I just completed my first few Miro workshops. I experienced a repeated problem. Maybe I missed something but I locked almost every board and object but I had pre-loaded some of the frames with blank sticky notes. At one point during the workshop, a participant or many participants moved all the sticky notes, I’m sure by accident. I’m not sure if they accidentally highlighted them all or they were grouped by me beforehand. At any rate, are there any settings or ways to avoid participants moving things around? It messes with a facilitated session if you get to a board that has been manipulated inadvertently. It has happened to me in every session I’ve done.
It would be great if there were some controls to limit participants privileges on the board in terms of what tools they can use. Like can you lock them out of making arrows or shapes, etc?
Thank you!
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@mitzi rapkin - Your only options to avoid users making changes to objects on a board are to:
lock the objects; or
temporary switch the board out of “can edit” to “view” or “comment” mode.
Unfortunately there are no user/object specific permissions at this time, however, I can definitely see a number of use cases for what you are describing, e.g., only allow users to create or move sticky notes.
If you do create a Wish List Idea post, I would also recommend that you post a link to it back here, so that future readers of this post can quickly get to and vote for your Idea.
Lastly, don't forget to vote for your own Idea.
Hi @mitzi rapkin
We have found it very useful to have a team member allocated to “Miro gardening” duties. This role is to fix all those inadvertent changes and insertions, offer tips, and provide other support. New users very often add arrows, lines, boxes etc by mistake, as well as move and resize existing objects. The gardener can rapidly fix all those things. They can also add blank stickies if you are running out, resize text boxes/stickies, and so on. If they see a user is struggling, the gardener can quickly drop in a sticky with a command hint , for example “Double click a sticky to add text” “Ctrl Z can undo mistakes” and so on.
Also, a short familiarisation exercise can help users avoid these errors. One simple exercise is to get users to drag a sticky with their name on it from a box labeled “Invited” to a box labelled “Attending”; this is also an attendance record. Next level is to get them to drag a blank stick into a “Morning tea” box, insert text with their order, then add a connector between their order and their name. We have found these are simple, cover the basic Miro functions and flush out newbie errors. They can also be done while people are waiting for the meeting to start, or they can be set as pre-meeting orientation (also allowing you to see who did the orientation or struggled with it so you can contact them ahead of time to see if they need a personal tutorial).
I have found it is easy to leave some things unlocked, especially if you are making last minute changes. One way to check what you have locked and not locked is to select everything, or shift drag; only the unlocked elements will select, you can also jiggle the selected elements to make it more obvious what is unlocked.
Cheers
Mike
Thanks @Michael Dunlop I appreciate it. I wish I could have a gardener but usually I can’t. I am really hoping Miro takes my idea on the wish list to allow the administrator of a board to lock the toolbar functions if they so choose. I think it would be amazing, even if you have a lunch break to stop anyone from using the tools or even if you just know you won’t need one to put it as off limits during the session. It seems like an easy function to put into effect but I’m not a programmer so I have no idea.
Hey @mitzi rapkin that happens a lot and it’s just the nature of a dynamic collaboration platform. People are messy Unfortunately, there isn’t any way to limit tools participants have access to unless you use Miro.com/lite.
What do I do minimise these unexpected occurrences? Psychology and a very detailed onboarding. It works wonders. On some level, it is also creating boundaries for users ie what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable behaviour while in Miro environment.
Of particular note, teach them Undo. I over-emphasis this a lot. Whatever they do, if something looks funky, get everyone to pause and go Ctrl-Z, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Z. You’ll most likely get back the last clean state.
Also, depending on the session, I limit the number of tools I teach during onboarding. Sometimes, I only teach them Sticky Notes and that’s it. A few curious ones will try other tools, but that’s okay. The majority will simply stick to what they’ve been told. That’s another boundary creation.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any way to limit tools participants have access to unless you use Miro.com/lite.
