Lasers are now an integral part of post-modern society, with applications in materials science and in medicine, but also in multimedia, manufacturing, security, etc. However, in materials science, and more specifically in laser processing of materials for thin films, nanostructuring and device applications, the more intimate aspects of laser-matter interaction are in most cases overlooked. The application of thermal analysis techniques directly to the materials being processed could open up new opportunities in the fields of process monitoring and testing. Herein, results on the laser processing and thermal analysis investigations of soft organic materials such as organic semiconductors, various polymers, hybrid metal-organics, precursors, and carbon nanostructures, are presented and discussed. Quantitative studies of the decomposition products and phenomena reveal that the melting points together with other physical and chemical changes in the samples, either exothermic or endothermic vs. their chemical structure, all play an important role upon the kinetics and thermal behaviour. Mechanistic/kinetic pathways are also proposed as such results are important in further designing laser processing protocols, i.e. in matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) or in laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT), for thin film deposition and/or device printing.