Running a useful remote workshop on an online whiteboard

The failure mode of an online whiteboard is not the technology. It is a canvas covered in 200 sticky notes that nobody reads again. Structure is what makes the difference, and most of it can be set up before anyone joins.

Prepare the board before the session

• Lay out named zones — a parking area, a working area and a decisions area — so notes have somewhere to belong.
• Start from a template. A SWOT, empathy map or kanban gives people a shape to fill instead of a blank page.
• Drop the supporting document straight onto the canvas so nobody has to alt-tab to a PDF mid-discussion.
• Write the question you are answering in large text at the top. It stops the drift.

A format that works for an hour

1. Five minutes: silent reading of the context on the board.
2. Ten minutes: silent note writing, everyone at once, no discussion.
3. Fifteen minutes: cluster the notes together as a group.
4. Twenty minutes: discuss the clusters, biggest first.
5. Ten minutes: write the decisions in the decisions zone, with a name beside each one.

Keep the board readable afterwards

A board that made sense during the session is often unreadable a week later. Before you close it, delete the duplicates, move the parked items to a corner, and export the decisions area as an image or PDF to attach to the follow-up note. The archived export is what people will actually open.

Tablets and phones

Someone will always join from a large screen. Check that your zones are large enough to be navigable at a zoomed-in level, and prefer larger text than looks necessary on your main display.