In everyday working life, we happen to use a lot of tools. Often just out of curiosity, to see if they can be useful and improve our productivity. And in most cases, nothing earth-shattering happens.
But sometimes really useful tools can be found. Tools that become part of your daily work and that, after a while, you cannot do without. This is the case with Miro.
I would like to specify that this is not a sponsored post and that Warp7 has no collaboration with Miro, we are simply very satisfied customers. We are customers who have gone through the funnel of the customer journey up to the Advocacy stage. If you have no idea what I am talking about, it means you have not studied! Go and retrieve my previous article.
What is Miro? Miro is ultimately nothing more than a blackboard. Or perhaps it is better to call it a ‘notice board’. A giant virtual notice board on which we can put anything: images, texts, ideas, post-it notes, videos.
And all these elements can be logically linked together, can be moved, can be commented on, edited and manipulated as you wish.
Ah… and it is collaborative.
To be more technical, we could say that Miro is a web application that offers a wide range of tools for visual collaboration. In this article, I will explain how Miro can be used in a practical and effective way to improve productivity and creativity in work projects.
What is Miro and how it works
Miro is an infinite digital whiteboard where you can draw, write, paste and connect ideas. Its interface is very intuitive and allows you to easily create diagrams, concept maps, schematics and much more. Each element on the board is interactive, which means you can move, resize and connect elements as you wish.
A tool to bring order to ideas
One of Miro’s most powerful features is its ability to help organise ideas. When starting a new project or solving a complex problem, it can be difficult to keep everything in mind. With Miro, you can ‘throw down’ all your ideas on a whiteboard and organise them logically. This allows you to see the big picture and identify connections between the various ideas.
In a complex web project, this becomes particularly useful: there are many online assets, traffic sources and marketing tools. And all these objects must be organised so that they can work in harmony. Miro for visualising this complexity is really good.
A tool for explaining concepts and strategies
Often, explaining concepts and strategies requires more than written words. Miro allows you to create clear and engaging visualisations that help you communicate effectively. For example, you can create flowcharts to illustrate processes, or concept maps to organise ideas visually. It is also particularly useful when interfacing with developers. A Miro board, supported by a good project document with specifications, can make the task very clear. And assigning a task clearly and precisely means not having to put your hands on it a second and third time, not having to hold meetings to ‘fix’ misunderstandings and, in short, saving time and resources.
Real-Time and Shared Collaboration
One of Miro’s great strengths is its ability to facilitate real-time collaboration. Message boards can be shared with colleagues, customers or external collaborators, allowing everyone to work together and make changes in real time. This eliminates the need to exchange files via email or to hold endless meetings.
Project management
Miro is not only a tool for creativity, it can also be used to manage projects. The integrated Kanban functionality allows tasks to be organised in columns (e.g. ‘To Do’, ‘In Progress’ and ‘Done’) and progress to be tracked visually. It’s a simple but effective way to keep everyone on the same page and make sure projects run smoothly. Nothing too complex, but a simple Lean Canvas can be perfectly integrated.
Additions and updates
Miro continues to improve and update itself constantly. Integrations with tools such as Smartsheet expand its capabilities and make it even more useful for project management. In addition, new features are regularly added to expand the functionality of this great notice board. And personally, I am looking forward to seeing how artificial intelligence can be integrated in this context.
Using Miro in training and distance learning
For those of you who are also involved in online training and consulting, Miro has one more reason to exist: companies and virtual classrooms can exploit Miro to conduct interactive and engaging training sessions, going beyond the simple transmission of information or the presentation of the usual Power Point slides.
Imagine you need to train your team or an external team: with Miro, you can create a virtual whiteboard that acts as a collaborative space to explore concepts, share resources and develop solutions together. It is like having a real lecturer in front of you who supports his words through signs and concepts imprinted on a whiteboard. Not to mention being able to support theory and projects that are explained with concept maps, diagrams and schematics in an easy and intuitive way.
Is there only Miro?
No. Of course not. There are many tools that ‘do the same thing’. I won’t name names because you only have to do google searches like ‘online virtual blackboard’ and I don’t want to speak ill of other services. I’ll just tell you that I tried a few, also to see if there were any that offered lesser economic conditions, and in the end I decided to continue using Miro. Making an assessment that includes the functionality, the user interface, the ease of use and sharing even for those ‘outside the team’, and the possibility of using the tool also via apps from mobile devices, Miro wins in the end.
Conclusions
Miro is useful. Gentlemen, this is the really important thing when using a tool: it must be useful. And Miro is. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend you do, you can create a free account and use it to manage three whiteboards (which can be more than enough for running a small business). And if you don’t even want to create a free account, you can use the ‘demo‘ version which requires no account but still allows you to try the tool on a whiteboard that is 24 hours old.
It is a simple and effective way to improve your productivity, put your ideas in order and share projects with your collaborators in a clearer and more understandable way.
