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Like loads of people here, I love what Miro can do, and I desperately wish it could do more to support live facilitated workshops and interactive training.

We need a really good facilitator/participant permissions tool as soon as possible. I am sure I am not the only one who is ready to move to Miro as the main platform for all of my online facilitation work with clients, but I am stalled because I don’t know how soon this main deficiency will be fixed. This is a big barrier to running workshops with less tech-savvy participants or with groups that I will only be seeing for 2-4 hours. That’s why I want to know:

  • What can you tell us about what Miro developers are working on right now?
  • What are the priorities internally? What will you all be working on next?
  • Should we be joining together to hire developers to make add-ons, or can we count on Miro to keep improving the core product for live facilitated workshops?
  • Can we help you? What can we do?

@Anna Savina , @Marina , @Oleg K , @Lena Shenkarenko , @Brittni , @Yuliya Malysh , @Alex Rodnyy , @Ksenia  For the Miro team -  thank you for everything you do, and please understand that this post is coming from a place of love! I would love to talk to someone about the live workshop use case and the most important priorities for professional group facilitators. I would love to run or join a workshop for other facilitators to decide together what we need most from Miro. Whatever you need.

 

For all of my fellow facilitators and trainers: please consider voting for these wishlist items if you haven’t done so already:

Usage rights for facilitators vs participants by @Peter Green  - I think a good implementation of this would almost completely solve the problem of overwhelming participants during the onboarding stage, by allowing us to limit their abilities at first, so we can slowly ramp up the tools available to them as they learn. This post is mostly focused on locking, but there are comments (including mine!) pointing out that this is much more than just locking powers!

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/usage-rights-for-facilitators-vs-participants-440

 

 

Disable “Let’s Start” pop up message  by @mlanders - We are running our own live onboarding processes, and this just gets in the way! Please let us keep it as clean and simple as possible for our participants.

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/disable-let-s-start-welcome-message-1001

 

Raise Hand and other instant reaction icons for live workshop events (by me!)  This would reduce the barriers to speaking up, because participants would no longer have to go back to the Zoom participant list to raise their hands and could instead keep their attention inside Miro.

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/raise-hand-and-other-instant-reaction-icons-for-live-workshop-events-987

 

Allow anonymous board editors to rename themselves for the duration of a session by @Sebastian Schreiner - Right now we have choice of having our participants be anonymous or placing the extra speed bump of registration with Miro between them and the ability to participate. Please allow us to make it as easy as possible for our participants to have a great experience! I promise having a great experience will do more to make them a future Miro customer then making them register will!

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/allow-anonymous-board-editors-to-rename-themselves-for-the-duration-of-a-session-808

 

Customize toolbar for anonymous guest editors by @Thinkqualitative - If we can make Miro as simple to use as Google Jamboard for our participants at first, then gradually add abilities and functions as they are needed, Miro will absolutely be the best tool available for facilitating live online interactive workshops.

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/customize-toolbar-for-anonymous-guest-editors-586

 

Set default sticky note size and shape by @Rico Trevisan -  I build my templates around medium-sized rectangular stickies, but my participants automatically create square stickies of whatever their most recent size is. Pre-setting the default size would be a huge relief.

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/set-default-sticky-note-size-233

 

Hide/reveal frames by @Tim J. Peters  - Again the main aim here is reduce confusion and stress by limiting what participants can do and see to a small area at first. They can’t get lost if there is only one area visible!

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/hide-reveal-frames-445

 

Super lock for facilitators function by @Michele Budri - this would allow us to lock things in a way that participants can’t unlock by accident. We have some hints that Miro might be working on this already. The sooner the better!

https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/lock-object-by-role-773

 

 

Hey @Francis Jee I am very interesting to get your feedback on this Onboarding Video that our team has created: 

 

Hi @Kate Ivanova , that is a great little video! I like the following:

  1. at just 3 minutes, this would be something I could use for most of my entry level with no experience on MIro.
  2. The pace is just right. Not too fast, not too slow.
  3. Zooming in on a new button is very helpful for identifying where a button/function can be found (eg 3 dots, and undo).
  4. Showing the visual of the key when you mention them is also very helpful.

#3 & #4 above is especially important to individuals who may be slower at scanning the screen to identify the item mentioned - for example some older  individuals who may not have spent much time on user-interfaces like Miro, or those who are self-conscious or lack confidence especially when they are virtually surrounded by other participants and start to experience brain-freeze. So happy you did these small touches.

 

Suggestions to make this video even better:

  1. When you first talk about settings at 0:15, can you also zoom in the button so viewers can identify the location easily? It is the first time a function located on the board is mentioned.
  2. When describing an action, can the voice pause for 1 second before executing to allow the new viewers eyes to switch to the location of the ‘laser pointer’. BTW, could we have a bright green or red laser please? Maybe flash or blink to indicate a click just before the action takes place?
  3. When the scroll wheel is mentioned, can we also have an image just like the keys when they are mentioned?
  4. Not sure if the undo shortcut key is necessary. Keep it simple and just use the undo button at the top? Those who know Ctrl-Z would automatically try it anyway.
  5. Talking about adding images, is there a way to also talk about adding images from your computer. I often run ice-breakers where I ask participants to add images of themselves to a map of the world to indicate where they come from. Then also use the arrow to point to a location. People love to see faces of other participants, especially from their home town or country.

     

  6. Maybe invite them to explore the add icons on their own as a teaser. Many users love icons, even more than google images. It reminds them of stickers.

OK, that’s my 2-cents worth of observations and thoughts. I hope you find them helpful.

 

Warm regards,

 

Francis

@Kate Ivanova This video will be super helpful and I can’t wait to be able to share a link to it once it’s on Miro Academy.

I second @Francis Jee’s comment re showing how to upload a picture the user’s computer - perhaps even a quick plug of ‘you can upload a picture from your phone using the Miro smartphone app’.

Further to Francis’ comment of showing the scroll wheel of a mouse when you talk about zooming in/out, I would like to see a web cam on the user’s keyboard/mouse/track pad in a small video bubble in the corner of the screen to demonstrate exactly what they are doing as they interact with the board - pinch-to-zoom, scroll-to-zoom, Shift + click to select multiple objects, etc.

The point/tip I like the best: Suggesting that user’s set their navigation to Mouse vs. Trackpad or Touchscreen.

I’m looking forward to seeing this live in the Academy!

Hey @Francis Jee I am very interesting to get your feedback on this Onboarding Video that our team has created: 

 

 @Kate Ivanova this onboarding video is great! Is there a version I can embed in a board to try out with my participants this week?

@Alan Heckman sure, you can use it and embed in  your board!

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