Insight

Stakeholder workshops can play an important role in the early stages of user research projects. As this related article addresses, they help researchers understand the organisational context in which the research will take place, clarify internal priorities, and create alignment across teams.

Online collaborative whiteboards can make these workshops more inclusive, flexible, and valuable. Tools such as FigJam, Miro, Canva, Mural, and Microsoft Whiteboard provide shared spaces where participants can add ideas, organise contributions, identify themes, and explore priorities together. Like conventional whiteboards and paper sticky notes, these online whiteboards and digital sticky notes are ideal for collaborative, exploratory activities.

Using online collaborative whiteboards for stakeholder workshops can support inclusive research practice in many ways:

• They work very well for in-person, online, and hybrid activities. The location of participants makes little difference to the process of adding sticky notes and organising them into coherent themes, priorities, and propositions. As long as the host presents opportunities for discussion, evaluating the contributions is possible in any mode of delivery too. Stakeholder workshops facilitated through online collaborative whiteboards can be more inclusive of different perspectives as they are easier to join than conventional in-person activities.
• Every participant has equal opportunity to contribute. Sticky notes are added and organised in the same way by everyone. The online whiteboard is a ‘level playing field’ for all participants, irrespective of their position within the organisation. Too often, other forms of collaborative stakeholder research are dominated by forceful voices. Online collaborative whiteboards significantly reduce the chance of that happening.
• There is no hierarchy to the contributions. The tools listed above provide simple functionality for anonymising contributions. With that turned on, every sticky note added to the whiteboard is treated equally. Contributions are evaluated based on the strength of the idea, rather than who submitted them.
• Assistive technologies can be used to improve accessibility. Participants with sensory, physical, or other access needs might find that assistive technologies can reduce barriers to participation in this type of collaborative research activity, supporting them in contributing more comfortably. However, online whiteboards only improve accessibility when the tool is selected carefully, the board is designed effectively, access needs are checked in advance, and alternative methods of contributing are provided.
• Contributions can be made asynchronously. If someone cannot attend the workshop for any reason, they can make contributions to the whiteboard before or after the event. Caring responsibilities, flexible working patterns, access requirements, and many other needs can be accommodated by working with the tools asynchronously.

It is, however, dangerous to assume that online whiteboards will make stakeholder workshops inclusive by default. They become inclusive when they are designed and facilitated in a considered way. These recommendations should help:

• Keep the board simple: Reduce cognitive load and make it easy for participants to focus on the task at hand.
• Use clear sections and numbered activities: Help participants understand where they should be making their contributions.
• Provide instructions both verbally and in writing: Support different communication preferences.
• Give participants a short practice task: Reduce anxiety for people unfamiliar with the tool and ensure everyone is able to contribute before the main tasks begin.
• Offer an alternative way to contribute: Such as making verbal contributions captured by the meeting transcription to prevent the tool itself becoming a barrier.
• Adhere to principles of accessible design: Use large text, a legible font, strong contrast, and avoid relying on colour alone.
• Check access requirements before the workshop: Avoid assuming the tool will work equally well for everyone and accommodate access requirements proactively.
• Include a space for 'off-topic' contributions: Allow people to contribute all their insight, whether it fits with the structure of the workshop, or not.

The benefits of online collaborative whiteboards extend beyond inclusive research practice too:

• A shareable output of the activity is instantly created. As soon as the workshop is finished, the link to the online whiteboard can be shared with everyone in the organisation, the research team, and any other invested parties. Feedback can be gathered quickly and further contributions can be made.
• The digital output enables rapid data analysis. It is very easy to collate, export, analyse, and work with the data presented on an online whiteboard. Working with paper sticky notes and drawn annotations requires a lot of labour, whereas the digital output can be exported and manipulated using tools such as large language models (LLMs) quickly and easily. Of course, if workshop data is analysed using tools like AI, the research team must consider confidentiality, consent, data protection, and whether commercially sensitive information or personal data has been added to the board.

In conclusion, online collaborative whiteboards can be very effective for facilitating inclusive stakeholder workshops. They are not inclusive by default. Their value depends on how thoughtfully they are designed, facilitated, and employed. Used well, they can help more people contribute to this important research activity, reduce some of the barriers created by conventional meeting formats, and produce a useful research output that can be shared, analysed, and revisited throughout the project.