Chaotic Exploration is the first and most energetic phase of an EventStorming workshop. The goal is to get all domain events out of people's heads and onto the wall as fast as possible — without filtering, ordering, or debating.
- A long wall covered with butcher paper (or a wide whiteboard)
- Orange sticky notes (for domain events)
- Markers for every participant
- No laptops, no chairs — everyone stands
"Write down everything that happens in the system — one event per sticky note, past tense. Don't worry about order. Don't discuss. Just write and stick."
Within the first 10–15 minutes, the wall might look something like this (completely unordered, duplicates allowed):
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ [Order Placed] [Payment Failed] [Rider Assigned] [Menu Updated] │
│ │
│ [Restaurant [Delivery [Customer [Coupon │
│ Accepted Order] Completed] Registered] Applied] │
│ │
│ [Order Placed] [Refund Issued] [Rating [Restaurant │
│ (duplicate!) Submitted] Onboarded] │
│ │
│ [Order [Payment [Rider Location [Customer │
│ Cancelled] Received] Updated] Banned] │
│ │
│ [Delivery [Promo Campaign [Support Ticket [Menu Item │
│ Started] Launched] Opened] Sold Out] │
│ │
│ [ETA [Restaurant [Order Ready [Rider Went │
│ Recalculated] Suspended] for Pickup] Offline] │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| Trait | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Duplicates are welcome | Two people writing "Order Placed" reveals shared understanding — or hidden differences in meaning |
| No ordering yet | Sorting comes later; premature ordering kills creativity |
| No debates | If someone disagrees, they write their own sticky — discussion happens in the next phase |
| Past tense only | Events are facts that happened: "Order Placed", not "Place Order" |
| Hot spots emerge naturally | Clusters of stickies around payments or delivery signal complex subdomains |
- A developer writes:
Payment Gateway Timeout Occurred,Retry Attempted - A product manager writes:
Customer Complained,Promo Campaign Launched - A domain expert (ops) writes:
Rider Went Offline,Manual Order Reassigned - A support person writes:
Chargeback Received,Account Flagged for Fraud
Everyone contributes from their own perspective. The wall fills up fast — 50 to 200+ stickies in 15 minutes is normal.
After the chaos dies down (energy drops, people slow down), the facilitator moves to Timeline Enforcement — the group starts arranging events left-to-right in rough chronological order, merging duplicates, and surfacing the first disagreements ("Wait, does payment happen before or after the restaurant accepts?"). That's where the real learning begins.
The value of the chaotic phase is that it lowers the barrier to participation and surfaces the unexpected — the events nobody planned to talk about but that reveal the true complexity of the domain.