ThemeTech & the online room
CardCard 54 of 63
Questions5 to explore

Visual Collaboration

Work in shared real-time workspaces

A shared visual workspace is the closest thing a remote workshop has to a table with sticky notes on it, and it does that job well when it is set up before anyone arrives.

Visual collaboration tools (Miro, FigJam, Mural, MIRO, Jamboard and their equivalents) let groups write, move, cluster, and react to content in a shared digital space at the same time. When they work, they are one of the genuine advantages of working online: everyone can write simultaneously, the output is already digital, and it persists after the session.

When they do not work, usually because the board is blank and confusing, the link did not go out in advance, or participants need a new account, they become the biggest time sink in the session. Most of the setup work happens before the call, not during it.

Online, specificallyIn a physical room sticky notes and wall space are immediately familiar to any participant; online a visual collaboration tool has its own interface, permissions, and navigation that participants need to learn before they can use it, so the learning curve is part of the session design.

In a remote session

The same building block as it plays out online: how experienced facilitators tend to handle it when the room is a screen. Illustrations to react to, not rules to follow.

Build the board before the session

Good facilitators set up the full board structure, with frames, zones, instructions, and any pre-loaded content, before the session opens, so participants land in a space that tells them what to do.

Share the link in advance

They send the board link in the welcome package so participants can open it before the session and check access, rather than discovering a login problem during the tech introduction.

Use a facilitator-locked template

They lock their own instructions and frame labels so participants cannot accidentally move or delete them while they are writing on the board.

Walk through navigation on the board

During the tech introduction, they spend two to three minutes showing the group how to move around the board, how to add a sticky, and how to zoom in and out, before asking anyone to use it independently.

Questions to plan around

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

Is the board fully set up before the session, or are you planning to build parts of it live?
Have you sent the board link in advance so participants can check access before the day?
Does the board have clear instructions inside it, so participants know what to do without being told verbally?
Have you set up view or edit permissions correctly for this group?
What will you do if a participant's account does not give them edit access when the activity starts?

What trips people up online

Sending the board link for the first time when the session is already live means the first ten minutes of the session become a login and troubleshooting exercise.
A blank canvas with no instructions causes participants to freeze; even a simple 'add your sticky here' prompt in the right place is enough to remove that hesitation.
Participants on phones or tablets can view most visual collaboration boards but cannot always interact fully; this is a device question as much as a tool question and needs to be tested.