In this note, we give an introduction to the concept of maximal $L^p$-regularity as a method to solve nonlinear partial differential equations. We first define maximal regularity for autonomous and non-autonomous problems and describe the connection to Fourier multipliers and $\mathcal R$-boundedness... The abstract results are applied to a large class of parabolic systems in the whole space and to general parabolic boundary value problems. For this, both the construction of solution operators for boundary value problems and a characterization of trace spaces of Sobolev spaces are discussed. For the nonlinear equation, we obtain local in time well-posedness in appropriately chosen Sobolev spaces. This manuscript is based on known results and consists of an extended version of lecture notes on this topic. (read more)