Item: Freehand by InVision
Rating: 10
Author: Art Stiefel

Overall Satisfaction with InVision Freehand

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Using InVision Freehand helps us plan brainstorming sessions or ideation workshops. What we love is the flexibility and ease of use. There are a lot of whiteboarding tools out there that are either working to improve a faulty product or they're just getting in late in the game to catch up with the remote/hybrid workforce needs. InVision Freehand bests all of them through a reliable platform we've trusted for years. Having worked with multiple clients and agency partners over the years, what I love when using inVision Freehand is that they are clearly watching the competitiveness of online whiteboarding solutions and staying ahead of the pack. There's just a better, more intuitive feeling when working with Freehand. Working with inVision Freehand is just a complete no-brainer recommendation. It's fast, nimble and continuously refined to make an excellent working environment and platform even better.

Pros and Cons

Pros

We use InVision Freehand for brainstorming new marketing campaign ideas.
We create a lot of Customer Journey mapping ideas and the InVision Freehand environment provides us with exactly what we need to be successful in creating a collaborative workspace to do so.
For some of our clients and concept campaigns, we work out website wireframes. InVision Freehand proves us with a great blank slate - and provides the intuitive tools to go from an empty page to a completely blocked-out website structure - seemingly in no time.
For working with clients all across the country, InVision Freehand provides us with an awesome shared board to present and propose new business opportunities for them - and for us!
The continued improvements and nuances make using Freehand a "Go-To" solution for me and my team every day. There are platform updates made pretty much every month. It shows that the dev team is always looking out and listening for ways that they can improve the user experience and usability.
More templates being added all the time have been a great way for us to kick off conversations and workshopping with internal and external teams.

Cons

While we love using InVision Freehand, it's not always as intuitive for the non-agency folks we sometimes work with. It's not impossible or hard. Just could be easier to onboard them.
There are so many great tools that are built into InVision and Freehand takes it to the next level. That said, there are other platforms in this space that are advancing in integrations with many of the other live meetings and sharing tools that agencies, clients, and the general public have become so accustomed to over the last couple of years.
We would love to be able to use InVision Freehand as integrated or embedded in our sites or gated parts of live sites we work on.
There aren't too many things that I could point to that would be considered problematic - I might like to see some new movable menus.
Some additional sharing options might be nice to have. Right now there a lot of integrations with platforms and being able to work/share in those spaces would be interesting. An example might be sharing in Slack and being able to work right within a working team channel.

Most Important Features

The flexibility of all of the tools that InVision Freehand has for us to select from.
We love having the pre-built templates as options for us when we are setting up a working session that may be covering the subject matter of topics that we have not previously worked on.
The variety of meeting structures and live interactive tools really help us to present engaging content for our meetings. Things like live sharing and polling etc, are a huge plus as well.
What we really like is that InVision Freehand, just like the InVision we've used for years, is constantly improving its user engagement and integrated options for us. Not all of the platforms out there do this - which you'd think they would just as a matter of common sense.
The ability to include things like a live Polling feature is an awesome addition and serves great purpose when we work on a wide variety of ideas and need to identify which are standing out from the rest.
One thing that has been a great built-in tool for us in inVision Freehand is the ability to work on wireframing exercises with our design, UX and UI teams to come together and reach consensus in a more timey and efficient way.

Return on Investment

Using InVision Freehand has enabled us to promote our ability for workshopping client meetings and even use it for new business opportunities.
By using InVision Freehand we can quickly and easily create wireframes and project workflows.
We couldn't really be working as quickly these days without being able to use InVision Freehand every day in one way or another.
The positive impact we've felt across agency disciplines has been just what we'd hoped it would be. Everyone is easily able to join in a working session and participate freely and easily.
Adding Freehand has been one of those head shaking moments where we thought "why haven't we done this sooner!" and happy that now we have it.

Usability

That's the thing with inVision Freehand. It's an easily adoptable and adaptable platform that the whole agency and all of the different teams feel comfortable in using. Even the account teams that usually don't see themselves as the most "creative" really love working with Freehand to help explain ideas and opportunities that we have with our existing clients and for when we're pitching new business. It's a flexible, no brainer environment for sharing ideas without having to feel hindered by the tool sets that we have to work with. The tools are just right there for us to grab and use as we need to. That's what all of these online ideation and whiteboarding platforms should all aspire to being.

Alternatives Considered

Figma, Miro, MURAL, Zoom Webinars and Webex Meetings

The two other platforms that people have tried to get us to use are Figma and Miro. Since we have been using InVision Freehand it works much better for our teams and is within the InVision environment that we are familiar with. The InVision Freehand tools and user interface are familiar and much more intuitive for us to work with. There has been no reason that we've seen to move to any of the other platforms because they're not easy to use as InVision Freehand is for us. As with everything else we do, our time is our money so why waste it and lose money on less functional platforms? We've also been looking at MURAL and also the new Zoom and Webex meeting whiteboard options they have introduced. Neither of those are really worth consideration. They're just not functional for us to even consider - especially when Freehand from inVision has been solving our needs for an excellent, collaborative workspace.

Key Insights

Do you think Freehand by InVision delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Freehand by InVision's feature set?

Yes

Did Freehand by InVision live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Freehand by InVision go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Freehand by InVision again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe InDesign, Snagit, Camtasia, Adobe Illustrator CC, Final Cut Pro X, Evernote, Adobe XD, mmhmm, Topaz Gigapixel AI, Dropbox, ClickUp

Likelihood to Recommend

Without a doubt, InVision Freehand sets the table for excellent live workshopping that plays an important role in business today. This becomes even more of a necessity as a tool in today's remote - non-in-person business environment. This approach to getting work done today is no longer a nice-to-have, it's an absolute must! The access to working across remote team member groups and using InVision Freehand helps us feel secure in setting up meetings. We know that we will have a much more positive working session with the collaborative workspace that InVision Freehand gives us. We haven't found any instances that Freehand wouldn't be a positive component to a productive workshop, brainstorming or even just capturing thoughts from meeting discussions. Freehand is a pretty flexible platform for us to work in. What it comes down to for us is that with Freehand we don't have to think at all about the platform we're using. We just use it intuitively and instinctively. As it should be.

Using InVision Freehand

Users and Roles

10 - The people in the agency that use inVision Freehand the most are the strategy teams, the UX team, the creative and design teams and even the account teams. While we all use the platform to varying degrees the assessment has been pretty consistent - the use of the Freehand tools and the integrations it provides make it much easier for us to communicate across agency disciplines and share ideation and workshopping with our internal, external and client teams. It definitely has made the ability to collaborate remotely function more smoothly than we'd imagined and it just works. That's all we really want it to do. And Freehand does it very well.

Support Headcount Required

1 - We don't really need any support for inVision Freehand. It's pretty much a sign up, log in, plug-n-play kinda platform. We needed no help in getting set up and underway - just using it "fresh outta the box" - which is what you'd expect. No training necessary. No tutorials. Just fire it up and start ideating! Any other platform that would require any of those things would be an automatic "no" in an evaluation.

Business Processes Supported

Whiteboarding for fresh ideas
Sharing an overview for brand planning and timelines for the coming year's marketing initiatives
Sharing concepts with clients and then having live reviews
Integrated live polling during working sessions
The ability to freely concept with larger teams in a very fluid and comfortable environment
The ability for us to invite client participation and not have to worry if they'll be able to use the tools

Innovative Uses

Sharing team scheduling and project overviews in a visual environment
Having the ability to easily import images and assets to include in our work sessions
New workshopping approaches and building out our own templates for reuse of a good structure
Accessing templates that the inVision Freehand community share. They're excellent thought starters and complete solutions for work sessions sometimes.

Future Planned Uses

We could look to incorporate Freehand in business planning as a way to quickly share ideas on growth opportunities
Moving away from the bland old Powerpoints we all get stuck in and create a more vibrant and engaging presentation tool platform
We can look to start using Freehand as a new business tool for us to use for engaging with prospective clients by showing them interesting ways that we can workshop ideas and directions for growing their business.

Likelihood to Renew

It's pretty much a no-brainer that we will recommend renewing inVision Freehand as part of our cross functional tools set. It's one space where we all have an ability to share ideas and provide fresh thinking. For all of our internal and external thought sharing sessions we couldn't see a need for any other vital component to communication ideas in a fluid, freeform environment.

Evaluating InVision Freehand and Competitors

Products Replaced

Yes - Previously we bounced back and forth between Miro and Figma. The reason for the back and forth was that the teams could not agree on which platform was going to work better for them. The creative and UX teams tended to lean towards Figma - simply because it was kind of the "it" creative platform but there really was no reason for committing to either of those platforms - especially once we started working with inVision's Freehand.

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation
Prior Experience with the Product

The answer here would be, pretty much "all of the above" - inVision Freehand simply checked all of the boxes we needed as a team and could collectively agree on. The tools sets were there. The templates were there. There was a clean and intuitive tool set and workspace for us to collaborate in. Why would we want to go to another platform that wasn't as complete as Freehand.

InVision Freehand Implementation

Implementation Rating

The implementation is pretty much easy-peasy and plug-n-play. We simply download the applications and install, signed in and were good to go. I really cannot imagine that there would be anyone who would have any difficulty whatsoever in getting started in more than just a few minutes. It's really how implementing these officewide improvements should always go.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Change Management Lessons

Change management was minimal - There really was no barrier to adopting and adapting to using Freehand across our teams. Especially with the pandemic having our workforce spread far and wide working remote. It was a complete non-issue to make the move and get up and running in no time. It really couldn't have been easier.

Implementation Issues

There were no issues. The only difference was making sure that the Mac and Windows users knew how to download and install.
Getting our teams up to speed was never a problem. The platform just works. Therefore no issues at all.

InVision Freehand Training

Training Types Used

No Training

In-Person Training

Online Training

Ease of Freehand by InVision Training

Using inVision Freehand was a no-brainer for the teams to use. Mostly because it's an intuitive platform and interface to work with. Across the teams, it was a pretty fast uptake to get up and running and just get to work using it. If we had to spend any time getting into a "training" of the teams - well, then we would not have been doing it right. We needed to have something that worked - that's it.

Configuring InVision Freehand

Product Configurability

With inVision Freehand it's not so much of a "configuration" as other software is. Once we log in we can get right to work without having to configure, or set up anything. Whether we start from scratch with our own content or start with one of the built-in templates, there is no need, whatsoever for anyone to have to configure anything. We wouldn't have selected Freehand if we had to do any of that other stuff.

Configuration Lessons

The only recommendation I have for "configuring" inVision Freehand using "Best-Practices" would be to simply open the application and play with the different tools that are built-in. It's very intuitive to use. If you've ever played with blocks, or written a sticky note, or drawn on a whiteboard... well, you'll be just fine with opening Freehand and doing what you need to do.

UI Customization

No - we have not done any customization to the interface

Extensibility and Customization

No - we have not done any custom code

Additional Customization Considerations

When it comes to setting p inVision Freehand, there really is no need for setting up custom configurations. At least for us - although, I can't see much reason why 99.9% of companies would even need to. If you're looking an intuitive, plug-n-play, whiteboarding, collaboration tool for your internal and external team members and clients to work with inVision's Freehand will check all the boxes.

InVision Freehand Support

Support Rating

We have never needed support on any aspect of working with the inVision Freehand platform. It just simply works right outta the box! Plus, they offer all sorts of info, walkthroughs, updates and tips on how to work with the platform to get the most out of it all the time. No matter what we are using it for.

Freehand by InVision Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

No, we did not purchase any additional support. The reason for this was simple. We had gone through the demos, worked with it a bit throughout a trial period and we determined that, for us, there really was no reason to have to have any additional support. The platform has everything we needed and we found that the intuitive experience and any support materials were easy enough to access if needed.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Freehand by InVision Support

This is an easy one - maybe it's not an "InvisionApp Inc." support thing specifically, but it's the ways in which they have continuously improved the platform with updates, enhancements and new features that show us just how much they support the entire community of companies that use the platform every day. That, to us, is a sign of unending support and commitment from the company.

Using InVision Freehand

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Creating graphics and communication navigations that are easy to draw and connect to tell a visual story that can drive home our messages.
We really do love the templates that can help to kickstart conversation and working sessions
The ways that we can not only create in Freehand, but how we are able to capture and share internally and externally
The clean and intuitive access to the tools we need

Difficult Tasks

Nothing is difficult to perform
Cumbersome would never be a word that comes to mind when using any part of Freehand
The functionality works really well and the platform development team seems to, somehow, manage to make it even better with each progressive update

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - There is a mobile version of inVision Freehand. I have used it a few times on my iPad where it works really well. I'm not so sure that I'd use it often on an iPhone given the scale of the working window. Otherwise, the iPad (mobile) version definitely does the same things that the desktop offers. It certainly is good to have that option, especially for times if I end up traveling and just have my iPad with me.

InVision Freehand Reliability

Scalability

The reason I gave inVision Freehand such a high rating for scalability is because it was super easy to deploy across teams and quickly onboard any new team members or clients. So, no matter where we started with inVision Freehand, building and growing our teams and using the platform more and more every week has been something that we do without having to give any additional thought to it.

Performance

InVision Freehand gets such high marks because there is no page-load lag at all. We have other applications integrated with it and we see zero lag, or drag on it's operability. We work a lot of platforms that promise smooth integrations and they don't always work that way - with inVision Freehand we know it plays well with others.

Reliability and Availability

For availability, we never have to even think about whether inVision Freehand is going to be available for us to work with. There has never been a time when we have opened up the application and had any issues of any kind. I can't imagine why anyone would work with a platform that is unreliable. inVision Freehand is realibel, stable, and getting better all the time. Whether it's their built-in tools or the expanding of Templates to work with Freehand has been a reliable go-to platform for us.

Integrating InVision Freehand

Ease of Integration

Integrations were pretty much a few easy clicks. There were no specific hoops or hurdles that we had to work through to connect what we wanted to. The whole thing was a no-brainer on seeing what we wanted to include, make a few clicks and you're good to go. That's exactly how it should be.

Systems Integrated With

Dropbox
Slack
Zoom
Webex
Teams

Setting up and connecting with other applications is a simple click, or two away. We use these integrated applications to keep our workflows running smooth and have found that with Freehand it couldn't be easier.

Future Integration Plans

Other than the applications that inVision Freehand now includes, there are no other platforms, software integrations or applications that I can imagine needing for myself or my team.

Types of Integration

File import/export
Single Signon

We use the file import functionality and also the SSO which is part of our agency security protocols. Other than these, we have not found the need to have any special integrations, code development or specific API assistance for us to easily use the platform for our day to day and week to week needs for internal and external collaborations.

Integration Lessons Learned

The best advice - if any - on integration would be to not sweat it. If you see an application that you want to connect to you inVision Freehand set up it should be just a few easy clicks to get yourself and your team started. One of the best features we use is the Slack integration as that works really well with our communications across teams.

Relationship with InVisionApp Inc.

Pre-Sale Experience

We didn't need a vendor for inVision Freehand to be set up. It was a simple process of reviewing platforms and once we made the obvious choice to use Freehand, we started an account and had everyone sign up, sign in and start using it. I am happy that we didn't need to go through and sales pitches or pushy vendors. Getting up and running with Freehand was easy - peasy.

Post-Sale Experience

We never needed to work with a vendor - ergo, no need for ongoing follow ups, training, additional costs, etc. InVision Freehand is plug and play as they say it is. No vendor needed. No time wasted. No extra costs necessary. Simply review it and do it. Done. Good to go.

Professional Services

We didn't use an outside vendor - that's why I gave this option a 10.

Key Negotiation Points

We never had to negotiate any terms. It's a pretty clear and easy platform to get up and running across any company.

Contract Terms and Pricing Model

Getting set up with inVision Freehand was super simple. We figured how many of our team members were going to be using it and we set up our account knowing that. There were no negotiations, contract hassles or anything that would have been a waste of our time, efforts or resources.

Dealing with InVisionApp Inc.

No need to use an outside or third-party vendor. Simply go to the website, sign up for a trial, use the inVision Freehand platform and tool sets and you're pretty much ready to go. I'd also say that you should check out the Templates that they have and the community groups that share insights and other tips, tricks and templates to make the use of the software even better.

Upgrading InVision Freehand

Upgrade Process

Yes - The upgrades of inVision Freehand are relatively invisible. They're not disruptive and they generally come to us in email updates that new things are coming to the platform or have been added. The updates we see really aren't "fixes" as much as they are enhancements to what we're already using, or additional features that give us new ways of creating great boards.