TLDR
If you are an enterprise or mid-market tech leader trying to solve low adoption, stalled trials, or products that look great but are not being used, this article is for you. The fastest way to create sticky users is by giving experienced developers hands on access to your product through workshops and hackathons. These experiences can accelerate adoption, enable real integrations in 1 to 2 days, and convert hundreds or thousands of high quality developers into power users who retain, expand, and advocate for your product.
How to Create Sticky Users by Putting Your Tech Product Directly Into Developers’ Hands
This article is written for leaders with budget who already know the problem.
You are not asking:
- “How do I get more impressions?”
- “How do I get more demo requests?”
You are asking:
- “How do we get developers to actually use our product?”
- “How do we turn trials into real integrations?”
- “How do we create sticky users instead of shelfware?”
If you are responsible for product adoption, developer engagement, or customer retention in an enterprise or mid-market tech company, this content is designed to answer those questions directly.
The Core Problem This Solves: Adoption, Not Awareness
Most tech and software companies already invest heavily in marketing.
The real issue is what happens after someone signs up.
Common scenarios:
- Developers register but never integrate
- Teams explore the product but abandon it
- Sales cycles drag because technical confidence is missing
- Marketing spend keeps flowing into channels that do not convert
This is not a messaging problem. It is an experience problem.
Developers do not adopt tools they have not built with. And leaders do not hit KPIs when adoption stalls.
What Sticky Users Mean for Enterprise and Mid-Market Tech
Sticky users are not casual users or one-time testers.
Sticky users are developers who:
- Integrate your product into real systems within days
- Understand where it fits in production workflows
- Become internal champions inside their company
- Introduce your product to other teams
- Drive long-term retention and expansion
From a business perspective, sticky users directly impact:
- Customer retention
- Expansion revenue
- Sales velocity
- Marketing ROI
Creating sticky users is one of the highest leverage growth moves a tech company can make.
Why Hands On Experience Is the Best Way to Drive Adoption
Developers evaluate products by doing, not watching.
They want answers to questions like:
- How do I integrate this into our stack?
- How long does it take to get something working?
- Does this solve a real problem for my team?
- What happens when I push it beyond the happy path?
Hands on workshops and hackathons answer these questions faster than any other format.
They compress months of learning into days and replace uncertainty with confidence.
Workshops: Turning Problem-Aware Developers Into Capable Users
Developer workshops are guided, outcome-driven sessions focused on building real solutions.
They are especially effective when your audience is already problem-aware and actively evaluating tools.
What workshops are best used for
- Enterprise onboarding
- Platform launches
- API and SDK enablement
- Training experienced developers quickly
Why workshops create sticky users
- Developers integrate your product in 1 to 2 days
- Learning is tied to real-world use cases
- Expert instructors remove friction in real time
- Teams leave with working code they can continue using
Workshops turn “we are interested” into “we can use this.”
Hackathons: The Fastest Way to Create Sticky Users at Scale
If workshops build capability, hackathons build ownership.
Hackathons give developers freedom to:
- Solve problems that matter to their company
- Explore creative and advanced use cases
- Collaborate across teams and regions
- Push your product in realistic conditions
This is where the stickiest users are created.
Why hackathons drive product loyalty
- Developers spend hours or days inside your platform
- They emotionally invest in what they build
- They associate your product with innovation and success
- They are far more likely to continue using it after the event
Hackathons routinely engage hundreds to thousands of enterprise-grade developers in a short period of time, making them one of the most efficient adoption engines available.
Proven Outcomes Companies See From These Experiences
Companies that invest in hands on workshops and hackathons consistently see:
- Up to 10x increases in product adoption
- Integrations completed in days, not weeks
- Large-scale engagement with high-quality developer profiles
- Stronger internal advocacy and product pull-through
- Clear alignment with KPIs around users trained and retained
Organizations like IBM, UiPath, ByteDance, Aderant, Windsurf, and n8n use these formats because they work with experienced, enterprise-level developers, not just hobbyists.
Addressing the Two Biggest Objections Head On
“This is hard to measure ROI”
Adoption-focused events are measurable by:
- Number of developers trained
- Number of integrations built
- Conversion to power users
- Retention and expansion over time
These are outcomes that directly map to revenue and retention KPIs, not vanity metrics.
“We do not have the internal bandwidth”
That is exactly why specialized platforms and agencies exist.
With the right partner, you do not need to design challenges, manage logistics, source instructors, or run global events yourself. The entire experience can be facilitated end to end with clear adoption goals.
Why This Approach Works Across Industries
This model works for:
- SaaS platforms
- AI and ML tools
- Cloud and DevOps products
- Fintech and Healthtech
- Enterprise automation and workflow software
The common thread is simple. If developers need to use your product for it to succeed, hands on experience will outperform passive marketing every time.
Turning Hands On Experiences Into a Repeatable Growth Channel
When workshops and hackathons are run professionally, they become a repeatable part of your go-to-market strategy.
They can support:
- Demand generation for problem-aware buyers
- Customer onboarding and enablement
- Developer relations and community building
- Global reach through virtual-first delivery
- High-quality engagement with experienced enterprise developers
Platforms like try.hackathon.com are built specifically to help companies do this at scale, with the right tools, facilitation, and outcomes in mind.
FAQ: Creating Sticky Users With Workshops and Hackathons
What is the best way to get developers to adopt our product?
The fastest way is to let them build with it. Hands on workshops and hackathons consistently outperform content and demos when adoption is the goal.
How do these experiences create sticky users?
They create confidence, familiarity, and emotional investment. Developers who integrate your product during an event are far more likely to keep using it and advocate for it internally.
Are these events only for marketing teams?
No. They are often owned by product, developer relations, innovation, or growth teams. The goal is adoption, not just awareness.
Can this work for a global audience?
Yes. With the right tooling and facilitation, workshops and hackathons can engage developers across regions and time zones without sacrificing quality.
What KPIs do leaders typically care about?
Common KPIs include number of developers trained, integrations completed, power users created, and retention over time. These map directly to customer success and revenue goals.
Final Takeaway
If you are spending money on the same channels that do not convert, the issue is not budget. It is an approach.
Sticky users are created through experience, not exposure.
Hands-on workshops and hackathons give experienced developers the confidence to integrate your product, use it in production, and introduce it to others inside their company.
If your goal is to hit KPIs around customers trained, retained, and expanded, this is one of the most effective strategies available.
To see how this works in practice, start with try.hackathon.com.
That is where sticky users are built.
