--- title: What’s Inside ArcTouch’s Orange Suitcase? | ArcTouch description: Discover how ArcTouch uses a bright orange suitcase filled with analog tools to run App Discovery Workshops and turn fuzzy ideas into clear product opportunities. url: "https://arctouch.com/blog/orange-suitcase-discovery-workshops" date_modified: "2026-10-30T16:16:54.238Z" --- # What’s inside ArcTouch’s orange suitcase? How a bright orange go-bag helps our teams turn fuzzy ideas into clear product opportunities 4 min. read - October 30, 2026 By Jenni Jayne [](mailto:?subject=Interesting%20blog%20post&body=I%20thought%20you%20might%20like%20this%20blog%20post%20from%20ArcTouch%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Farctouch.com%2Fblog%2Forange-suitcase-discovery-workshops) ![An orange suitcase against a white background](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fefnbmai9c55m%2F3OxC3WbzfdzhJ043UVblcV%2Fed754cfc93cb6ab377f9021b16dbc7f8%2Forange-suitcase-hero.webp&w=3840&q=75) There’s an eye-popping bright orange suitcase that shows up at some of ArcTouch’s most important meetings. It has traveled to more than 10 cities, 13 workshops, and an estimated 45,000 miles. It gets checked at airports, tossed into Ubers, rolled through corporate hallways, and parked beside conference-room walls. It’s unmistakably ArcTouch orange — our signature color, and conveniently difficult to miss on a baggage carousel. But it isn’t ordinary luggage filled with travel clothes and a toothbrush. The suitcase was purchased and is packed by [Jayne Vidheecharoen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne/), our director of design. She chose her bold travel companion after years of [ArcTouch App Discovery Workshops](/blog/demystifying-app-discovery) and learning that no two conference rooms — and no two workshops — go quite according to plan. “The whole idea is that we can walk into almost any room and have what we need to get to work,” Jayne says. While Jayne sees it as a practical approach, I like to think about it like Mary Poppins bag — full of delightful solutions. So what exactly is in there? Sticky notes. Sharpies. Voting dots. Painter’s tape and gaffer tape. Power strips. Cables. A tripod. A giant visual timer. Even squishy fidget toys. It is, essentially, a discovery toolbox. ## The person who packed it Jayne has spent more than 8 years at ArcTouch helping clients make sense of complicated product ideas. ![Close-up photo of Jayne](https://images.ctfassets.net/efnbmai9c55m/3YIpsgfuqgNfIhxaZLtBnK/e1ff544c09ea0e5c798db26552a827d4/jayne-orange-suitcase.webp) Long before the orange suitcase existed, [Jayne described one of her roles](/blog/app-maker-jayne-vidheecharoen) this way: navigating the space between the fuzzy idea a client may bring forward and the specificity needed for the people who will ultimately design and build it. “I think I’m most helpful in the space between those two points.” That “space between” is where Discovery lives. Our [Discovery Process](/blog/demystifying-app-discovery) helps uncover the real business opportunity, understand the people we’re designing for, identify risks and constraints, and determine what’s actually worth building. At its heart is the Discovery Workshop, where our team and client stakeholders work through structured activities together. It isn’t a kickoff meeting or a multi-day information dump. We listen, but we also challenge assumptions, map journeys, prioritize opportunities, explore feasibility, and make decisions. And sometimes things move very quickly. In one Cisco workshop, our team went from early conversations to a working prototype in a few days — fast enough to test with employees and validate the user need. In a [Cirrus workshop](/portfolio/cirrus-iq), we demonstrated a new feature the internal team had wanted for months. Those moments aren’t magic tricks. They’re what can happen when the right people get together, ask the right questions, and come prepared to turn conversation into something tangible. Enter the orange suitcase, _practically perfect in every way._ ## From a Staples bag to a Discovery go bag It didn’t begin quite so elegantly. Early workshop supplies traveled in whatever was handy. At one point, that meant a paper Staples bag. Over time, the collection grew. Bags ripped. Supplies got harder to organize. Then Jayne added a large Time Timer — a physical clock that makes the remaining time in an exercise visible across the room — and realized the kit needed its own home. So she bought an inexpensive hard-shell rolling suitcase. There was another lesson behind that decision: Never assume the room will have what you need. Sometimes there aren’t enough outlets. Sometimes connecting to a display is surprisingly difficult. Sometimes the walls refuse to hold sticky notes. And once, the internet wasn’t working when the team arrived at the client’s office (a tech comms client!). The suitcase is our hedge against those little surprises. We prepare extensively before a workshop — our [Discovery Workshop preparation checklist](/resources/discovery-workshop-preparation-checklist) offers a glimpse of that preparation — but being prepared also makes it easier to adapt when the unexpected happens. As Jayne puts it, “It’s nice to just be ready.” ## So, what’s actually inside? First, a lot of sticky notes. Jayne carries four or five colors, separated into small organizing bags. Not 20 colors. Too many choices, she’s learned, can become their own distraction. Stickies are the raw material for much of the workshop. Teams use them to capture user needs, brainstorm opportunities, map customer journeys, and build a [user story map](/blog/user-story-mapping) that breaks an experience into activities, steps, and potential features. Dots, hearts, and stars become voting tools when it’s time to prioritize. There are fine-tip Sharpies — thin enough to write on a sticky thick enough for everyone to read. Large sticky-pad sheets turn walls into temporary workspaces. Blue painter’s tape keeps them attached when the wall has other ideas. Gaffer tape keeps cords on the floor so people can move around the room. There are HDMI and USB cables, adapters, extension cords, a power strip, an external battery, and a lightweight tripod for streaming to remote participants. And there are fidget toys, scattered around the table for anyone who wants one. “Those bring people some joy during the meeting, and help people stay focused,” Jayne says. ## A kit shaped by experience Spend time with the contents and you start to see Jayne’s fingerprints (and her design point of view) everywhere. She has opinions about the correct Sharpie thickness. She knows magnetic phone mounts work better because some clamp-style mounts press the phone buttons. She knows certain walls require backup tape. And she no longer buys goo-filled squishy toys. A hard lesson learned when a couple exploded. The details are important, as they reveal the thinking behind the kit. Every addition solves some small piece of friction somebody encountered during a real workshop. That’s also what Discovery is designed to do on a much larger scale: surface uncertainty before it becomes expensive. We may discover users care about something different from what the team assumed. Two executives may realize they’ve been imagining different products. A technical barrier can reshape an idea. A prototype can turn something abstract into something everyone can see and react to. Skipping Discovery doesn’t make those questions disappear. It just means they’re more likely to surface later in the process, after more time and money have been committed. Discovery helps us define scope, reduce uncertainty, and create more realistic plans and [cost estimates](/blog/app-costs) before the full build begins. ## Analog by design There’s some irony in relying so heavily on paper, markers, tape, and squishy toys to start a process that leads to sophisticated digital products. But physical workshops have a different energy. Ideas cover the walls. People move them around, debate them, sketch alternatives, and vote. “When we do the workshops, we try to do most of them in physical space,” Jayne says. “We optimize for the people who are in the room.” Of course, ArcTouch and our clients are distributed, so sometimes somebody needs to join remotely. Jayne sees improving the hybrid experience — with better cameras, microphones, speakers, and streaming tools — as one of the kit’s next iterations. Like the products we build, apparently the orange suitcase has a roadmap. And perhaps, eventually, some siblings. Jayne thinks every ArcTouch facilitator who runs workshops will soon have a go-bag of their own. ## Ready to roll? For now, the original usually lives under Jayne’s bed, replenished and waiting for the next engagement. Jayne described it to me as “a cute little orange bag… ready to party.” That may be giving a piece of luggage more personality than it deserves. But then again, maybe not. Because wherever it rolls next, the orange suitcase carries more than stickies and Sharpies. It means we’ve prepared for the workshop, prepared for the unexpected, and are ready to help turn a fuzzy idea into a product opportunity everyone can believe in. Have an app idea that needs some clarity? We’d be happy to bring the orange suitcase — along with our team of app experts and builders — to you. [Contact us](/contact) today to learn more. ## Article Author: [JJ | Jenni Jayne | Director of Marketing](/blog/author/jenni-jayne) ## Tags: [App Discovery](/tag/app-discovery) ## Subscribe for more insights Get our newsletter in your inbox. ## Related posts [App Maker Spotlight: Jayne Vidheecharoen | Meet ArcTouch design director Jayne Vidheecharoen, who enjoys the process of taking “abstract app ideas and turning them into reality.” | 5 min. read - October 11, 2018](/blog/app-maker-jayne-vidheecharoen) [Demystifying Discovery: Building the foundation for a lovable app | Exploring the critical role of the ArcTouch Discovery Process to find the intersection of business opportunities and user needs | 7 min. read - August 5, 2025](/blog/demystifying-app-discovery) ## Contact us. ### Let's build something lovable. Together. We help companies of all sizes build lovable apps, websites, and connected experiences.