DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK INVISION

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 INTRODUCTION

You’re not
getting the most
out of your
design function
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Designers are often given the unenviable task of

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

turning high-level brainstorms into fully-fledged

creative outputs, all while compensating for time lost
to multi-stakeholder miscommunications along
the way.

Ensuring that cross-functional communications —

whether synchronous and asynchronous – aren’t lost
in translation, cuts down the time to execution and
vastly improves the quality of deliverables from design
teams, which are already facing the unique challenges
that come with hybrid workforces, including:

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 1. Setting expectations

What level of design outputs are feasible given short deadlines

and competing priorities?

2. Streamlined communications

Difficulties conveying nuanced design concepts to stakeholders

+ clients outside of the design function, particularly in remote
settings, can extend the time it takes to deliver assets.

DESIGN THINKING, SIMPLIFIED:

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DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

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 This is where online whiteboarding tools can make a significant
difference, particularly when there are two key objectives for
design teams:

1. Purpose-built review sessions and in-team collaboration

Feedback should not be siloed or sporadic — design teams need

a centralized platform to show their work and give and gather
collective feedback.

2. Closing the feedback-to-execution gap

Reducing the back and forth with cross-collaborative teams

leaves more time to design and gives creativity the room to thrive
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throughout the entire production process.

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

In this guide, we’ll leverage insights from brand and product

design experts to convey the unique challenges of these teams
and uncover the ways online whiteboarding tools can help.

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 CHAPTER ONE

Selecting
online collabo-
ration tools:
Where to
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begin
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

Before selecting an online whiteboarding tool, you

first need to address your broader team needs:

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 What your
team needs

A CENTRALIZED PLATFORM FOR BEST IDEAS

Whether it is building a mood board or sharing draft concepts
in real time, it takes a creative village to make design truly
transformative. Designers can use online whiteboarding tools to
replicate the intimacy and community of a full-fledged design
studio, despite being in a virtual setting.

ABILITY TO CREATE SIMPLE, REPEATABLE PROCESSES

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The goal is to design fast without sacrificing creativity. User-

friendly (and not daunting) technology helps encourage daily
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

usage, according to our experts.

SCALABILITY
The steps within the design process (i.e., ideation, mood boarding,
concepting) can go from fragmented to transformative with
a centralized, infinite canvas. This early part of the process is
essential to turning creative outputs into impact-driving products,
websites, marketing materials, and more.

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 “Working on a website landing
page includes several key stake-
holders — you’re collaborating
with a creative director, anima-
tor, head of design, and content
writer — all who have skin in the
game. With Freehand, you’re
recreating the ‘huddling around
wireframes and sketching’ expe-
rience that has saved us weeks
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of work. You can create designs

across several stages of fidelity
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

for everybody to see it in their

mind’s eye. Everything happens
at once, and that classic back
and forth is fully eliminated with
this tool.”
CHRIS EDWARDS
Staff Product Designer, InVision

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 CHAPTER TWO

How design
teams can use
an online white-
board now
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Selecting an online whiteboarding tool is half the

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

battle — team adoption helps nurture the culture of

collaboration that visual technology provides. Here
are the three ways you can transform the design
process today:

Freeform, not fragmented, creative processes

As we note above, online whiteboards give designers more

freedom to convey best ideas through a centralized platform
that is purpose-built for visual collaboration. That said, today’s

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 designers also need an organized space to manage their deep
tech stack and documentation. Digital whiteboards help address
fragmentation by bringing multiple assets (e.g. design briefs,
mood boards) into a single canvas, removing unnecessary friction
from team and external communications.

Replace the design brief back and forth

Close the gap between ideation and execution that delays

deliverables. Online whiteboards provide the space to convey
ideas with clarity that bring abstract ideas to life in less time.

“Teams use a variety of tools for their design briefs, and online
whiteboards help us integrate those documents into the process.
That gives us a head start before we even have a kickoff — we
can understand the brief, extract ideas, and better communicate
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what we heard from the brief. It’s really bringing their world to our
world in a comfortable way to help our combined teams transition
from idea to design.”
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

- Aaron Stump
VP, Creative Director, InVision

Get internal feedback that eases external communications

Design teams often present their concepts to their colleagues

for valuable feedback before they reach cross-functional
stakeholders. Instant feedback on how it will resonate is a
major milestone in the design process, which is why real-time
commenting found in online whiteboards is critical.
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 “I love how we can
present the concept, do a
walkthrough, and during
the meeting we can all give
feedback right away. It’s as
easy as dropping in a sticky
note in real time to return to
the idea after the meeting
without being disruptive
to the presentation. When
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you leave the room, the

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

presenter can gather direct

feedback in a single space
from the stakeholders
asynchronously.”
AARON STUMP
VP, Creative Director, InVision

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 EXPERT INSIGHTS

How GSK transformed

design sprints
Healthcare innovators are not only enacting meaningful change and
quickly, but they’re doing it in one of the toughest environments.
Companies like GSK, a science-led global healthcare company,
have been undergoing digital transformations long before the onset
of the global pandemic, but they were disrupted just like many other
organizations by the overnight switch to remote work. But, when
the environment around us is changing at a rapid pace, GSK found
ways to accelerate and adapt. While many companies had a bit
more flexibility in their journeys, the stakes were higher for those
in healthcare: Any slowing down equated to direct impact on the
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health of their customers.

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

Led by Rachel Burton, the director of transformation, and Alex

Voorhees, the director of design on the Core Technology Design
team, the GSK team rose to the occasion with human-centered
design thinking principles. Rather than solely focus the team on
objectives and hitting certain metrics, they chose to firmly ground
their day-to-day journey in their people. Here’s how.

A “bias towards action” approach

Burton and Voorhees had been working on ways to demonstrate

what it means to have a bias towards action—a way of working

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 that needs to be felt rather than talked about. What better
way to do that than through a design sprint? Voorhees took
the Freehand Design Sprint template and modified it to
accommodate the team’s needs.

“There was intimacy and speed at the same time, which allowed
us to feel what it means to be agile and bypassed the slow-
moving tendencies of a larger company,” said Marah Faron,
Innovation Analyst, GSK

While setting aside several days to facilitate a workshop can feel

daunting, there’s something irreplaceable about feeling what it’s
like to move fast as a group. Word of the sprint caught on, with
more and more teams requesting to participate and adopt this
new style of collaboration.
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Leverage new technologies

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

the team with a new unforeseen challenge: how can you create
transformative experiences while everyone is remote?

Voorhees found a solution in Freehand, InVision’s online digital

whiteboard. Freehand allowed the team to accommodate team
members from across the globe in a way that still felt engaging
and productive.

“The sprint leveled the playing field. Freehand facilitated a digital

space to brainstorm ideas where everyone had a voice. Even with

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 no design experience, the tool was easy enough that there was
no learning curve whatsoever.” Faron said.

Productivity, minus pressure

In order to be productive (while also in a high stakes situation),

you need to take the pressure off yourself a bit. Creating an
environment where everyone feels like they can take risks and be
creative without the pressure for perfection is a critical aspect of
fostering breakthroughs. If you want to promote change, you and
your team need to be open to it.

One way to create psychological safety is by choosing tools

and platforms that feel approachable no matter an individual’s
background.
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“It created a great learning moment, because everyone is on

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

the edge of their seat and it’s highly visible. I enjoyed seeing the
richness of ideas and was blown away by the creativity,” Burton
said.

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 CHAPTER THREE

Putting online
collaboration
tools into action
Proof of Concept
Design teams need tools that can fit their workflows — creativity
cannot be slowed down by bad UI or context switching between
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multiple visualization tools to showcase best ideas. Teams can

determine an online whiteboard’s value by its ease of use and
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

integrations that take their unique workflows into account.

Phased adoption
Quite often, the most difficult task is getting started. Creating a
“step one” for your teams is the best way to get more familiarized
with the new tool and start collaborating right away.

1. Appoint team leaders to facilitate usage among their colleagues

2. Get your team started with templates that appeal to their specific
needs, such as the Design Sprint, Daily Standup, and Empathy Map.

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 “With Freehand, you’re
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given all of the tools right

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

away, and have that level

playing field, which gives
non-designers the freedom
to interact with design in
ways they haven’t before.”
CHRIS EDWARDS
Staff Product Designer, InVision

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 CHAPTER FOUR

Proactively
communicate
and iterate
In order to build long-term value and enduring
success with online whiteboarding across your design
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team, consider the following:

DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

How has a digital whiteboard been ingrained into design

processes?

Revisit the reasons why you started using an online whiteboard

through a Retrospective. That way, you’re able to centralize
feedback, identify major hurdles, and act swiftly to address any
barriers to adoption and scalability in a timely manner.

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 What specific use cases have emerged?

Is your team using an online whiteboard in ways that you did

not initially envision? If so, you have an opportunity to leverage
their use cases and feedback to reconsider the ways online
collaboration evolves across this team and cross-functional areas
of the organization.

What challenges in online collaboration still exist?

Uncovering the source of successes and failures can help you

build best practices moving forward. Hybrid workforces have
exposed gaps in collaboration, so it’s important to identify the
challenges that may still exist, even with a comprehensive tool
at your disposal. Talk to your teams and get to the bottom of the
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cultural shift in thinking around collaboration that is required to

make the most of your new toolkit.
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

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 CHAPTER FIVE

Create designs
that are never
lost in translation:
Here’s how
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Freehand can
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

help
InVision has redesigned the way we think about
collaboration. Teams can now leverage the use cases
of our experienced design experts to create a digital
workspace that meets their high standards. Here’s
three of our considerations in selecting a meaningful
online whiteboarding tool for your own team:

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 Purpose-built for remote working.

Originally developed for internal use, Freehand was built to solve

collaboration pains felt by organizations with a remote workforce.
With an emphasis on essential tools only, it’s allowed users to
immediately ideate, collaborate, and share ideas in a single,
infinite online canvas. While it’s early beginnings were centered
on our design and product teams, today’s Freehand has been
modernized for any team looking to improve its ability to visually
collaborate. This has given our fully distributed team the ability
to bridge cross-functional gaps and stay nimble throughout the
collaboration process.

Curated templates based on actual workflows.

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Online whiteboards aren’t effective if they do not reflect the

ways modern teams work. That’s why we removed the ambiguity
DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

from our template gallery and sourced templates from our own
workflows and leaders in productivity such as Asana, American
Express, and Salesforce to do all of the heavy lifting for you.

Enterprise security.

Share your visual collaboration freely — InVision encrypts data

with industry standards (including SSL and AES-256), and makes
sure tools such as Freehand stay protected with monitoring 24
hours a day, seven days a week. Enterprise plans also include
Single Sign-On (SSO) and two-factor authentication.

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DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK INVISION

Try
now
Freehand

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 Freehand Templates
Browse all templates

Ice breakers Brainstorming

Template Template
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Marketing
Crazy 8’s Strategy
Template Template
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DESIGN PROFESSIONALS: AN ONLINE WHITEBOARDING HANDBOOK

Product
Planning Design Sprint
Template Template
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Customer
Journey Map Flowchart
Template Template
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