You're struggling to brainstorm effectively. Can virtual whiteboards help?

Virtual whiteboards are very helpful. But success really depends on the planning & preparation of the facilitator, more than on which app you use. My rule of thumb for facilitator planning time is 3:1 or 4:1. Meaning, if the meeting will be 1 hour, you should assume you'll spend 3-4 hours in planning and prep. If the meeting is 1 day, assume you'll spend at least 3 days in planning and prep. You need to think through every step, exactly what the instructions will be, what the outcomes of each step will be, and how you will move the group to the next step. And be sure to leave enough time for discussion; that typically takes more time than people expect.

Similar to a real whiteboard, this virtual canvas allows your team to share notes, drawings, files, and images. Interactive whiteboards make it easier for your team to collaborate in real time whether they are working remotely. They can support your creativity, help you connect with distant workers, and boost productivity. Although each whiteboard app is unique, some characteristics are shared and explained in usage. The person arranging the meeting can put up a whiteboard with an agenda, objectives, and instructions for brainstorming, or they can select particular templates to encourage creativity. You may continue to edit your digital whiteboard after the meeting is over, add more participants, export the board as an image, share it.

Visualizing your thinking is really important for quickly sharing ideas as they come to you, explaining these to colleagues and understanding (and simplifying) complexity. Virtual whiteboards give people the tools and space to do that, but I see a crucial advantage in ‘asynchronous’ work - people can interact and contribute at different times after any synchronized sessions. That is a big benefit for multiple stakeholders in different locations and even time zones. They can also play a significant part in visualizing workflow - so people can see in ‘real time’ what is going on, who’s doing what and what is happening next.

Absolutely! Virtual whiteboards can significantly enhance brainstorming by providing a collaborative and dynamic space for ideas. These digital platforms allow users to jot down thoughts, create mind maps, and share multimedia content in real-time. With features like color coding, shape tools, and easy erasing, they facilitate organized and visually engaging brainstorming sessions. Furthermore, remote collaboration is seamless, enabling teams to contribute from different locations. Virtual whiteboards enhance creativity, streamline communication, and foster a more interactive and inclusive brainstorming process, making them a valuable tool for overcoming challenges in idea generation and problem-solving.

Virtual whiteboards allow you to "think out loud" and practice the art of "barely sufficient" ideation, which means your aim is get ideas out there and organize and clean them up as you go. You aren't striving for perfection or anything particularly organized at first. The other benefit is iteration. The virtual white board allows you and your participants to return again and again and build upon ideas as more information becomes available or as conditions change.

Having been a HIGHLY. VISUAL person throughout my life notes full of sketches, doodles, cartoons, drawings, graphics a "picture is worth a 1000 words" I learned in 1977 while hitchhiking in eastern France from Beaufort to Ronchamp to see one of my favorite modern buildings: Le Corbu's Chapel at Ronchamp I learned I can communicate anywhere in the world with "SIGHTED" people using visuals.

Some other aspects to evaluate could be: Idea categorization: to sort and prioritize ideas. Voting or rating systems: for participants to express preferences or priorities. Timers and time trackers: to keep the session on schedule. Breakout room areas: for smaller group discussions. Mind mapping capabilities: to visually organize thoughts and ideas. AI-based idea generation: to provide prompts or expand on user input. Session recording capability: to review the brainstorming process later.

Dans le choix, j'intègre surtout la facilité de la prise en main pour mes participants. Si je dois prendre un outil qu'ils ne connaissent pas (en raison de la complexité du sujet, du nombre de personnes ou de la vue d'ensemble nécessaire), je créé toujours une vidéo et je mets à disposition un bac à sable pour s'entrainer 2-3 jours avant l'évènement. Il m'arrive aussi souvent de décider de rester sur des outils classiques en les détournant en tableau blanc. Par exemple un outil de slides en ligne fait très bien le job pour moins de 15 personnes si une vue d'ensemble n'est pas nécessaire.

I look for accessibility features. I also explore the availability of alternative formats for uploading and downloading content.

Structure is your best friend. Start with 1) your intended outcome or goal of the session 2) create an outline and then build a white board structure to emulate your outline and achieve your outcome.

L'outil ne va pas remplacer votre r?le de facilitateur / animateur. Privilégiez Reconnaissance, Structure et Stimulation. Et là encore le tableau blanc vient à votre service. 1/ Reconnaissance: en voyant les curseurs/noms de vos participants, vous pouvez les nommer. 2/ Structure: organisez votre tableau en sous-espaces bien délimités pour chaque séquence. Et utilisez des codes de couleurs, par exemple pour les types de feedback (Keep / Improve/ Start/ Stop) 3/ Stimulation: utilisez les fonctionnalités de type timer, reactions émojis, suivez-mon curseur.

The important aspect is not to lose sight of De Bono's notion that we can conceive of thinking as two aspects, perception and judgement. For brainstorming like other techniques for creativity we need to stay for as long as possible in the perception phase and suspend judgement. So we need to leverage the use of whiteboards to do exactly that, suspend judgement. One way is to psychologically signal the separation of perception and judgement through the Whiteboard, simply by demarcating two areas. Begin with the brainstorming asynchronously, then follow up synchronously for extending the brainstorming followed by the evaluation and judgement phase also synchronously.

To get the most from them, participants in a virtual white board session need to be comfortable with the tool at at least a basic level. So, do some type of simple warm-up activity using the virtual white board as way to ease into it and show how a few features work.

Whiteboards, whether virtual or physical, are a common and effective tool for brainstorming sessions. Their effectiveness, however, hinges on the proper use of accompanying tools and techniques including: ? Sticky Notes: Useful for adding movable elements to the brainstorming session, allowing for flexibility in organizing thoughts. ? Facilitation: Whether virtual or in-person, having a facilitator to guide the brainstorming session can help keep the discussion focused and productive.

Before using whiteboards, consider the type of work environment you want to use them in. It is advisable to verify which collaborative whiteboards, if any, have been approved for use by the risk and security department in a highly secure environment like banking insurance. Consider its usability as well as the apps and communication platform (Jira, Teams, Google, Zoom) that it needs to work with. Is real-time collaboration necessary? Does it require rich media support to incorporate images, word documents, video links, and other content? Access control, permissions, version control, export and share options, history tracking, notifications, and reminders are possible additional requirements.

I have been using Scribblar for more than a decade. I totally love it. It's not a very visible and used product because of no marketing.

I think brainstorming is a tool that needs more than white board. Facilitators, team leaders, manager that want to use brainstorming should learn some technics to have an effective brainstorming that is more than just giving out post-it. For example: if we are looking at improving a process we can ask people to brainstorm ideas if the money was unlimited then if the time was unlimited and so on.. it helps people thinking outside the box.