Earlier this year, our office here in Espoo was filled to the brim as we welcomed a group of enthusiastic students from a local schools coding club. Eager to understand what software consultancy is all about, some of the Bofor’s brightest minds (and our CEO) were assigned to cater the young minds.
We finished things with a Kahoot! (it’s not a school thing if Kahoot! isn’t part of it), with a mix of questions about coding fundamentals and some fun trivia about Bofor. But the heart of the visit was a hands-on demonstration of how agile development works in real life—complete with sticky notes, makeshift roles, and paper airplanes.
Agile, Paper Planes, and the Power of Iteration
There were over 30 students attending so we split the students into teams, each one taking on familiar software development roles:
- Project Lead – responsible for coordination and ultimately making the all-important flight attempt
- Designers – tasked with creating the blueprint for a successful paper plane
- Developers – folding the designs into reality
The challenge? Design and launch a paper airplane that would fly the longest distance. They got three attempts. After each throw, they could see what others were doing—learn from better-performing designs, revise their own strategy, and iterate.
By the third round, the improvement across all teams was tangible. New wing shapes, more stable folds, smarter throws. Some even borrowed aerodynamics from rival teams. Some used our smart-tv’s to watch Youtube videos on “how to make a paper plane”. All of it done in the spirit of experimentation and continuous improvement.
More Than Just Planes
For many of the students, this was a new kind of experience. Some probably hadn’t even made a paper plane before. In school—and often in life—we’re taught to get it right the first time. Your tests are graded after your first try. You’re expected to choose a study path at 15 and stick to it. First impressions are said to matter most. A job interview might be your only shot. Even hobbies can come with pressure: if you’re not instantly good at drawing, coding, or playing an instrument, you’re told it’s not “your thing.”
No wonder iteration feels unfamiliar—it’s not that we can’t learn from mistakes, it’s that we’re rarely given the chance to use that what we learned.
But software development (and let’s be honest, much of real life) doesn’t work that way. You try. You learn. You adjust. You Google and bang your head against the table. And you try again.
That’s the heart of agile development: small steps, fast feedback, and permission to improve. We saw it click for the students—not just as a concept, but in practice.
It was a reminder to us as well. Whether you’re launching code or a paper airplane, iteration beats perfectionism every time.
We’re grateful to the students for their curiosity and creativity, and we look forward to seeing the paths they’ll chart in tech. Maybe even back here at Bofor one day.