Miro collaboration tool: unlock your team's potential

What is Miro and what do we use it for?

Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard platform with endless uses. Teams can brainstorm with sticky notes, project plan, and manage agile workflows all in one place. 

Miro comes equipped with a large range of templates for meetings and collaborations of any kind. Miro can meet almost any collaboration need - from ice breakers, mind maps, flowcharts, and event planning to service blueprint templates and more.

Users can contribute to the templates or set up their own in real-time. No more taking notes and trying to re-create a project spreadsheet after the meeting. Miro lets you build diagrams, develop strategies and host project planning sessions, and brainstorm all in one central spot.

Flexible pricing means you can choose exactly what level of access to Miro is best for your organization. Pricing options vary based on the number of members using the platform. This means you won't have to pay a whole lot extra just because your organization has one employee too many. According to Miro, over 45 million users worldwide use its platform, so your organization will be in good company.

Part of Miro's appeal is its ability to integrate with the platforms your team is already familiar with. This integration is where Miro excels and stands out from the pack.

How we use Miro to improve our team collaboration

There's no denying that effective internal communication improves employee engagement. Employees who feel they're contributing meaningfully feel more connected to their workplaces. Connected employees are more likely to become brand advocates, a big win for employers. A recent Gallup study of over 30 million employees showed that employee buy-in is critical to an organization's success. In fact, highly engaged workforces outperform their peers by 147% in earnings per share¹.

The Miro digital whiteboard replicates the experience of working together on a physical whiteboard. No matter how globally distributed your team is, everyone can contribute either in real time or asynchronously. You can see what everyone is writing, drawing, creating, or noting as it’s happening. Its virtual meeting spaces promote participation and make employees feel valued and seen. 

The good news? Getting started with Miro is simple and takes next to no time. Here's are the steps to set it up.

1. Setting up an account 

Setting up a Miro account takes just a few minutes. Miro will ask a few questions about your area of work, team, and company size, send you a confirmation code, and you'll be on your way.

The first thing you'll see is Miro's pre-built template options. This selection shows some of Miro's most popular templates. It includes a template for team brainstorming sessions, product roadmaps, and user journey mapping, to name a few.

2. Connecting 

Miro has put your physical whiteboard out of business. Workspaces look very different these days. Teams work from around the globe, and the covid pandemic has led to huge increases in hybrid work. With Miro, remote teams can effortlessly collaborate on the same whiteboard in real time.

Nobody likes a meeting that could have been an email. Miro’s digital whiteboard makes it easy to set up meetings with clear agendas and efficient ways of providing feedback. Nobody needs to frantically take notes with Miro because everyone’s ideas can be written straight onto the Miro board. 

3. Collaborating and co-creating

Miro is a great place for teams to come together, even when they’re not sharing a physical workspace. 

Say, for example, Sam’s marketing team is spread across the globe. They need to work on customer segments and personas for a new product, but they struggle to find a meeting time that works for everyone. Instead, they use the Miro workshop board personas. Sam shares it with their team, who can input their thoughts, comments, and notes directly onto the board for others to read and reflect on. No more getting up at 3 am for Sam. 

Miro’s range of whiteboard tools lets your team input content in a way that feels best for them. Your post-it note-obsessed colleague can use digital sticky notes to leave their thoughts. Your designers can add doodles and diagrams to boards to highlight their ideas, and Google Docs aficionados can leave comments wherever they feel like it. 

4. Templates

Miro comes equipped with a huge range of whiteboard templates. Each template within Miro functions like a virtual whiteboard. Gone are the days of in-person brainstorming sessions. Where once your team might have scribbled their thoughts on butcher's paper, they can now gather ideas in the digital whiteboard tool. It's all in one place, and everyone can access the same whiteboard no matter where they are. That means your colleague working from a camper van in Rome can have as much input into the meeting as those in the office. 

Plenty of Miro's digital whiteboard tool templates include prompts to get you started. For example, Mohammed is running a workshop to define his team’s purpose. He uses the Team Charter template, which prompts participants to define their mission, team goals, team success criteria and team roles. Mohammed’s team share their thoughts on their values and agreements via digital sticky notes, comments, and even doodles using the pen tool. Later, Mohammed can export the board and send it to his team with all their thoughts and ideas captured in one place.

The board owner can choose who to share any single board with, including their own team or a cross-functional team. If you can't find a pre-built Miro board to suit your needs, you can always choose a blank canvas and build your own. 

5. Integrations

If you're already using other tools, chances are they can integrate with your Miro board. Integrations mean your team can use their video conferencing platform of choice and Miro at the same time. Miro integrates with some of the most popular SaaS products used for task management by companies worldwide. These include:

• Slack
• Google Drive
• Microsoft teams
• Jira
• Asana
• Trello
• Smartsheet
• Zoom

6. Apps

Teams on the go can download the Miro app to their Microsoft desktop, Android, or Apple device.

How we bring out the best in our team using Miro

So now you understand how to use Miro and how to maximize collaboration in your team. But you might still be wondering how to use a Miro board to get the most out of your team as individuals and as team players. That's where F4S comes in. F4S’s short assessment takes just 15-30 minutes to complete and, once complete, will give you access to the world’s first AI-powered coach, Marlee. 

F4S is dedicated to democratizing personal coaching to improve individual and team outcomes both at home and in the workplace. A core focus is on soft skills, which are becoming more and more valuable. In fact, over 61% of professionals say that soft skills are as important as technical skills in today's workplaces².

Hybrid and remote work is here to stay, making tools such as Miro and F4S invaluable. Many projects fail to deliver due to team dynamics. It may be conflict within a team or differing communication styles that derail a project. F4S is an excellent tool to bring out the best in your team. 

Using F4S, you can visualize your team’s different work styles. Armed with this knowledge, you can adapt communications within your team to suit individual’s needs. You’ll also be able to leverage each team member's motivations and assign tasks based on their strengths. Overall, you’ll have the tools to build better team culture and support your team on its way to success. 

People analytics

The F4S people analytics tool lets you gather cognitive and behavioral data on your teams. You can tailor your leadership style to suit your team and even build teams to maximize each individual's performance.

Benchmarking

Benchmark your team's motivations and performance to some of the world's most successful teams. This comparison will let you understand where your team members need more coaching support.

Understanding culture

The F4S Culture Map tool makes the vague notion of company culture tangible. Your teams will be able to recognize and celebrate their differences and similarities.

Personal coaching

F4S is home to the world's first AI-powered coach, Marlee. AI-powered coaching makes personal and professional development available to everyone and can be supplemented with human coaching if needed.

‍Effective communication

Once you understand how your team likes to communicate, you can all do so more effectively. Some people are body language driven, while others mull over each word before they speak. Either way, you'll all gain a deeper understanding of your communication styles and what works for your team.

Insights into your team members

The new insights feature in the F4S platform is invaluable. Team leaders can use insights to develop personalized coaching plans to focus on soft skills that need further development.

Getting started with F4S is easy 

Follow these steps to start your team's F4S journey:

1. Take the assessment
2. Set up your team 
3. Invite your team members to take the assessment 
4. Compare motivations, similarities, and differences 
5. Set goals for yourself and your team and receive F4S insights based on founder Michelle Duval’s 20 years of research into the motivations of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders. 

Understanding your employees is critical to your organization’s success. It has real, tangible flow-on effects on their performance. Minimizing conflict, and improving communication, collaboration, and teamwork are all productivity drivers. They'll get your team working more harmoniously and more efficiently.

Miro is one of our favorite tools here at F4S because of its endless potential for collaboration and co-creation. The online whiteboard, sticky notes, and pre-built templates make it easy and intuitive to use. Use Miro to plan projects on a single board or keep track of tasks and meeting notes. No matter what types of content you're producing, Miro likely has a workshop board to suit your needs.

How much does Miro cost?

Miro has great flexible pricing plans. Users can choose which level of functionality they need and then select from several options: free, starter, or business. Starter level access costs US$8 per user per month when billed annually. Business level access costs US$16 per user per month when billed annually. All costs increase slightly when billed monthly.

The free plan includes the Miro basics:

• Access to templates
• App integrations
• Single workspace with up to three boards

Starter plan users access these features too. In addition, they can use:

• Unlimited boards
• Project folders
• Custom templates
• Private boards
• Export ability
• Meeting add-ons such as video conferencing, time tracking tools, and voting ability

The business level may be the best fit for those who need access to more popular tools. It includes the features of the free and starter plans as well as:

• Unlimited boards for both private and public use,
• Miro Smart Meeting features such as breakout sessions, voting, and facilitation
• Diagramming tools which are perfect for visualizing outcomes.

Enterprises with more than 50 employees are best off contacting the Miro sales team to discuss pricing options.

Miro's pricing plans mean users only pay for what they want. The pricing options are transparent, so it's easy to choose which pricing plan is best for your organization's needs.

Who are Miro's competitors?

Tools such as Adobe XD, Mural, and Microsoft's Infinite Canvas are some of Miro's direct competitors.

Infinite Canvas 

Infinite Canvas by Microsoft is another collaborative whiteboard platform. It includes freehand drawing tools and a pen tool, and you can share a single board with your team. However, while it is certainly a handy piece of SaaS to have in your back pocket, it's far from a perfect tool. Infinite Canvas lacks the extensive abilities of Miro. Because it's part of the Microsoft 365 suite, it doesn't integrate with other software tools.

Mural

Mural is another digital whiteboard tool aimed at improving collaboration in the workplace. Users can use a range of digital tools to add their thoughts to the whiteboard, such as sticky notes. Mural also lets users integrate impromptu voice calls to discuss ideas. 

Adobe XD 

Adobe XD is less of a direct competitor, although it does include some similar functionalities. Instead, Adobe XD would complement Miro well, as it's one of the more popular tools available. Adobe XD is useful for building user story maps and examining the user journey in more detail. It has some sharing ability, but not to Miro's level of integration. Adobe XD also offers fewer flexible pricing plans.

In fact, many of Miro's competitors integrate well with Miro. This means those who have already found software tools that work for them don't necessarily need to choose. Some of Miro's competitors include:

• GoTo Meeting
• Zoom
• Webex Suite
• Microsoft Teams

Many of the above applications integrate with Miro, meaning you and your team don't have to choose. Keep your favorite tools and use Miro for its custom templates, flexible pricing plans, and task management options.