Brightidea Releases Whiteboard: A Better Way to Brainstorm

September 15, 2021 by Business Wire

New hybrid work software empowers professional teams to move ideas from brainstorming to actionable projects so that no great ideas are left behind.

SAN FRANCISCO – September 15, 2021 – Brightidea, the #1 customer-rated platform for idea management, today announced the release of Brightidea Whiteboard. The native digital whiteboard collaboration software is now available in all Brightidea Innovation Cloud products. Brightidea Whiteboard is included at no additional cost for all current Brightidea customers, and any user can try Brightidea Whiteboard free for 30 days.

Remote and hybrid work brought on by the pandemic has forced massive adoption of digital collaboration, and much of that distributed teamwork has made use of digital whiteboard software. Although these tools can support some collaborative creativity, they have limitations. In a fully remote or hybrid working environment, conversations and collaboration around the whiteboard—so-called digital water cooler discussions—are critical to advancing ideas; if there’s not a forum for those interactions, some participants will be walled off from conversation. Current digital whiteboard tools also fail to connect data and results to the whiteboard content, which leaves innovation managers without the data or context they need to make informed decisions and set priorities. These constraints inevitably push the innovation process to other tools, further walling off collaboration across teams and often leading to a degree of Balkanization. Furthermore, most ideas require further development after an initiation brainstorm and then need a defined pathway to become projects; neither will happen in a static digital whiteboard space that traps digital sticky notes to be neglected or forgotten.

Brightidea Whiteboard enfranchises users to collaborate in an infinite, zoomable interface from any location at the same time or asynchronously. For the first time, ideas created in a Brightidea Whiteboard are rich programmable objects that can house additional data, including form submission fields, file attachments, detailed idea history feed, business impact logging and tracking, status changes, tags, idea categorization, and much more. This additional data allows you to reach beyond the sticky note and into the infinite possibilities that ideas represent—any idea created in Brightidea Whiteboard can be linked to any Brightidea Innovation Pipeline, empowering idea managers to cultivate and advance ideas into action and eventually tangible results. By associating context and data with ideas from the initial brainstorming phases, innovation managers have the information they need to prioritize the best ideas. Brightidea Whiteboard also comes with several preloaded templates to help structure brainstorming around common innovation and idea management activities. In addition, Brightidea Whiteboard is built on the WebAssembly open standard to ensure high performance and long-term reliability.

“Zoom fatigue is the single biggest factor preventing remote and hybrid work from becoming permanent,” said Brightidea CEO and founder Matt Greeley. “Digital whiteboard tools provide an engaging alternative, but brainstorming is not sufficient—ideas must be put into action. The seamless integration between brainstorming and project execution is what makes Brightidea Whiteboard unique.”

For the First Time Ever… Whiteboard + Workflow

With Brightidea Whiteboard, managers have a single solution for end-to-end idea and innovation management. No longer will ideas be trapped on sticky notes after a brainstorm session, requiring tedious data entry to move the process forward. All that’s required is to right-click a sticky note and select “Send to pipeline” to move ideas to your Brightidea Innovation Pipeline. The connection doesn’t end there, however, as data from the pipeline syncs with the whiteboard so that all the updates are available regardless of where you access them. With access to data in real-time, innovation managers have the information they need to make data-driven decisions and move ideas to reality.

Beyond the real-time data syncing with Brightidea Innovation Pipelines, other Brightidea Whiteboard features align specifically to idea and innovation use cases, offering users a host of powerful options, including:

• Infinite Canvas — Because Brightidea Whiteboard is built on WebAssembly technology it offers users infinite space for collaboration. That lack of constraint enables your team to keep everything in one workspace from initial brainstorming to idea scoring and beyond. And with a Zoomable User Interface, users can zoom in and out on specific areas of Brightidea Whiteboard to narrow focus on a specific idea or back out for a birds-eye view to consider the broader context.
• Multiplayer — Your entire team can join Brightidea Whiteboard from anywhere via a browser so you can collaborate in real-time regardless of where people are located. And when you need to bring everyone in your Brightidea Whiteboard together, a single click of the “Call a huddle” button will bring your team’s attention to focus on a specific idea within the space.
• Whiteboard Tools and Objects — Brightidea Whiteboard extends beyond the all-purpose sticky note with dynamic content from shapes to image uploads, emojis to reactions, plus pen tools with variable widths, rich editability, and even a timer to keep your brainstorming sessions on time and on track.
• Templates — Brightidea Whiteboard offers 8 templates purpose-built for idea collection and management, including the 5 Whys, Assumption Grid, Brainstorm + Prioritize, Brainwriting, Empathy Map, Fishbone, Rose-Bud-Thorn, and Simple Roadmap. More templates will be added in future releases and users can share their own template creations.
• Smart Matrix — Brightidea Whiteboard includes smart objects to augment data in your Brightidea Innovation Pipelines. Actions in the Smart Matrix enable users to move sticky notes on a feasibility v. impact grid, which will then automatically generate an evaluation score for each idea and sync the prioritization data with your pipelines.

Data Tracking and Analytics

Brightidea Whiteboard allows users to track all the activity behind their ideation and innovation efforts. Reporting includes business impact tracking, product usage, and adoption metrics, collaboration spikes by heatmap, idea status, user activity by department, geolocation, discipline, and even business team.

Brightidea Whiteboard is a feature-rich tool that will boost your brainstorming and help you make data-driven decisions that move ideas into reality. To learn more about Brightidea Whiteboard or try it out for yourself, go to:
https://www.brightidea.com/wb/start-your-30-day-whiteboard-trial/.

Media Contact
Ben Tomkins
Brightidea, Inc.
press@brightidea.com