Whiteboarding is more than just pulling out the Expo markers. It’s a collaborative process that brings teams together to brainstorm ideas, problem solve, and visualize concepts in real-time.
In this blog, we’ll explore the significance of whiteboarding – or brainstorming – and how you can seamlessly integrate these sessions into your presentations to share information with other teams and stakeholders.
What is whiteboarding?
Whiteboard sessions have become an essential tool for fostering creativity, facilitating communication, and driving innovation, regardless of your working model.
Typically you’ll gather your team or group, set up your whiteboard space (which can be in-person or online), and provide context for the session. What are your goals? What information do team members need in order to actively participate?
Whiteboarding meaning and importance
Understanding the white boarding meaning goes beyond just drawing on a board; it's about creating a shared space for collaborative problem-solving.
In a whiteboarding session, participants can collectively brainstorm, map workflows, and outline project phases in real-time. This visual representation aids in better understanding and retention of information. Moreover, it encourages inclusivity by allowing all team members to contribute their ideas, fostering a sense of ownership and commitment. By integrating whiteboard brainstorming into your routine, you can enhance productivity, streamline communication, and drive innovation within your remote team.
How to have a successful whiteboard or brainstorming session
A successful whiteboarding session incorporates several key elements to ensure maximum collaboration and productivity. Foster an open and inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas, and even challenging assumptions.
Then, you’ll use the whiteboard as a canvas to brainstorm and generate ideas collectively. After this ideation phase, work together as a group to organize and prioritize what you’ve written down. Identify common themes or patterns, and discuss which ideas are most feasible or impactful in achieving the session’s objective.
Incorporate your whiteboard session into presentations
Now comes the part where you use what you have to enhance a team presentation. Whiteboarding transcends traditional brainstorming methods by providing a dynamic platform where ideas can flow freely and take shape visually. It encourages spontaneity and allows teams to iterate ideas in real-time.
It’s equally important to share the insights generated in these sessions with your organization. To stakeholders, this showcases participation, momentum, and a plan for the future. It also injects an opportunity for collaboration into the presentation itself.
Here’s how you can leverage the visual nature of whiteboarding sessions into presentations:
Overview slide
Start with an overview slide that sets the context for the brainstorm. Briefly introduce the topic and objectives.
Photogrid
Circulate photos of the whiteboard itself. While not the most organized way of integrating a previous meeting into your current one, this helps paint a picture and gets the team excited about the variety of ideas on the table.
Word Cloud
If your whiteboarding session can be summarized into concise terms, or you’ve identified a number of themes, present them in a Word Cloud slide.
Kanban
Visually represent the flow of ideas. Organize your columns by theme, campaign, or level of ease. A Kanban is great because it emphasizes the concept of continuous improvement and the flow of ideas.
Agenda slide
Before concluding the whiteboard session, review the key decisions and action items to include in an Agenda slide. Summarize discussion points this way and review them cross-functionally. This plan serves as a follow-up to ensure momentum is maintained beyond the session.
Timeline
After your whiteboard session, use a Timeline slide to communicate the deadlines and action items for the next steps. Keep your team up to speed on these deadlines, and return to them to check in on progress.
Venn Diagram
Venn Diagram slides are inherently visual representations of ideas and the differences/similarities they share. With a Venn Diagram, you can take the ideas from your whiteboard session and visually organize them. As you add new items to your diagram, you can move them around or change colors – and our AI will make sure that your Venn diagram is always centered and your text is always legible.
Hub and Spoke
A Hub and Spoke slide can be used during your whiteboard session to document the ideas of your brainstorm. If you’re exploring cause and effect, campaign ideas that belong to a larger brand theme or value, or attributing ideas to who came up with them – use our Hub and Spoke template.
With Beautiful.ai, getting started comes naturally. 60+ smart slide templates guide you and suggest ideas along the way, so you never have to face a blank page in the whiteboarding or brainstorming process.
Benefits of whiteboard brainstorming
Whiteboard brainstorming offers numerous benefits that can significantly enhance the productivity and creativity by promoting visual thinking and translating ideas into visuals. Participants will be able to better understand complex concepts and see connections they might miss in text-only formats.
The interactive nature of a white boarding session keeps participants involved and focused, making meetings more dynamic and productive. Engagement is the name of the game with whiteboarding, along with streamlining decision-making. Visualizing options and strategies helps teams quickly compare and contrast ideas, leading to more efficient consensus.
Lastly, it enhances documentation. Digital whiteboards often have features to save and share sessions, making it easy to refer back to and build on past ideas.
