Whiteboarding for product teams
Screen sharing: arguably the most common “visual aid” used in product team meetings. One lucky person is selected — or volunteers — to share their laptop screen on a larger screen. Everyone has a single point of focus, and idea generation and iteration can happen in real time. But there’s a bottleneck. Only one person can do the work. Every idea, note, change goes through one person. And they’re not about to pass their laptop around for each person to take a turn.
Meanwhile, the whiteboard sits by, idle, a few markers scattered across the table.
Not long ago, I made a case for why designers (and their teams) should use whiteboards as part of their process for better discussions and team collaboration. In this piece, I’d like to share some tips on using a whiteboard as part of your process and meetings.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and what works for me might not work for you. I suggest trying one, two, or a few of these tips as a starting place or when you get stuck. Trying new tricks can get you out of the rut or break the ice (pick the metaphor that best suits your team).
Let’s get started!
The gist of it
If nothing else, remember this: Don’t overthink it.
- Start with what you know (even if that’s a question). You don’t need a plan.
- Explain what you’re doing. This is a discussion, not a performance piece.
- Keep it messy from the start. That means starting anywhere, because the whole board is fair game.
Getting started
Don’t overthink it. Grab a marker and go up to the board whether or not you’re confident it’s the “right” thing to do. As soon as you start to write or draw, you’ll get a feel for whether or not you know where it’s going. It may happen naturally.
When should I start?
Whiteboarding on your own. By starting on your own, you’ll have a chance to sketch out some thoughts. Working by yourself means that you can work at your own speed without questions. This can be a good chance to get into a flow state and get everything out of your head onto the board.
Sometimes you’ll be stumped. You may find that you run into a stopping point shortly after starting to draw. You might run into question that needs answering, or a gap in your understanding. This is valuable! Now you know what you need to do: bring in someone else to help answer the question, or keep drawing to find more gaps. By drawing, you illustrate what you know and are soon able to identify what you don’t.
Once you feel what’s on the board is clear or you run into gaps, invite others to join you. Don’t make it perfect — aim for “just right.” It’s like the MVP of communication. Refined enough to be understood by others, but rough enough that there’s room for interpretation and iteration.
Before you invite anyone else to join you, I recommend taking a photo of your work as it’s likely to change when more people are present.
Whiteboarding with a group. Whiteboarding can be introduced at any point during a meeting. It might take on a slightly different form depending on when you start. Here are some example scenarios:
- At the start: The topic of the meeting is around a specific flow or system, draw it on the board so everyone knows what you’re working with.
- In the middle: Something isn’t clear in the discussion or it seems people are misunderstanding each other. You recognize it would be helpful to have a single visual representation of it for everyone to focus on.
- At the end: Summarize what was agreed on, as a list or quick sketch. Everyone can agree on it, take photos, and have a reference to take with them.
Who should start?
You don’t have to be the expert on the topic at hand. As the first person with the marker you’re signalling that you think it would be helpful to illustrate the concept on the board. You’re getting the ball rolling!
Your first drawing might not capture it at all, and that’s actually great! It opens the floor for others to correct you, to take a marker and show you where there was a misunderstanding.
Helping the discussion
Connect the discussion to the drawing.
Talk out loud while you draw. Whiteboard drawings are clumsy (and that’s good!) so they need a little explanation. This also gives other people a chance to make mental notes or ask you to make notes if something isn’t clear to them.
As well, speaking while you draw will prevent awkward silences where everyone watches you draw.
Sum it up when new people join. The drawings will make the most sense to the people who were there when you drew them. If someone new joins in at a later time, bring them up to speed so they can understand what they’re looking at and jump in straightaway.
This has the added benefit of recapping what you’ve done and can help you find errors or new ideas.
Keep the discussion going.
Step back and ask, “What do you think?” One person is often the one holding the marker, so it’s easy to fall into a comfortable place where one person owns the whole meeting. Asking for thoughts, opinions, and questions encourages everyone to contribute — whether by drawing or discussing or both!
Put the marker down in-between so anyone can take a turn. In an ideal world, everyone has a marker, but often you’ll be sharing. Try to set up your meeting space so everyone feels able to take a marker (or the eraser) and can access the board, and make sure you put the marker down when you’ve finished getting some thoughts out.
Don’t lose anything.
Have a thought while you’re in the middle of a thought? Write it down. This is the beauty of whiteboarding: it’s easy to write things down and just as easy to erase them. Write down thoughts as you have them so nothing slips through the cracks.
This works really well when you’re mapping out complex flows. You can start multiple branches and finish them each in turn. It’s like a mix of a mind map and a journey map.
Decide something isn’t going to work? Write it down. If you’re brainstorming ideas and realize something won’t work, write down the reasons. This way when you’re iterating in the future, you’re less likely to go down the same path again — or your errors may even be proven wrong.
Things to avoid.
Don’t just hand someone the marker. It puts a lot of pressure on the person to read your mind. If you hand someone the marker, give them a question or prompt at the same time.
Don’t tell people how to draw. This isn’t going to be a masterpiece. You might have big plans to share this on your company blog on Medium, but we’re more likely to believe it’s real if it’s messy. Be nice.
Don’t tell people where to draw. It took courage to go up to the board. Let each person do what feels right to them. Try to avoid guiding the person to drawing according to some unspoken plan. You can always draw arrows to connect the ideas later.
Drawing
We whiteboard to discuss, not to dictate a final testament. A well-designed, meticulously drawn whiteboard is like a lecture. No one is going to interrupt, contribute, or question anything that’s already there. A messy, colourful whiteboard is a conversation. It’s interesting, and people want to get involved and offer their ideas.
Write big! People are standing 1–3 metres away, they shouldn’t have to squint to get it.
Don’t try to get it right. Try to avoid erasing and redrawing simple things like squares or circles. When it looks like you’re trying to draw well, it sets the tone for everyone else.
Use the whole board. Move trains of thought across the entire length of the board. It doesn’t have to be tidy — it could be from the middle to the right to the left again. Draw lines and arrows to connect ideas if you need.
Don’t be afraid of erasing. The whiteboard does have limits. You might need to erase parts to make space for more iteration. Take a photo, erase, and keep going!
Notate your pictures. If you need to stand back and look at your work in silence, labels can help everyone remember what they’re looking at when you’re done speaking. It also helps you when you’re referring to your photos later.
Be quick, but clear. Use only as much detail as you need to say what you’re trying to say.
Advanced! Colour-code when you go over your work. Use different marker colours to distinguish between rounds of iteration or different lines of thought. It makes it easier to read or scan quickly later on.
When you’re done
Summarize the conclusion. Do a quick recap of what’s on the board and what you’re taking away. Confirm that it makes sense to everyone and ask if anything is missing. Like any meeting, you want to make sure you’re on the same page and everyone knows the next steps before you disperse.
Take photos. You should take photos throughout, but especially at the end. Take multiple photos if the board is large so that text will be legible. Share your photos with everyone who was present and anyone else to whom it might be relevant.
Write notes and explain your diagrams. When you share your photos in a team conversation, include some comments about what they see. Imagine this was done on a Friday afternoon and you come back on Monday: what do you need to understand what you’re looking at?
Leave it up. Don’t erase the board unless you have to. This leaves space for people to mull it over, refer to it, and sometimes edit it further. Sometimes we need space from a problem for it to click, leaving your whiteboard drawings up lets you come back to it later.
Leaving up drawings also sends a message to your team that it’s okay to use the whiteboards and, in fact, you encourage it.
Don’t get attached. The advantage of whiteboards is that you can reuse the canvas over and over. But you have to let yourself erase it and start over. Your masterpiece today is only one of hundreds this year. Take a photo and start fresh.
I would love to see your whiteboards! Share them with me on Twitter @jengoertzen.
