Item: Miro
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Miro

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use it for research and ideation. If I need to think of many different ideas, I like to use the sticky notes. I also find it helpful for lo-fidelity mockups (i.e., wireframes). In a tool like Figma, even when I want lo-fi, I end up spending too much time on smaller details. Miro's constraints help me to quickly design so there's more time to think of many different options. I also love creating agendas for meetings in Miro. I like using the cards for agenda items. My team also uses it for collaboration. Basically, I use it all the time.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Adding in Images - I like that it uses unsplash for high quality images
Cards - I like that you can add more in depth info within the card, but see a simplified version when you don't click on it. I also love the 2 display options for the card details (side & centered)
Sticky Notes - I use them all the time. They're helpful to add quick thoughts. However, I wish that I could make them custom colors.
Collaboration - Features like the timer, making elements hidden, and private mode help to set up a space my team can collaborate well in.

Cons

I wish I could put frames inside a frame. Sometimes the boards can get messy and I like to use frames so that I can easily move elements around the board. There have been multiple times when I started with a couple of frames, but then had too many and wanted to frame groupings of frames.
I wish I could organize colors that I've added more easily. When there's many colors, it's hard to recall which one your using (i.e., if you have a specific green, but other greens in your library, it's hard to keep using the same green consistently.
As stated earlier, I would love to be able to add custom colors to sticky notes

Return on Investment

It's helped me to track goals throughout the year, which ensure that I complete those goals for the company as well.
It helps me conduct ux research by allowing my team to share a note taking board during sessions. This limits duplicate notes and encourages collaboration

Usability

I think it's a wonderful tool. I love the flexibility to create in it. I also like that there are pre-made templates and components that don't require me to build from scratch.

Tool Usage

I use shapes & the expandable cards the most often. I also utilize the grid tool frequently. I don't use a lot of the advanced features because I I like the simplicity of the basic ones. I often use miro for wireframing. I find in other design tools (i.e., figma) I have trouble not focusing on making things, "pixel perfect" and I like that in Miro it's simplified. It helps me to focus on what's most important.

Reduced Tool Overload

I personally love Miro. I wish that it was a tool commonly used company-wide. I primarily use Miro, Figma, and Monday. I like to set up project planning, and most of my process in Miro, I use Figma for high-fidelity mockups and design systems, and I use Monday to keep track of dates and the team's sprint planning. However, many other roles in the product teams are already used to using Jira, Confluence, and Azure Devops. The cross-functional collaboration causes me to have to use more tools than I'd like. I'm not sure if there are integrations between them, but it would be cool if there was.

Collaboration

My team is fully remote. Our collaboration is done through Microsoft Teams, Miro and Figma. I love Miro. My team has a few regular meetings where we set up workshops in Miro and collaborate together.

Alternatives Considered

Mural

I didn't make the decision in my company to use Miro, but I've used Mural in school and prefer Miro. Funcitonally, they're very similar, but I feel like Miro is more polished. However, Miro is the first tool I've used and the one I've used the most, so I'm a little bit biased.

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

Other Software Used

Figma, Microsoft Teams, Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian Jira, Azure DevOps Services, monday.com

Likelihood to Recommend

There are so many things you can do in Miro. On my team we use it for workshops, goal setting, research note taking forms, research synthesis & ideation. Miro allows you to add your own personal style to your boards and can be fun to create. I wouldn't use Miro for high fidelity designing or if I wanted to present something that had to look very professional, since it's style is more casual.

Using Miro

Business Processes Supported

UX research
Project planning
Low-fidelity Design
Team meeting collaborative board
Presentations

Innovative Uses

Calendar planning when Outlook had errors by using grids & cards
Config remote watch party
Create 2025 bingo cards

Future Planned Uses

Collaborative sessions with cross-functional teams (we've done it a couple of times, but it would be nice to do it more)

Likelihood to Renew

It's not up to me, but if I was in charge, I would definitely renew it because it's essential to my design process.

Evaluating Miro and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Other

I don't make the decisions for purchasing, but I do love the simplicity of the product.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I would probably research the different types of white-boarding tools and experiment with them to compare functionality and user experience

Miro Implementation

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Don't know

Implementation Issues

I wasn't there when it was implemented, so I'm not sure.

Users and Roles

10 - Miro is used mostly by the UX team. Occasionally the larger product team will use it, and that team probably has a couple of hundred people, but they don't generally use it.

Support Headcount Required

I'm unsure, but I don't think we have in-house support and I don't think we need it.

Miro Training

Training Types Used

No Training

In-Person Training

Online Training

Ease of Miro Training

It was very easy to learn on my own.

Configuring Miro

Product Configurability

I think it has a good amount of configurability. My biggest complaint is the file structuring. I work for a company that has many products. I would like to have files for a single project that's nested in a project folder which is then nested in the product folder. It would be nice if it could even go one level further because the products are grouped into larger service types. Here's an example of the folder structure that I'm thinking:
All folders > Product Category > Individual Product > Project > Project file

The actual boards in Miro are great and very configurable. The biggest improvement that I can think of is allowing folders to live inside of larger folders. My boards tend to get large and I wish I didn't have to think about how to organize them.

Configuration Lessons

As I said previously, my boards can get large and messy. I like to use shapes with bold, large text to provide headers for sections within my board to organize the space.

I also like to format sticky notes to be wider and have the text all the same size with upper left alignment. That way, if I'm presenting information, the sticky notes are easy for viewers to digest.

Using Miro

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