Do you remember the old school projectors they used to have in school? Whenever the projector was pulled out in class, I knew I was going to have fun. The teachers allowed us to write on the projector and it just felt more collaborative.
That’s whiteboarding in business. As a marketer, you likely have many brainstorming sessions creating landing pages, making copies, and strategizing a campaign.
And brainstorming and whiteboarding go together like peanut butter and jelly.
In this post, we’re going to dive into whiteboarding and how you can use this process to enhance your brainstorming sessions.
Whiteboarding
Whiteboarding is the process of working together during brainstorming sessions on a whiteboard. This can be done remotely or in person. A whiteboarding session comes in handy with a tool that allows you to draw, place, chat, send files, or enter notes. The virtual whiteboards should have the same benefits as personal whiteboarding – every team member can comment, edit and share.
Whiteboarding session
While whiteboarding sessions are great, it’s easy to lose control of a brainstorming session. To make a successful whiteboard session, we’ve put together a few tips.
Whiteboarding techniques
1. Be creative.
One of the best parts of a whiteboarding session is that your team can be creative. Employees can exchange documents, attach sticky notes as reminders and share their ideas with the team. When you’re personal, it’s fun to let everyone on the team use the whiteboard so everyone has a chance to take notes and share their thoughts.
2. Stay focused.
It is easy to lose track of the goal in any brainstorming session. To stay focused, we recommend writing your goal on the top of your whiteboard so everyone can see and know what to do. When ideas that are off topic are brought up, write them in a section on the side so the ideas can be pursued.
3. Encourage meaningful conversations.
Brainstorming sessions also allow teams to have important conversations about different ideas. No idea is too small and everyone should feel safe to speak up. The whole point of a whiteboarding session is engaging and collaborating with members of your team. It should be interactive. These sessions also help people feel heard and take their ideas into account.
4. Keep the board organized.
When conducting a whiteboard session, it is important to keep the board organized. Even if it’s a brainstorming session, your ideas should be labeled in sections so everyone knows which idea belongs to which topic. You can also add a page section here for “off-topic” ideas only. You’ll still want to write these down, even if it’s unrelated to the topic at hand, so that you can come back to it later and keep the meeting focused.
Now that we know what whiteboarding is and how you can be successful in running a meeting, let’s look at some remote whiteboarding tools to help you succeed in a virtual brainstorming session.
Remote whiteboarding
As mentioned before, whiteboarding can also be done remotely. This doesn’t have to be a personal activity. In fact, remote whiteboarding meetings can be just as effective as everyone can use the whiteboard at the same time while having full visibility.
Below are some of the whiteboarding tools that you can use in your video conferencing meetings.
Remote whiteboarding tools
1. Zooming
The great thing about Zoom is that it has a whiteboarding tool built into the video conferencing software. If you’re using Zoom for your remote meetings, look no further for a whiteboard tool.
To access the Zoom Whiteboard, click the Share Screen button, and then click Whiteboard. One of the features we like about this tool is that other participants can comment and participate in writing on the whiteboard (if allowed). It’s also nice because you can turn this feature off if you want.
2. Microsoft whiteboard
If you don’t use Zoom or prefer to use a different whiteboard tool, Microsoft has an excellent option. With this tool, all team members can edit and comment in real time directly on the screen.
The whiteboard is also infinite, meaning you can draw, type, or add as many sticky notes as you want. You can also save your whiteboards so you can use the tool as often as you want while returning to old sessions.
3. Concept board
Conceptboard is another remote whiteboarding tool that you can use during your meetings. This tool lets you see live cursors and everyone can collaborate at the same time.
In addition, this tool has video conferencing capabilities so you can talk to your team while brainstorming.
4. Limnu
Limnu is an online whiteboard tool where realism is the biggest seller. It feels like a real whiteboard, but it has the functions of the online whiteboard like collaboration. Anyone can edit in real time, but you can also restrict permissions if necessary. In addition, there is a chat box feature that is helpful for those who do not have editing permissions to express their point of view.
Whiteboarding is a great way to collaborate and brainstorm with your team. And best of all, you don’t have to be in person to hold meetings together. With remote whiteboarding tools, you can just as easily brainstorm a session.
