# Workshopr — Product

**FOUNDATIONAL MANDATE: what Workshopr is, who it's for, what exists, and how success is measured.**
This is the canonical product source. `DESIGN.md` owns brand, voice, and visual system. `Conventions.md` owns naming. `CLAUDE.md` owns system and codebase context.

Last consolidated: 24 July 2026.

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## 1. What Workshopr is (and isn't)

Workshopr is a facilitation platform for people who run workshops: a library of exercises, icebreakers and ready-made workshops, a drag-and-drop agenda planner, live facilitation tools, post-session synthesis, and a Facilitator DNA assessment. All built around a single idea: **facilitators should spend less time building agendas and more time actually facilitating.**

It is not:

- A virtual whiteboard. That's Miro, Mural, FigJam.
- A slide tool or a meeting platform.
- A generic templates marketplace.
- A LinkedIn-style thought-leadership site.
- A no-code platform, an LMS, or a project tracker.

When in doubt, Workshopr is a **practitioner's tool built by a practitioner**. Copy, UI, and decisions should feel like they were made by someone who has run the workshop and gotten burned on the details, not by a marketer describing what facilitation looks like from the outside.

> **Never hardcode library counts.** Call `workshopr_count_label('exercises'|'icebreakers'|'workshops')` from `includes/library-counts.php` — the single source of truth. See §10.

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## 2. Who it's for

The primary user is a **working facilitator**, often wearing another hat (design lead, PM, consultant, coach, educator), who runs workshops as part of their job and cares about getting them right. They are:

- **Time-poor.** They are prepping for a session today or tomorrow.
- **Experienced enough to smell BS.** Thin content gets bounced.
- **Skeptical of AI fluff.** AI features must deliver obvious value, not novelty.
- **Inclusive-minded.** Every voice in the room matters. This is practical, not performative.

They are frequently **mid-facilitation** — attention split between the people in the room and their own plan. Anything used during a live session must be glanceable and high-contrast, and must not compete with the workshop itself.

**Secondary users:** first-time facilitators who need scaffolding, and managers who occasionally need to run a real workshop.

**Secondary buyer: in-house L&D.** The fastest-growing segment, with real budget, but under more scrutiny than a freelancer — they need evidence of impact to defend a program internally, and team features to standardise across facilitators. Design for them as a buyer, not as the primary user.

**Not the audience:** enterprise procurement teams shopping for collaboration software, and academic researchers. Note this exclusion is narrower than it used to be: it rules out *procurement*, not in-house L&D practitioners.

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## 3. The four phases

**Learn → Plan → Facilitate → Reflect.** Each phase has a job. Since Red Unification (July 2026) they all render in the single Learn Red family — **phases are a naming and grouping system, not a colour signal.**

| Phase | Job |
|---|---|
| **Learn** | Get excited, dive in |
| **Plan** | Focus, structure |
| **Facilitate** | Trust, guide others |
| **Reflect** | Grow, keep going |

The mapping that gets confused: **Coach is Reflect. Facilitator is Facilitate.** Never swap them.

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## 4. How success is measured

**North star: full-lifecycle workshops per active facilitator per month** — workshops that go all the way from Designed → Delivered → Synthesized.

This is deliberately not "agendas built" or "sessions run". The defensible thing about Workshopr is that it is the only product spanning the whole lifecycle as one connected object; a standalone "build an agenda" or "run your session here" tool competes with free. The metric measures the moat.

The three states are **derived, never stored** (`includes/workshop-record.php`):

| State | Derived from |
|---|---|
| **Designed** | The plan row exists |
| **Delivered** | A completed `coaching_sessions` row linked to the plan, or an ended `live_session` |
| **Synthesized** | A `synthesis_sessions` row with real content references the plan |

`plans.id` is the workshop's identity across the whole platform. One plan = one workshop. See CLAUDE.md §5 for the Workshop Record spine.

---

## 5. App inventory

Verified against the filesystem, the app switcher (`includes/components/header.php`), and the gating code on 24 July 2026. **This table supersedes the app list in CLAUDE.md §1.**

### Learn

| App | Path | What it does | Status | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Library | `/library/`, `/` | Exercises, icebreakers, ready-made workshops. Powers Planner and Coach. | Live | Public; partial tab gates on exercises/icebreakers/workshops |
| Academy | `/academy/` | Ebooks, toolkits, structured learning paths | Live | Public, sign-in optional |
| Tips | `/tips/` | Micro-learning feed of facilitation tips | Live | Public, sign-in optional |
| Podcasts | `/podcasts/` | Podcast episodes | Live, **not in nav** | Public |

### Plan

| App | Path | What it does | Status | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planner | `/planner/` | Drag-and-drop agenda builder | Live | `index.php` public (CTA varies by tier); the builder and all other pages are **Pro-gated** |
| Agenda Check | `/agenda-check/` | Paste an agenda, get it graded before you run it | Live | Public |
| Toolkits | `/toolkits/` | `hybrid`, `preread`, `postworkshop` kits | Live | Public, sign-in optional |
| MyWorkshopr | `/myworkshopr/` | Dashboard: saved workshops, teams, settings | Live | **Signed-in** (`requireAuth`) — not Pro |

### Facilitate

| App | Path | What it does | Status | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facilitator | `/facilitator/` | Live session command surface: timers, scripts, notes, interventions | Live | `index.php` public; `app.php` **Pro-gated** |
| Sidekick | `/sidekick/` | Live facilitation companion (Chrome) | Live | **Public** — sign-in changes CTAs only |
| Intervention | `/intervention/` | In-session rescue cards (37) | Live | Public, sign-in optional |

### Reflect

| App | Path | What it does | Status | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DNA | `/dna/` | Facilitator style quiz → 5 archetypes, shareable profile URLs | Live | Public |
| Synthesize | `/synthesize/` | Turn notes, photos, transcripts into themes, decisions, actions | Live, **hidden from nav** | Public / signed-in — **not** Pro-gated |
| Coach | `/coach/` | AI reflection companion | **Built, not shipped** | Production redirects to `coming-soon.php` |

### Other

| App | Path | What it does | Status | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategist | `/strategist/` | Pre-workshop strategy and executive briefings | Live, not in nav | Signed-in |
| Admin | `/admin/` | Content, users, system health | Live | Admin role |

### Facts the nav doesn't tell you

- **Coach is not reachable in production.** `coach/index.php:8–12` redirects every non-localhost request to `coming-soon.php`. The code is real and substantial; the gate is deliberate. Marketing on `/pro/` currently oversells it as though it were live.
- **Synthesize is deliberately absent from the app switcher** (removed July 2026) even though it is the most actively developed app. This is temporary: it returns once Plan → Facilitate → Synthesize is woven together and entry from the Workshop Record is the primary path. Its `_wsh_sections` entry stays so `/synthesize/` pages still render their own header via direct URL.
- **`/pricing/` is in the global nav and does not exist** — no directory, no rewrite. The pricing page is `/pro/`. This is a live 404.
- **`/articles/` is in the global nav** and has a rewrite (`.htaccess:78`) pointing at `articles/detail.php`, which also does not exist.

---

## 6. Access and monetisation

### Current offer

**Pro is free. There is no end date.** Any copy promising the beta ends on a specific date is wrong and should be removed.

Stripe is fully wired — `includes/stripe-config.php`, `api/stripe-webhook.php`, and `tests/Unit/StripeLifecycleTest.php` all exist and the free → pro → free lifecycle is tested — but **inert**: all four `STRIPE_PRICE_*` values are empty, so no one can convert today.

### Tiers

| Tier | What it gets |
|---|---|
| **Anonymous** | Browse the library, view exercise overviews |
| **Free** (signed in) | `browse`, `view_details`, `basic_recommendations`, `content_read` |
| **Pro** | `favorites`, `collections`, `notes`, `export`, `planner_builder`, `live_mode`, `facilitator`, `coach`, `team_collaboration` |

The executable truth is `canUseFeature()` in `includes/shared-auth.php:487`. Unknown features are **denied by default**. `isProUser()` grants Pro unconditionally on `cli-server` / `APP_ENV=local` so local dev isn't blocked.

### Where Pro is actually enforced

`isProUser()` gates exist in exactly these places: `planner/planner.php`, `planner/planner-home.php`, `planner/prep.php`, `planner/view.php`, `planner/brief/index.php`, `planner/live/index.php`, and `facilitator/app.php`. `planner/index.php` calls it too, but only to vary the CTA — the page itself is public.

Corrections against the previous version of this document, verified in code:

- **Sidekick is not Pro-gated.** It only checks `isAuthenticated()` to change CTA text.
- **Synthesize is not Pro-gated.** No gate exists; `app.php` merely routes signed-in users to the home page.
- **MyWorkshopr is signed-in, not Pro** (`requireAuth($pdo)` at `myworkshopr/index.php:24`).

---

## 7. Product principles

1. **Start With the Work.** Users begin by describing what they're trying to accomplish, not by navigating setup screens.
2. **AI Assists; It Does Not Take Over.** AI drafts, organises, explains, recommends. The user approves meaningful outputs.
3. **Evidence Builds Trust.** When Workshopr synthesises or recommends, users can trace the output back to its sources.
4. **Reduce Cognitive Load.** Reveal complexity progressively. Don't ask for information before it's needed.
5. **One Platform, Many Workflows.** Moving between products feels seamless because they share navigation, components, data, and AI behaviour.
6. **Artifacts Are Work Products.** Briefs, agendas, recaps, summaries, decisions and action lists are first-class objects, not temporary text blobs.

---

## 8. Not part of the product

Present in the repo, not shipped, safe to delete. Do not maintain these:

| Path | Note |
|---|---|
| `facilitator2/` | Parallel copy of Facilitator with its own Pro gate. Unreferenced by nav. |
| `bettermeetings/` | A single `index.php`. |
| `index.legacy.php`, `academy/index.legacy.php` | Dead, still present. |
| `roi/` | ROI calculator — built, not used. (CLAUDE.md called this `/roi-calculator/`; that path never existed.) |
| `spinner/` | A Figma plugin, not a web app. |

---

## 9. Where it's heading

The last five releases (v2.83.0 → v2.86.3, all July 2026) are one arc: **the Workshop Record.** The product is converging from a bundle of separate apps into *one workshop object with a lifecycle*, and the home screens are being rebuilt around that object — facilitator notes persisting to the account, participant reactions attributed to agenda items, the Workshop Record page, and per-phase home screens that only show workshops at their stage.

Near-term priorities, from `docs/what-to-build-next-2026-07.md`:

1. **Impact and follow-up.** Feedback capture → artifact-aware synthesis → commitment tracking → a client-ready impact report. The largest unowned gap in the market, and the thing in-house L&D needs to defend a program.
2. **A revenue engine.** Gate client-facing polish — branded exports, impact reports, collaboration. Never gate the core planner.

The strategic lesson driving both: *a standalone "run your workshop here" product is a graveyard category.* Continuity across the lifecycle survives; delivery alone does not. This is why Facilitator is positioned as a **lifecycle link, not a destination**, and why the north-star metric counts full-lifecycle workshops.

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## 10. Canonical numbers

`includes/library-counts.php` is the single source of truth for every "N+ exercises" claim. Call `workshopr_count_label($key)` — it reads live counts and rounds down to the nearest ten, falling back to floors (exercises 380, icebreakers 57, workshops 50) when the DB is unavailable.

**Never restate a count in prose or markup.** Four surfaces previously disagreed; if you find a hardcoded count, replace it with the helper.

There is **no equivalent source of truth for user counts.** `/pro/` claims "2,500+ facilitators" and the planner hero claims "750". Both are unverified. Don't cite a user number until one is established.

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## 11. Open questions

- **User counts** — see §10. Needs a real figure and a home.
- **Broken nav routes** — `/pricing/` and `/articles/` need either pages or removal from the header.
- **Academy carousel** (`includes/components/section-hero.php:83–87`) advertises ebooks for "May", "June", "July" — all now past.
- **Coach** — built and gated. Needs a ship decision or a decision to fold its value into Facilitator and Synthesize.