How to Properly Use a Sticky Note Collaboration Tool

We are all familiar with small rectangular eye-catching color pieces of paper used daily. These Post-it notes or sticky notes were discovered in 1977 by an idea generated by Dr. Spencer Silver, a 3M scientist who invented less sticky post-it notes in 1968. What he couldn’t have foreseen, however, would be the online revolution producing multiple different versions of a sticky note collaboration tool. In this article, we will define a sticky note collaboration tool and discuss why they’re important and unique to the modern workspace.

Today we see sticky notes as the most cost-effective option to share concise ideas and collaborate with your colleagues. They make for handy reminders on the fridge or other prominent places in your home or office. You can leave a message for your workmate that you are off to lunch or leave reminders for yourself at your house.

Some people paste this adhesive piece of paper on a flipchart on the wall, and if you use them frequently, your workspace can become flooded with them.

When choosing how to use sticky notes, the options are endless. A wide variety of colors, shapes, and styles are available. Some of the benefits of using a sticky note collaboration tool include:

• Idea sharing

• Hands-on activity

• Plenty of space for updates and plans as they can be disposed of and moved around

• After use, you can recycle them

Different Applications of a Sticky Note Collaboration Tool

Sticky notes make collaboration easy and effective, whether in a meeting or a group discussion for a project or presentation. All participants can participate and generate ideas that increase the session’s productivity.

Brainstorming

Sticky notes play a vital role in a creative thinking session, and their use is almost always required. They provide a road map to showcase the team’s ideas by recording the views on the wall or board. A canvas board with a chart or a whiteboard can be used for these small adhesive pieces of paper and let everyone paste their ideas.

Planning of a Project

For big projects, some companies hang a whiteboard or dedicate a wall for post-it notes and see the progress on a project. This method also allows all members to watch and access other team members’ planning and task management. You can also assign different colors to different ideas to make your notes distinguishable.

For example, if you want to generate ideas for a product marketing strategy, the Five whys method is a practical brainstorming session that you should consider. It will allow participants to brainstorm ideas, write down the weaknesses and strengths of a plan, launch a marketing campaign, and compete with similar products in the market. This method helps you generate a strong strategy by compiling suggestions and ideas of all team members in the meeting. Thanks to online sticky notes’ transferable nature, you can move them around to create categories and differentiate different ideas by generating a flow chart in a meeting.

Draft Coloring

As sticky notes are available in a wide range of colors, they can be organized effectively to categorize different project planning phases. Within a plan, each strategy or suggestion can be assigned a color. Assigning colors also makes it easy to locate a process and collaborate with team members.

Timeline Building

A timeline shows the progress of a project, how well it’s going, and in what direction. Sticky notes can be pasted on the timeline as they are color-coded and moved up and down according to progress. Timelines are popular in both project and product roadmaps, which you can read more about here.

Gathering Feedback

Increased cooperation is one of the significant advantages of using sticky notes online and makes them very effective in the classroom or for creating an education plan. Any team member can give feedback on an idea or suggestion by posting a sticky note on the whiteboard. This way, collaboration on any project becomes strengthened, and chances of success have increased.

Wall Planner

A whiteboard with sticky notes acts as a visual wall planner. A specific color can be assigned to a respective employee, and this distinction will help designate who is working on which project. Using sticky notes as a wall planner helps divide a project into different parts, and each person has a clear understanding of what they need to do to find success in their project. A legend can be created on the top of the whiteboard or wall for each employee, so everyone has an added layer of clarity.

Sticky notes create more accessible, effective, and effortless collaboration in a meeting or project planning. They provide access to every team member to visualize and share ideas and update on progress; sticky notes are there to play their role. Any change in the timeline frame can be easily made due to their transferable quality. This collaborative use of sticky notes ensures that each team member of an organization actively participates in reaching the required goal.

Learn more: Tips to Improve your Visual Collaboration

Conclusion

If you needed some examples of how a sticky note collaboration tool operates, hopefully, this article provided some valuable information. If you want to learn more about visual collaboration and how it can help your business, stay tuned to IdeaScale Whiteboard.