Whether you do it quarterly, annually, or even weekly, running a planning workshop can be challenging. You need to make sure everyone understands the big picture and vision. You also need to ensure each person has a voice in the planning process. Finally, you need to lead the group to alignment and verify that they’re clear on next steps. These are the challenges I confronted while leading a goal-setting session at Miro’s recent Executive team offsite (virtual this year).

When most people think of startup incubators, they probably imagine famous hubs for startups like Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Austin. The small team at INVANTI is trying to change that paradigm and cultivate entrepreneurs from their startup studio in South Bend, Indiana.

We have been running our own design and development agency for over 10 years, successfully collaborating while fully remote since long before the COVID-19 crisis—in fact, most of our international team has never met in person. Several years ago, we shifted from email to using an online chat tool. We were looking for ways to improve team communication and boost morale.

When we introduced Miro Live Embed, we wanted to empower any partner to bring Miro’s collaborative whiteboard to their product with minimal development effort and no cost. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for anyone to have access to a powerful visual collaboration experience, whenever and wherever they need it. Today we’re excited to share some of our newest partnerships and the flexible ways these partners are offering an embedded Miro experience within their products.

At Miro, we believe in the power of community. It’s crucial to have a group of like-minded people to connect and discuss what matters, especially during this challenging time. Last year, people around the world began to gather in the Miro Online Community to share ideas, learn best practices, meet other Miro users, and get support. We’ve now reached an incredible milestone of 10k registered community members!

Today we’re introducing Miro’s Flexible Licensing Program: a new offering created to help organizations of all sizes scale visual collaboration at their own pace — unlimited licenses every quarter with no upfront commitments or retroactive fees. The past year has taught us that people and organizations are more resilient when they come together. In many ways, we’ve had to redefine what it means to be “together,” and by extension, to be connected.

Be honest. Have you ever nodded along during a meeting or workshop when you really had no idea what was going on? Facilitators often face the challenge of ensuring all attendees are having fun and actively participating (and staying awake!). Thankfully, there are solutions: icebreakers, energizers, and even how you organize your board can keep people focused and involved. But what if the virtual room is full of first-time Miro users?

As UX researchers, we take our cues from the product development organization on where we should spend our time. We need access to the big picture. Without that, we risk being brought in too late on projects, unable to influence product and business decisions. To fill this need, our team at Kira conducted a workshop with product managers and designers to collaboratively create a research roadmap — and we’re sharing our process in this post.

Staying on the same page with a remote team is no easy task, which is why the team document is a remote work lifeline. Documentation can both act as an artifact — a final presentation to share with others — and serve as a living workspace — where we draft our thoughts and collaborate with our team online.

Zendesk is a customer service software company with support and sales products designed to improve customer relationships. Their platform gives customer service agents the tools they need to rapidly and efficiently serve on the front-line of their brand’s customer experience.