Tools
Miro/FigJam: Discovery and Facilitation
Miro and FigJam for discovery and facilitation: whiteboard preparation, session script, participation, synthesis and transfer of solutions.
An online whiteboard helps collaborative thinking, but an endless canvas easily hides the lack of a solution: Before a session, ask a question, roles, timeboxes and an expected artifact; afterward, transfer the findings, owners and actions to the work system, rather than leaving them among stickers.
Quick parsing: Miro and FigJam for discovery and facilitation
What are Miro and FigJam used for?
Why do we need these tools?
Miro and FigJam are online collaboration boards that help teams quickly discover, discuss features, organize ideas and facilitate discussions. They are versatile, suitable for remote and hybrid work, allow you to structure information, engage participants, get feedback.
Example of application
For example, during an discovery session, the team uses Miro to map the user path, and each participant adds stickers, suggests solutions, and comments, and as a result, all the thoughts on one board are visible, and the structure of the discussion is visible.
Key functions for discovery
Organization of information
User Story Map, CJM, Lean Canvas, stickers, frames, standards for discovery, you can quickly put together a brainstorm, you can put ideas together and group them together.
Simple collaboration
Miro and FigJam allow you to edit the whiteboard online, share a link, assign roles. You can see the actions of participants, you can comment and quickly create surveys.
Example: Facilitation of hypotheses
When analyzing hypotheses, it’s convenient to break them down using HMW (How Might We) or ICE/Priority Matrix templates right on the board. Options are sorted, commented on, easily voted for the best ideas.
Facilitation: settings and best practices
Roles and access rights
For effective facilitation, it’s important to give the right access to the board: who can edit, who only comments or watches. Clear tuning eliminates chaos in a large session.
Built-in timers and votes
Both tools support timers, quick polls, emoji responses, all of which support dynamics and engagement, and timer helps you keep the stages running, and voting reduces debate.
Example: Fast consolidated feedback
On feature prototypes, participants leave comments and quickly vote on problem or strong solutions, and then the facilitator sums up the strengths and weaknesses on the board.
How to avoid using Miro and FigJam
Typical errors
Trying to do discovery without having to prepare patterns or structure leads to chaos, and on one board, everything is discussed at once, and the focus is quickly lost.
Another mistake is to allow everyone to write pictures/comments without moderation, the board gets clogged, useful information drowns in noise.
How to avoid
Before the session, prepare templates and logical structure. Rights restrictions - the moderators are the most active actions. After facilitation, record the results and highlight the next action.
Specific design of work processes
Templates and integrations
Choose official templates (Mind Map, Customer Journey Map, Kanban) – they save time. The tools integrate with Jira, Trello, Slack and others, which speeds up tracking of results.
Access settings and change history
Use access settings: projects within teams, public/link-limited. Change tracking allows you to re-establish discussions or return to the decision point.
Example: Documentation of the session
After a major product session on FigJam, make the final frame, the single part of the board, where all decisions and questions are taken. Photograph or export the frame to PDF/PNG for documentation.
Selection and start tips
When to choose Miro and when to choose FigJam
Miro is better suited for complex processes where advanced visualizations, integrations and management of large numbers of boards are needed. FigJam is a great solution for quick start, easy facilitation, especially if the team is already working with Figma.
Examples of model scenarios
Miro: Long discovery sessions, large CJMs, collaborative process simulations.
FigJam: fast retro, workshops, feedback sessions on layouts.
FAQ
**Why do you need timers and votes in Miro and FigJam? They speed up the dynamics of the session, simplify gathering opinions and save working time.
How to choose the right pattern for discovery? Focus on the problem: for CJM – the user path map, for hypotheses – the prioritization matrix, for the discourse – the mind map.
What if there is too much information and chaos on the board? Collect conclusions in separate frames, assign a moderator, unload the board, remove unnecessary stickers.
What are the integrations to simplify the process? Miro and FigJam integrate with Jira, Trello, GitHub, Slack, and this allows you to automate the fixing of solutions.
How to document the results of the workshop? Make the final frame, determine the person responsible for its export / preservation, add a link to the internal wiki / repository.
What is the difference between Miro and FigJam? Miro is more powerful for complex scenarios and large teams; FigJam is simpler and more convenient for fast sessions and synchronization with Figma.