Product Managers, how do you do idea brainstorming effectively while working remotely?

Sharath Kuruganty
57 replies

Replies

Paul Mit
Miro, Notion, Slack + Telegram, Figma, Zoom, Google Docs, Loom. God bless collaborative tools!
Paul Mit
@5harath @danylpo No problem, I have a quick answer: each of the tools has its own advantages. Google is handy with its spreadsheets, presentations, file sharing, and Notion is strong with documents, storing and organizing information. Why give up the advantages when you can make a convenient configuration.
Dani Tesler
@5harath @mituhin Can I ask a question why are you using both GDocs and Notion? Just curious.
Gabriele Sangrigoli
@mituhin I wouldn't use too many tools because it gets confusing. Who will post what and where? Sure, we can set rools but it'll always be a pain in the abs to communicate to other what things were shared and where.
Paul Mit
@gabriele_sangrigoli I agree, There is a team data base (where it is important to work systematically as a team, keeping everything in order), and there are many cases of individual interactions, where the choice of tool depends on the task, not on the rules of the team. There is no universal tool. The more universal they are, the less useful they become. It's okay to have 5, 10, 20 tools in the technology stack of modern remote teams. The main thing is to use them consciously, without creating chaos. We seem to be succeeding in this. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Sharath Kuruganty
@mituhin And long live remote culture :)
Germanas Latvaitis
Using miro with product teams helps a lot. Basically, all the new multiplayer drawing tools help, even Figma.
Michael Silber
@germa Totally agree. While remote work used to rely upon on a lot of async commenting, also being able to leverage these tools in real time is where they can really shine. In my last role, my CEO was of the mind that everyone should have the working doc open in a meeting and be ready to make the change themself. There is no reason to have one person be the secretary to everyone else. It means that meeting notes and decisions are embedded in the working doc, not spread across every attendees' notes.
Sharath Kuruganty
@germa Yes love Miro boards especially when collaborating.
Nic Mahaney
Honestly - I love video chatting and working on a white board. Feels a little bit like remote teaching/learning, but it can be very similar to having a classic white board session. Other than that, we've pushed using Asana and Google Docs to promote creativity and a writing culture for new ideas!
Sharath Kuruganty
@nicmahaney1 Can't go wrong with white-boarding sessions, be it on person or online :) Asana is the best for product tracking progress 💯
Steven Brewis
@nicmahaney1 @5harath I'm curious why do most people prefer Asana over Trello. I think Trello is faster, easier to customize and make your own and wayyyyy less red tape. I really want to know.
Nic Mahaney
@5harath @steven_brewis I personally don't have any real experience with trello, so can't provide as much help there, but Asana has been perfect for my team
Gabriele Sangrigoli
@nicmahaney1 Agree, Asana is great but video chatting is better it builds the team
Nic Mahaney
@gabriele_sangrigoli I think both are awesome and necessary!
deepu
-Define biz goals with exec team and pick the team -Do a brainstorming session on problems with respective teams - ideally two isolated sessions(top n bottom teams) -Do a brainstorming session on solutions with respective teams - ideally two isolated sessions(top n bottom teams) -Do a pre-mortem brainstorming with the bottom team before it goes to HiFis n development All the sessions are async except first n last Fun fact: We hate sync communication Tools ------ Email Miro Confluence Meet
Sharath Kuruganty
@pradeeb28 So very well structured. Love the flow!
Jay Rowley
@pradeeb28 Thanks for this answer - I was scanning for anything but a list of tools!
MJ Tenorio
Miro, Slack, and Notion
Kiran Kanakadandi (yugahq.com)
We continued a tradition that we had while we were back in office -- a daily 12PM meeting without any particular agenda. None of us thought of it as a "meeting" and coz it was agenda-less, we'd brainstorm solutions kinda organically. Any task of priority would also bubble up organically. And then may be a quick chat about a movie. We continued this into Zoom is all -- while remote, that meeting also served as a hangout that we enjoyed. I was the manager and I learn the 12PM meeting is still alive and kicking even after my leaving.
Kiran Kanakadandi (yugahq.com)
Oh and tools -- garden variety -- Zoom, Confluence, Slack/Teams
Venkatesh
google docs, notion, figma, gmail and google meet
Tech Khala
Start doing something less serious.
Businesign
This is a personal experience, during the pandemic I started working at businesign.com as a developer, this is a new project so many things are not well organized including how we work together remotely. finally, we use Telegram to communicate, maybe this application is not specifically designed for work but from my experience, using Telegram is much simpler in communicating and sharing files.
Abderisak
Don't overthink it. You can jot down your ideas on anything, even something as basic as an Email message or a WhatsApp group. Focus on execution instead. It's more difficult and bears more fruit.
Ade Kunle
Working Doc, Telegram, Studio, Notepad, Nature
Chandan Maruthi
Make it clear that silence is ok, silence is acceptable and silence is appreciated. Most calls result in poor brainstorming because people feel the need to fill in the silence with talk. While silence is totally acceptable in physical brainstorming. Once you do this people will get time to hear themselves and think about what was said and result in better conversations and brainstorming
TL Robinson
MIRO and weekly alignment meetings, then fine tuning sessions to improve the "big picture"
meryl
MIRO and Figma
Caitlin Williams
Miro! Couldn't live without it now. We also use Slack and Zoom, but Miro is perfect for getting ideas and thoughts 'on paper'.
Evgeny Medvednikov
Using our own brainstorming feature of Weje, of course: https://weje.io/brainstorm-app ;)
Deepa from True Sparrow
Mainly Figma and Miro. And then transfer to a relevant place in Notion or Linear.
Paul Rusgrove
I think I’m in wrong section I didn’t realize this was a development thing associated with tech I am tech illiterate for sure but a lot of the things that people are working on seem interesting and I wish I knew more about it
Bunny R. Climer
get help from relevant person