Item: Miro
Rating: 8
Author: Kevin Burke

Overall Satisfaction with Miro

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Product requirements gathering, project management, organizational design, general management purposes, brainstorming and ideation/concepting

Pros and Cons

Pros

Create a space for brainstorming
Shared spaces
Useful templates

Cons

Performance performance performance. If my laptop is unplugged my battery drains WAY faster if I have a Miro tab open, so I have the habit of closing them. Even if it means suggesting Miro pages get split into two spaces, look for ways to make performance less CPU intensive.
For planning tools like calendars, create more database linking to allow me to rearrange calendar dates and plans to capture impacts of changing dates (e.g. deadline 1 is being moved by a week, causing everything else to move by a week), as well as the resourcing for an assignment
Integrate better with the tools I use frequently (specifically MS Teams, Azure DevOps, and Notion)

Return on Investment

Helped with virtual and asynchronous work being done across time zones and long distances.
Helps capture ideation work much better than a white board in an office with a photograph capturing it for posterity. Sticky notes don't fall off a Miro board after an hour like they do IRL.

Our team didn't do a good job of training everyone on how to use Miro, where its limitations sit, etc. We also didn't create guidance around what our folder and access structure would be, so even today, two years after its implementation, I still can't find a lot of the things I want to find in Miro.

Collaboration

Big help in this regard. One of its key value propositions.

Key Insights

Do you think Miro delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Miro's feature set?

Yes

Did Miro live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Miro go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Miro again?

Yes

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Project and Notion

Miro does what it does very well: infinite white board space for people to collaboratively and remotely throw ideas against the wall. Once you know what you are trying to do, though, the other tools are more useful for actioning against what was plotted in a Miro board.

Other Software Used

Notion, Azure DevOps Services, Microsoft 365

Likelihood to Recommend

Brainstorming and ideation space that will go on for a number of days/weeks/sessions is its obvious strength. Less useful for organized thinking and activities like work planning, requirements definition, action lists, etc. My most effective use of Miro is to have it be the place where we work on divergent thinking. When it comes to being convergent, we use a different tool because Miro isn't good for that.

Comments

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Miro - good at what it does, but has limitations