Item: Miro
Rating: 10
Author: Alexander Westman

Overall Satisfaction with Miro

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used to Miro in school, and during my internship, I was more or less allowed to use whatever diagraming and prototyping that I choose. But I'd be very surprised if anyone except our team used it. I use Miro primarily for mind maps and modeling workflow. It's essentially the prettiest and easiest graph tool I have experience with. We also used the workshop-presets a couple of times (but slightly modified). In short: We used Miro to help with most of the tasks that we normally would have done on a whiteboard, had the pandemic not happened.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Diagramming.
Modelling workflow.
Making visually beautiful graphs to show to other people.
Holding workshops.

Cons

Native Linux client.
Touch screen gestures for fast prototyping, think InDesign Touch.

Return on Investment

Positive: Miro replaced MS Visio for me as my go-to drawing software. Probably won't be going back.
Positive: A blast to use, if I'm "steering" the diagram everyone usually can follow along with what is happening.
Negative: Miro can be so good-looking that there's a risk of focusing on form over fact, but that's a problem common to many beautiful programs.

Implementation Rating

Very smooth, went without a hitch. There was no problem implementing the software, and it's cheaper than a Visio license (which is definitely a plus). I don't really have any key insights to give, everyone I've shown it to loves it (that actually needs a tool of this sort), but that's about all.

Ease of Integration

Very well. It's very easy to simply share as a screen and to start prototyping while in a video conversation. It doesn't really hold a candle to physically drawing something on a whiteboard, but as a digital tool, it has proven invaluable.

Collaboration

We haven't really used Miro for collaboration. Since I'm the only one with a license we've only really used it as a digital whiteboard, with my device and screen acting as the host.

Key Insights

Do you think Miro delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Miro's feature set?

Yes

Did Miro live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Miro go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Miro again?

Yes

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Visio and draw.io

Miro is easier to use, "sexier", and all-around better value for the money (unless compared to open software of course). I like Miro because I can have an idea, draw a beautiful diagram in a couple of minutes, export it as a PDF, and then share it in slack. Or I can add it to the minutes from a workshop. Works fantastically.

Other Software Used

draw.io, Microsoft Visio

Likelihood to Recommend

I will always recommend Miro is my go-to software for diagramming, at least as long as I'm a student. Can't swear for how I will view it when I'll actually have to pay for it. Anything I would do with a whiteboard but have to do online, I would probably use Miro for. Even though there are a lot of tools and presets for it, I would never use Miro for prototyping an actual mobile app or website, that's more Figma / Adobe XDs domain.

Comments

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Miro from a summer interns perspective