Some of the best ideas from business teams come from the classic brainstorming session.
There’s nothing like huddling with team members in front of a whiteboard — while crunching on some snacks — to really solve problems and get creative.
It can be hard to replicate that magic when there’s distance between team members, or when it’s just not feasible to be in person (like if you happen to be experiencing a global pandemic, for example).
Brainstorming or planning sessions without the whiteboard and snacks often turn into…well…just another Zoom meeting. It’s hard to feel inspired and connected from behind the wall of people-filled rectangles.
What’s missing is interactivity. Sharing a screen isn’t the same as having the ability for multiple people to grab a marker and contribute at the same time.
Smart boards bring that interactive element back to businesses looking to improve connection amongst team members virtually.
In this article, we’ll talk about what they are, why they’re so great, and how to find the right one for your needs.
What is a smart board?
A smart board is sometimes also referred to as a smartboard, electronic whiteboard, or smart board interactive whiteboard. It is a tool that allows members of a team to not only share content, but directly interact with the same content using a tool, mouse, or even a finger.
The smart board’s roots come from the classroom, where an interactive whiteboard can be used to allow students to interact with one another and their teachers remotely.
During a lesson, a teacher would replace a projector, and the student a notebook, with the interactive displays used in interactive lessons courtesy of a smart board.
Now, they’re also widely used amongst business teams.
monday.com offers smart board software — smart technology that closes the distance and can affect your ability to collaborate. Teams can sketch, draw pictures and shapes, and collaborate in real time.
Here’s an example of how multiple co-workers can work together at one time in a workspace.
On the right, participants can select from different functions like file uploads, arrows, dragging and dropping different elements, shapes, text, and much more.
These features allow business teams to quickly outline priorities, sketch mind maps, draw workflows, collaborate on mood boards, and several other use cases together in one place while in a virtual setting.
Why use a smart board for project management?
The value of a smart board is its ability to bring back a visual aid to a virtual collaborative environment. In an office, team members can quickly sketch ideas onto a whiteboard, draw plans directly onto paper, or brainstorm complex ideas that are still being talked through.At its core, a smart board is a communication aid. Facilitating better communication can make a huge impact on a team’s productivity. In fact, 52% of businesses say that the biggest impact of project management on a team is communication. 44% said communication improved product quality, and 38% said it improved customer satisfaction.
Smart board technology can improve team communication, and by default, product quality and customer satisfaction, by:
- Facilitating communication as if teams were in the same room.
- Allowing virtual teams to audibly and visually communicate ideas.
- Saving and sharing collaborative whiteboards, ensuring everyone stays aligned.
- Encouraging real-time collaboration by virtue of it being possible in a virtual setting.
- Providing the ability to write, draw, edit, move, and save information instantly.
But, if you’re going to get started with a smart board for virtual collaboration, you’ll want to make sure you find one that has all the bells and whistles and integrates with your other project management software. This will ensure that there is absolutely no disruption in your team’s workflow.
What are the essential elements of smart boards?
There are some critical features your smart board software should include for workflows to run smoothly.
The first and most important is that your smart board should directly integrate with your project management software so that all information and communication stays in one place.
When the two are integrated, team members are always in sync, next steps are defined with clear ownership, and collaborative ideation is built into your processes.
When teams use monday.com for project management, their smart board sessions directly integrate into the team’s workflow.
To use a smart board in conjunction with a specific task, you’ll first need to add the capability as an app. In the dropdown menu under the main table, select ‘Apps’ to get started.
From there, search for ‘whiteboard’ in our library of connectable apps and select Whiteboard by monday.com.
It’s really that simple.
Once your smart board is integrated with your current workflow, you’ll need to make sure everyone has access. If everyone can’t access the smart board at the same time, it won’t suit your virtual collaboration needs.
Our smart board software neatly displays the team members currently working on any individual smart board in the upper righthand corner of the screen, so team members always know who’s “online.”
It’s also essential that your team easily be able to move items around with a drag and drop interface, write and type in any area of the smart board at any time, and attach images from your computer or any URL.
Ultimately you’re looking for features that allow you to replicate what you’d get with a whiteboard and marker. If you can’t easily include images, draw, write, or any other function you can imagine accomplishing on an actual whiteboard, you’re not likely to close that virtual communication gap in brainstorming sessions.
monday.com smart board software allows teams to not only attach images and files from their own computer drives, but also import assets from individual URLs.
One advantage of a virtual smart board as opposed to brainstorming on a whiteboard in-person is that you can easily save your work without pulling out your phone to snap a photo.
monday.com allows you to save your smart board to individual tasks within a project. Soon, teams will be able to save multiple boards to the same task. Save projects or download as an image file or PDF with the save function in the upper righthand corner.
Just like any other type of project management software feature, we think team members should be able to view the same information in the way that works the best for them.
monday.com smart board software allows team members to toggle between light mode and dark mode. They can also view the smart board as a full screen, or split the screen between their smart board and task list — whatever works best for their needs.
monday.com is the right choice for businesses looking to enhance their project management process with a smart board
Here at monday.com, we believe that our Work OS (work operating system) can be the foundation for any team’s needs when it comes to project management, communications, workflows, and so much more.
Our smart board feature has everything your team needs to get started with virtual collaboration, and integrates with your team’s to-do list. We think it’s the most powerful way to manage your project for a few specific reasons.
For starters, everything is all in one place. Not just your team’s smart board brainstorming files, but also communication, other files, status updates, and much more.
Our Work OS is built to automate processes that should be automated to save you and your team time. This includes status updates, email communications, and much more.
Below is an example of how a sales team uses monday.com automations to send automated emails to customers and prospects once their status changes in the monday.com system.
Just like your team can display each smart board in the way that works best for them, they can also display projects in whichever way makes the most sense for them — table, Gantt chart, Kanban board, dashboard, or many more.
Our technology integrates with tools that your team is already using, so workflows are never disrupted, and all relevant data is in one place.
This includes popular tools like Microsoft Office, Google Docs, Gmail, Outlook, and Slack, along with Github, Shopify, Zendesk, and many more that suit a specific team’s needs.
Finally, your team won’t ever have to start from scratch when it comes to building a workflow or project plan. monday.com provides teams with over 200+ templates to use as a customizable foundation for your team’s needs.
Inspire your team with interactive tools like a smart board
When creativity and innovation fail, so do businesses. It’s critical to close the distance gap created by virtual working between team members.
A smart board is one smart way to do that.
Get your teams back into the mindset of picking up a pen or marker and brainstorming solutions to complex problems together with the right technology.
If you’re looking for a holistic solution that allows you to integrate your brainstorming sessions with your team’s entire workflow from start to finish, check out monday.com.
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