01 - Tools · The Art of Digital Brainstorming

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The Art of Digital Brainstorming

The Challenge

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As with any craft, the tools you select (and master) will influence the results. Here is the tech part of the art:

A video conference tool: Zoom. Zoom

breakout rooms⁠

are critical for these meetings. Break-out rooms can be pre-assigned or random and can be set to close automatically after a designated duration. Thirty to forty-five minutes are ideal break-out durations, and you can add a countdown timer to alert participants. Microsoft Teams has recently

added breakout rooms⁠

if that is the preference of your business.

A browser editing tool: Microsoft 365. The second most important resource is a collaborative editing tool for documents and presentations developed during the workshop. Either Google or Office or the free

OnlyOffice⁠

editing tool or finally

Coda⁠

, a modern document editor. These tools allow the facilitator to create templates and checklist before the workshops, then when you break attendees into groups, then can edit/revise/update the documents. The resources page uses Coda because it is easier to build templates.

A Brainstorming or Whiteboard tool: Mural. I recommend

MURAL is a digital workspace for visual collaboration⁠

but you can also use Microsoft

Whiteboard⁠

. Mural is better because you can create a table of contents for the sessions and that is used for navigation. When you see the examples below, it will be obvious why it is better.

Optional: Collect Research or Publish Results. Some projects require issue research or must share the results publicly. If you need a community to summarize results. If the goal is to create a solid community with educational elements, then use

Mighty Networks⁠

. If you just need to capture the results, and possibly upvote the results then

Coda⁠

is your platform.

Next step:

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02 - Techniques⁠

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