With more and more teams splitting their members up to their individual home offices, there is an ever-growing need for a way for these teams to keep in contact and collaborate on projects. Online brainstorming is the perfect way to resolve these distance issues.
Online brainstorming can be facilitated through tools like online whiteboards which can help teams keep a record of their ideas. Unlike video conferencing tools, which can be limiting, online whiteboards allow the focus of the online brainstorming session to be on the ideas and not your fellow collaborators.
What is Online Brainstorming?
Online brainstorming can be a useful tool for any team to communicate and push forward progress on a project. However, what is online brainstorming? While many people are familiar with the concept of brainstorming, online brainstorming is a relatively new innovation that allows teams to connect without the need to be in the same place.
This is, in essence, what online brainstorming is: the usage of online resources to conduct a brainstorming session. Typically, in these sessions, you will utilize certain technologies that will simulate the available tools that you would have in an in-person brainstorming session. These could things like an online whiteboard, video conferencing, or file-sharing applications.
The benefit of using online brainstorming is that it is mobile. Anyone on your team can participate without having to physically be in the office. This gives you flexibility about who can be included in a brainstorming session as well as when you can host a brainstorming session. Tools like an online whiteboard can help you keep track of everyone’s contributions so that no one is left out.
Should You Use an Online Whiteboard?
An online whiteboard like Hoylu can be an extraordinary tool for your online brainstorming session. With Hoylu, you are not limited to a set amount of space on a whiteboard. The board extends infinitely so you can brainstorm without interruption.
Hoylu also offers a variety of features that make it perfect for a team with diverse needs.
Specialized Toolbox: Each whiteboard space comes with its own toolbox suited to the exact needs of your team. Everything is conveniently located in one palette for you to select what you need and get to work.
Organizational Dashboard: Each time you host a brainstorming session, you can add it to your dashboard. From there, you can organize it to suit your needs, so everything stays right within your reach.
Easy-to-Use Templates: Hoylu has a selection of templates that make setting up your workspace easy and convenient. Should you want to import your own templates, you can do that as well.
Process Modules: Does your team use pull planning? With Hoylu, you can incorporate these processes with built-in modules that let you work the best way possible for your team.
Steps to Take
Before you can get started using an online whiteboard, you have to determine how to set up your online brainstorming session. Thankfully, there is a set of easy steps that you can follow to best prepare your team for a productive brainstorming session.
The first step that you must take is to determine the problem that your team is facing. This is the issue that you will tackle during your brainstorming. This will typically be a clear and short question with many answers. You want to leave enough room for exploration into various aspects of the question without being too broad.
Once you have that question set, you need to determine who needs to be a part of the brainstorming session. This should be a list of people that have a stake in the answer to the question. You want to make sure that you include some of those that are not directly impacted by the question. This is because they may be able to bring insight to the brainstorming session that those close to the problem may not see. However, you also do not want to include too many people or you may have a difficult time getting everyone’s voices heard.
The next thing that you want to establish is how the brainstorming session is going to lead into the next stage of the process. This means that you want to decide how the ideas are going to be discussed and compiled. You could, for instance, decide that the participants of the brainstorming session are going to vote on the top three ideas that were discussed. You could then take those ideas to a smaller group to further narrow the process.
Finally, before any real discussion can take place, you need to be able to define what brainstorming technique you are going to use to generate ideas. You want to make sure that you take into account the personalities of the people attending the brainstorming session. In addition, you want to set a definite goal for what you want to accomplish during the session. Once you have determined these things, you want to make sure to communicate that with the team that will be participating. This way, everyone on the session is on the same page and is mentally prepared to engage in the way that is expected of them.
Obviously, one other thing that you want to communicate to your team is where the brainstorming session will be taking place. If you are utilizing an online whiteboard, you’ll want to provide a link to the session prior to the start of the session so people know what to expect and can orient themselves accordingly.
Get Started Today
Hoylu is more than a tool for collaboration. We are the basis for growth in a company and communication among team members. We offer a top-of-the-line online whiteboard that allows for free collaboration on brainstorming sessions and more.
Whether you are a small team looking to get organized or you are a part of a larger corporate team that is ready to try a more effective form of collaboration, we are the solution to your problem.