of your wider identity. This workshop looks at how you develop your company’s story and deploy it through a coherent set of assets, including your brand.
🎓 Workshop: Health and Wellbeing
Starting a company and building a new product can be hugely exciting and rewarding, but that excitement often comes with a significant amount of pressure and stress. So let’s pause for a moment to consider our own wellbeing and of those working with us, and explore some simple measures that could maintain balance and avoid burnout.
Week 5
🎓 Workshop: Content Marketing and Growth Hacking 2
Blogging and social media can provide efficient ways to reach your target audiences, and help you become thought leaders in your field. But how do you strategise your approach to inbound marketing? How do you manage it, and what does it take to do it well? And how do you ensure your brand and personal reputation are as effective as possible — and kept that way?
💬 Content Marketing and Growth Hacking one-to-ones
Following directly on from the previous workshop, each team will spend an hour one-to-one with our workshop leader exploring how these ideas and techniques can be applied to their products and businesses.
💬 Business Modelling one-to-ones
Following on from the introduction workshop in week 3, you’ll spend an hour one-to-one with our workshop leader applying what you’ve learned to your product and business.
👏 Two-minute updates
Another fortnightly check-in with your fellow teams.
🔥 Fireside Chat
Week 6
💬 Cyber Security one-to-ones
Following on from the introductory cyber security workshop in Week 4, our experts will spend an hour with each team taking a deep dive into their specific plans, and provide some pointers on how to ensure security is baked in at every stage of product development.
💬 Digital Assurance one-to-ones
Building on the Scottish Approach to Service Design workshop during Exploration Stage, our friends at the Scottish Government Digital Assurance Office will spend an hour with each team discussing any standards or other criteria the product being developed might have to meet for a full commercial roll-out.
👍 Checkgate 2 meetings
The second of our formal Checkgate meetings, where we’ll review progress and plans, resolve any outstanding issues, and agree release of the next stage payment.
Week 7
👏 Two-minute updates
Another fortnightly check-in with your fellow teams.
Week 8
🔥 Fireside Chat
Week 9
🎓 Workshop: Investment 101 — the founder’s perspective
Investment from the founders’ point-of-view; is it right for you? How does it compare to other potential sources of money? What are the different kinds of investors? What are the opportunities and potential pitfalls? What should you expect to change in your company after investment?
🎓 Workshop: Investment 101 — the investor’s perspective
Following quickly on from the previous workshop, a highly experienced early-stage tech investor will talk you through the process from their point of view. Why do they invest? What are they looking for in a company, its product and founding team? How else can they help the business?
🎓 Workshop: Presentations Skills 1
Demo Day is coming over the horizon and you need to be able to present. Following on from the Presentation 101 workshop during Exploration, you'll start building the skills and knowhow to really nail a great pitch. Teams will be split into groups so they can collaborate, exchange ideas, and push and encourage each other
👏 Two-minute updates
Another fortnightly check-in with your fellow teams.
Week 10
🎓 Workshop: The Anatomy of a Term Sheet
Often the first time a company encounters a Term Sheet is at the point of agreeing their first investment round — not good. Led by an experienced corporate lawyer, this workshop walks us through a typical Term Sheet, and lets you know what you should look out for.
🎓 Workshop: Financial planning and fundraising
Following on from the Accounts 101 drop-in session in the Exploration Stage, this workshop focuses on planning, and how the right kind of planning can help drive fundraising opportunities
💬 Brand and the Company Narrative one-to-ones
Following on from the introductory session in week 4, you’ll spend an hour one-to-one with our branding experts looking at your business and product.
👍 Checkgate 3 meetings
The third of our formal Checkgate meetings, where we’ll review progress and plans, resolve any outstanding issues, and agree release of the next stage payment.
Week 11
🎓 Workshop: Slide Deck Development introduction
You’re rapidly heading towards Demo Day, with an audience of public sector buyers and private sector investors. You need to be able to present, but you’ll also need a great slide deck. This workshop will help you support your pitch with a set of visuals that strengthen — not detract from — your key messages.
🎓 Workshop: Presentation Skills 2
Teams are split into the same groups as before and continue working together to build the skills and knowhow to deliver a great pitch,
👏 Two-minute updates
Another fortnightly check-in with your fellow teams.
🔥 Fireside Chat
Details will be announced closer to the time.
🎓 Workshop: Public Sector Procurement and Building your Pre-commercial Proposal
The public sector in Scotland spends over £800m a year on digital products and services, and there is an ambition to spend a significant proportion of this with SMEs. But SMEs often have misconceptions and misunderstand how the public sector works. This workshop will map out the landscape, suggest ways you can navigate it, and how you might structure and present your proposal for a Pre-Commercial agreement with your Challenge Sponsor.
Week 12
💬 Slide Deck Development one-to-ones 1
Following on from the introductory workshop, each team will spend an hour with our workshop leaders sketching out their Demo Day slide deck.
🎓 Workshop: Tax: R&D, EIS and SEIS
The tax system provides a tremendous amount of support for early stage and innovative companies. This workshop explains the tax relief available for companies that invest in R&D and the benefits available to early stage investors.
🎓 Workshop: Public Relations and Communications 101
As you’re about to announce your MVP and plans to the world at Demo Day, this workshop led by CivTech’s PR and Comms partner will help you understand the fundamentals of getting your message out effectively through mainstream and social media.
👏 Two-minute updates
Another fortnightly check-in with your fellow teams.
Week 13
💬 Slide Deck Development one-to-ones 2
Following on from the previous workshop and one-to-one session, each team will spend an hour with our workshop leader refining their Demo Day slide deck.
🎓 Workshop: Presentation Skills 3
Teams are split into the same groups as before and continue working together to build the skills and knowhow to deliver a great pitch,
👏 Two-minute updates
Another fortnightly check-in with your fellow teams.
👍 Checkgate 4 meetings
The fourth and final of our formal Checkgate meetings, where we’ll review progress and your MVP, and agree release of the final stage payment.
Week 14
🎓 Workshop: Sales Strategy and Techniques introduction
In a world of surgically-targeted online advertising and meticulously-measured content marketing, well-proven traditional sales techniques can be too easily disregarded. This workshop takes us back to the very basics of selling, negotiating and closing a deal.
🎓 Workshop: The International Opportunity
There’s international potential for your product — but you need to understand how the markets you're going for work.
💬 Sales Strategy and Techniques one-to-ones
Building on the introductory workshop, our workshop leaders will spend an hour with each team helping you refine your sales approach and techniques.
🔥 Fireside Chat
Details will be announced closer to the time.
Week 15
💬 Presentation Skills one-to-ones
With Demo Day just three weeks away, our presentation coach will spend an hour one-on-one with each presenter refining your script and providing some final guidance on delivery.
💬 Slide Deck Development one-to-ones 3
Following on from the previous workshop and one-to-one session, each team will spend an hour with our workshop leader finalising their Demo Day slide deck.
👏 Two-minute updates
The last fortnightly check-in with your fellow teams.
🎓 Workshop: Networking 101
The value you get out of Demo Day will to a great extent depend on your willingness to approach strangers and strike up a conversation. This short informal session will give some invaluable tips and help you step outside your comfort zone.
Demo Week
🎤 Rehearsals
A day or two before the event itself, you’ll have the opportunity to practice your pitch on stage in front of your cohort.
🎉 Demo Day
It’s arrived. You're ready. Let's do this!
Post Accelerator
The Accelerator’s over but the support continues..
Over the last few weeks of the Accelerator most teams will have focussed on delivery of their MVP and preparations for Demo Day. Now that’s over, many could benefit from a bit of additional support or coaching from our workshop leaders. So, during this period we can arrange additional one-on-one support, including in the following areas:
Business planning
Selling
Brand and the Company Narrative
Growth Hacking and Content Marketing
Investment
Also, as a team that’s successfully completed the CivTech programme we’ll connect you with the rest of our Alumni where you can keep sharing ideas and providing mutual support.