What's your experience with virtual whiteboard tools for remote or hybrid collaboration? Any recommendations?
CIO in Software, 51 - 200 employees
I have used Zoom for white boarding - This is still being adopted by whole teams. This facility is relatively new and people are not used to it. We are thinking of this being taken up by leadership team first for adoption. People will copy once they see the impact. Senior Director Enterprise Applications in Software, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Our teams use Jira and Confluence to pass story points around work handoff items to each other but we do not use a virtual whiteboard. Instead, we hold a townhall meeting and allow folks to ask general questions ahead of the meeting. Director in Manufacturing, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
We are fully Teams. It’s been working well but you really need to invest in developing your presentation and collaboration skills. Things like pausing to ensure people participate. I find the soft skills are most important. The software choices, I preferred Skype. And WebEx has better presentation tools, Q&A, and polling or quiz tools. I’d go with which tool works for you economically and technically. Then invest in learning the tool in and out with a focus on your own personal presentation and collaboration skills. Pause for input. Always have something shared on the screen. Draw people out and into the discussion if you don’t hear them.IT Director in Travel and Hospitality, 10,001+ employees
I'm a big advocate of Miro for whiteboarding. It's free to use (paid options are available for Enterprise), intuitive, feature-rich and very user friendly. It's completely synchronous, and with both a web browser UI and an app (you can use either), it's incredibly powerful. They have a huge variety of templates to use, it's far more than just a whiteboard; SWOT, Fishbone, 5-why, brainstorm etc. are all there, you are spoilt for choice when facilitating - but you can keep it simple if needed.
I'm keen to try Team's new whiteboard feature, but Miro is such an established player and so usable, it would be hard to dethrone it!
IT Strategist in Government, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
I find that for many users the bulk of virtual whiteboard functionality is still confusing and the whole notion of using a mouse instead of a marker is a big turn off. We need to realize that we are used to see and practice "non-virtual" white boards in the classrooms since SK or Elementary school. Once the new generation starts seeing and using virtual whiteboards everywhere, the rate of adoption will drastically increase.In our organization we use Microsoft tools and they are as good as any other brand in my opinion. The majority of users will adapt to any UI given proper basic training and practice.
Board Member in Healthcare and Biotech, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Zoom has been the default option during the pandemic with its ease of use. Also tried Google and Microsoft, but Zoom experience was what stuck with everyone. So we use Microsoft Teams for internal meetings as there is no additional licensing costs, and Zoom with external constituents.Off course there are many specialized whiteboard apps, but an integrated one works best !
Director of IT in Software, 201 - 500 employees
We use MS Teams and Microsoft Whiteboard as it comes with o365 and does not require any additional license and with no additional cost. It's doing the job, but there is better whiteboard software like Miro with way more features.Director of Information Technology and Information Security in Healthcare and Biotech, 10,001+ employees
Excellent collaboration tool for narrowing communication and even culture gaps between dispersed and diverse workforce across geographies.VP, Technology Manager in Education, 10,001+ employees
We are currently moving forward 100% with MS Teams. The annotation and whiteboard tools there work well. We had previously tested with Adobe Connect and really liked the way that tool worked, but it posed some info security risks that we were not able to work around.Any of these tools take time to catch on. If it's important to you, be sure to use it all the time and create other evangelists for it across your organization.
CTO in Services (non-Government), 51 - 200 employees
All the whiteboards from the different vendors are technically close enough that I'm not going to go into differences, but the two keys I have found for effective virtual whiteboards (and they can be very valuable for communication if used properly) are:1) trackpads are out, and a mouse barely suffices. Wacom type devices with pens are worth the money. Buy a few low end ones for the office and send some more out to remote workers who could benefit.
And 2) Who is using the whiteboard needs to be effectively controlled - like passing around a conch. More than one person trying to demonstrate their thoughts, or contribute to a diagram is a disaster no matter how good the intentions of the second person.
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Community User in Software, 11 - 50 employees
organized a virtual escape room via https://www.puzzlebreak.us/ - even though his team lost it was a fun subtitue for just a "virtual happy hour"
CTO in Software, 201 - 500 employees
Without a doubt - Technical Debt! It's a ball and chain that creates an ever increasing drag on any organization, stifles innovation, and prevents transformation.