MURAL: a visual collaboration tool that allows teams to virtually connect and strategize, brainstorm, or plan.
How we use MURAL: team meetings, requirements gathering, business strategizing, project mapping, and discovery calls.
As a fully remote team, we rely on technology to keep us connected. A good brainstorming session with the whole team, whiteboards, and sticky notes isn’t really feasible with team members scattered around the country. Then we found MURAL. This visual collaboration tool allows us to have these whiteboard, sticky note brainstorming sessions from anywhere and add to it asynchronously as team members think of additional ideas. The easy to use interface, catalog of templates, and ability to customize our MURALs with our own branding are all features that make MURAL a tool the Port & Starboard crew uses weekly (sometimes daily).
Here are some of our current use cases:
Leading team meetings
No one is immune to Zoom meeting burnout. But with MURAL as a visual tool that we can all contribute to in real time, our team meetings have become more interactive and productive. We color code different stages of operations across the company and organize them accordingly to their status. It’s a fantastic tool for noting team wins and keeping track of that data to look back on and celebrate.
Problem solving analysis
When we encounter a roadblock, we like to pull up a MURAL and outline the issue before working together to find a solution. The selection of engaging templates specifically for brainstorming sessions should not be understated. These fully built out MURALs means users only have to add their virtual sticky notes to each area of the page. Less prep = finding the solution faster!
Prospective client discovery calls
Conducting discovery calls has the intended result of understanding the client pain points, what they would like to see happen, and how we can facilitate this result. But sometimes clients aren’t sure exactly what they need from us. Enter: our discovery call MURAL. We created a custom branded MURAL (pictured above) that covers all the questions and areas that need to be addressed before we can scope out a project. It’s a highly engaging approach that clients love participating in and seeing the potential project unfold on the screen.
Requirements gathering
One large piece of the project scoping puzzle is requirements gathering. During this step, we work with the client to establish all of the necessary needs for the project so we can create a roadmap to implement these needs. Utilizing MURAL helps logistically so we can see all the requirements laid out in one place and separated by phases. We can separate these phases by priority, level of effort, and groups impacted. This level of customization is key for us to create thorough requirements documentation. For our client, they also get this overhead view of how the project will play out and all of the different areas that have requirements. Once we complete this part of project planning, it’s easy to access during a check in to assess project progression.
Beyond these four examples of how our team utilizes MURAL regularly, the robust library of educational resources is the cherry on top. If we want to learn about an integration, a use case, or new platform feature, there are videos and articles shared on the MURAL site and their social media accounts. These tools allow us to really get the most out of using this awesome platform.
