Item: Miro
Rating: 9
Author: Dan Almeida

Overall Satisfaction with Miro

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In my current role, we use Miro in a few different ways. The primary use case is in our backlog review / quarterly prioritization exercise. We use a template that helps us to rank ideas based on level of evidence and customer value. Doing this in a group session on a call allows for collaboration and differing opinions to be shared, which is hugely helpful. We also use Miro for brainstorming on specific initiatives. Using the sticky notes in a big group helps to gather ideas and then rank them, as well.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It's an excellent collaboration tool since multiple people can be viewing a board at once, and adding/ranking ideas.
Miro is great for holding reference notes. I have struggled over the years with where things should be stored, but I find the visual appeal of Miro to be my pick. I have a personal Miro board where I can keep notes on a variety of topics.
I use Miro for retros. I know there are many tools out there for retros, but I find Miro very easy to use for people in any role.

Cons

When using the find functionality to locate an item in a Miro board, I do not like that it keeps my previous searched term. Other programs, like Excel, do this but they have it so that you can easily overwrite the previously-searched term.
It would be helpful if you could search by a particular frame, instead of the entire board. For our quarterly backlog review, we often have items that carry over, so there are duplicates on the board. Being able to search by a frame would make this easier.
Understanding who can access a board is not always clear to me.

Return on Investment

For our quarterly planning meeting, we can do a review of our backlog ideas in less than an hour. Previously, this would take each person several hours.
Miro has helped my teams specifically to identify action items from our retros which has helped improve team efficiency.
Outside of Microsoft products, I really only use Miro, Jira, and Confluence, so Miro has definitely reduced my software use, which is great. It helps me to become specialized in the tools that I use.

Usability

Overall, I find Miro's usability pretty good. It is mostly intuitive whether you're experienced or not. There are a couple of quirks that I think could be improved. I mentioned the search functionality. I think that could be improved, to more easily allow for many searches in a row, plus being able to search within a specific frame. I also think there are some things that confuse me with formatting, so it would be awesome if there was some type of helper text when a user is trying something over and over again and it isn't working.

Tool Usage

The sticky notes have impacted my day-to-day the most. They are easy to use. I can quickly add something there. And most importantly to me, there is no need to save. I have lost things previously in Confluence or MS Word because of the save functionality. Miro is designed for brainstorming and ideas, etc., but it also enables users to quickly jot things down, and I love that.

Reduced Tool Overload

Miro has not affected how we as an organization use other tools, but I will say that it has made me more capable overall. I occasionally use Miro to help me make mock-ups. As a product manager, I don't have access to design tools, but when I am in a pinch and need a quick mock-up, Miro helps. I can paste screenshots and use the tools within Miro to help get what I need.

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?

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

Atlassian Jira, Atlassian Confluence

Likelihood to Recommend

In my role, I use Miro quite a bit. I like to use it as a reference center for myself. And then I use it in more traditional ways, such as a tool for retros, a place to brainstorm, and a way to help us prioritize our work. I think Miro has many purposes, but I still lean on tools like Jira for tickets and Confluence for higher-level share outs.

Comments

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Miro an excellent multi-use collaboration tool