The following post is from our official annual partner, Lucid. See our partnership opportunities here.
The workplace looks very different than it did in 2001 when the Agile Manifesto was first drafted. Between the pandemic, technological advances, and evolving worker expectations, organizations have been forced to rethink how they do business and get work done.
As a result, there are new tools that can better support Agile practices—even in remote and hybrid environments. In fact, according to the 17th State of Agile Report, 32% of Agile teams use some type of whiteboard technology to support the Agile lifecycle.
But digital whiteboards alone are not enough to fuel effective Agile work.
Instead, Agile teams need robust visual collaboration solutions that connect people and drive innovation—no matter where or when they work. Visual collaboration allows Agile teams to effectively communicate complex ideas, collaborate asynchronously and in real-time, and build consensus between cross-functional groups and decision-makers.
Here’s why your Agile team needs visual collaboration—and what to look for in a visual collaboration solution.
What does visual collaboration actually mean?
Visual collaboration is more than just a virtual whiteboard or Zoom conference. Visual collaboration is about using visuals to fuel innovation, connect remote and hybrid teams, and scale Agility to drive greater organizational efficiency.
Visual collaboration should occur at every stage of your Agile workflow, including:
- Brainstorming ideas
- Facilitating Agile events
- Planning complex projects
- Visualizing the product lifecycle
Visual collaboration can be an especially powerful tool for supporting Agile values and enabling Agile teams to work even more efficiently together.
How visual collaboration supports Agile values
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Visual collaboration isn’t about any one tool or management solution. It’s a way of working that integrates visuals into each stage of development for more effective communication and collaboration. Visual collaboration enables people to connect—even when they are in separate locations or working a different times.
For example, teams can create a virtual team space where all documentation and communication are shared and saved. This is the home base for working and collaborating, enabling teams to focus on the work rather than keeping track of a thousand different tools, platforms, and documents in various places.
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
Visual collaboration helps teams prioritize working software without sacrificing robust documentation. By implementing visual collaboration across each stage of the workflow, teams end up naturally creating documentation that they can easily refer to and update as the project evolves.
For example, teams can brainstorm ideas and plans on a virtual whiteboard, convert those ideas into a product roadmap, tag contributors when timelines change, etc.
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Visual collaboration can enhance customer communication through easy-to-understand visuals that facilitate conversations and build consensus faster.
For example, you can use a virtual whiteboard to map out plans and invite stakeholders to add ideas, objections, or questions for further discussion in a Zoom meeting.
4. Responding to change over following a plan
Visual collaboration helps Agile teams improve communication and documentation from the start and makes it easy to visualize new ideas and adapt plans when requirements or conditions change.
For example, you might update a project roadmap in a shared visual whiteboard and tag team members whose responsibilities or deadlines are impacted.
Why visual collaboration is important for your Agile team (and what to look for)
Visual collaboration isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic advantage for businesses that do it well. In fact, 82% of decision-makers reported that investing in a cohesive collaboration solution allows their organization to stay competitive and positions them as a leader in their industry, according to a Forrester Consulting study.
Here’s how visual collaboration can help your Agile team (and what to look for when investing in a visual collaboration solution).
Makes facilitation easy and effective
Visual collaboration streamlines communication and enables better facilitation of group meetings. Visualizing your agenda and any relevant topics (such as workflows, processes, or team organization) helps focus and enhance your discussion, improving clarity and comprehension among your team members.
What to look for: Extra tools for facilitators
When considering different visual collaboration solutions, look for solutions that offer extra tools for facilitators, such as timers, laser pointers, the ability to follow a collaborator, customizable agenda templates, etc. Facilitator tools can help you keep your meetings more engaging and productive.
Keeps everyone engaged and levels the playing field for participation
One of the challenges of collaboration—especially in distributed environments—is ensuring everyone is engaged and has the opportunity to contribute. Too often, the same people dominate a discussion, which can leave out valuable insights from team members who are naturally more reserved or who have different collaborative styles.
Visual collaboration accommodates different collaboration styles. It invites all participants to interact and contribute in meaningful ways, ensuring that all stakeholders have a voice in the conversation.
What to look for: Interactive elements
Look for solutions that allow team members to contribute easily. For example, Visual Activities, available in the Lucid Suite, offers a variety of interactive activities that turn qualitative feedback into actionable insights. You can vote on ideas, gather customer feedback, prioritize tasks, and rank discussion topics all from one visual workspace.
Makes documentation easy and organic to improve transparency
Visuals are easier to understand and quicker to digest than simply words on a page. Investing in visual collaboration on your Agile teams improves communication and transparency and helps groups reach consensus faster. By incorporating visual collaboration at each stage of your Agile workflow, you’ll gradually build a hub of documentation from initial ideation to planning and implementation.
What to look for: Centralized space for all collaborative work
Visual collaboration builds documentation into your workflow naturally. But if your documentation isn’t centralized, you risk losing key information and increasing inefficiency around communication. Look for a visual collaboration platform that offers a central hub for your shared work, where team members can go for a single source of truth. These team spaces are where you can create and share all documents and files related to your project at every stage of the Agile lifecycle.
Provides structure but is flexible enough to adapt to your teams
Visuals allow you to communicate ideas and document work more effectively and efficiently. But they are also easier to adapt and customize to changing needs.
What to look for: Solutions with customizable templates to create repeatable experiences
Visual templates—like boards set up for sprint retrospectives or daily standups—provide clear, structured steps for you to follow and fill in. You can use these templates over and over again to ensure consistency across teams and projects. Because they are customizable, you can also adapt them to your unique team or project requirements, so they are just as agile as your team.
Reduces the time from planning to action
Visualizing your ideas and plans increases understanding and clarity among stakeholders and kick-starts action.
What to look for: Solutions that integrate with your project management systems
Look for visual collaboration solutions that integrate with your project management systems. You don’t want to introduce visual collaboration tools that are separate from your current preferred platforms, as this will make it difficult to synchronize your work, leading to redundancies and things falling through the cracks.
Helps teams incorporate moments for connection
Visual collaboration is a great way to bring distributed teams together, no matter where they’re working.
What to look for: Interactive templates to spark engagement
Look for a visual collaboration solution that not only drives innovation but also connects through interactive elements that you can customize for your team. For example, Lucid has a collection of team-building templates just for fostering team connection, including icebreakers, water cooler discussion prompts, game show templates, and more.
Kick-start visual collaboration with Lucid
In today’s hybrid work environment, it’s more important than ever for Agile teams to leverage visual collaboration solutions that not only facilitate work among distributed team members but also fuel innovation and agility at scale.
Lucid’s comprehensive visual collaboration platform enables Agile teams at every stage. From ideation and planning to execution and everything in between.
Find out more about how Lucid works for Agile teams.
