What’s Miro Board Improv All About?
It all started during Miro Distributed 2021. Jonathan White and I had an idea. We were going to launch Miro Board Improv! It began as a gut feeling that this would allow people to have fun with Miro and learn how to create workshop experiences.
Since then, we have run the session many times within the Miro community and other communities! Our session in the Butter Community was the most viewed event video of 2022.
The Origin Story
Perfectionism is a cruel enemy. I have to admit I struggle with this a lot. Using improv techniques helps a lot with letting go and letting things happen. Miro was the place to do that. Let’s let go and be creative virtually on a Miro board, especially when in-person events are almost impossible. And then the idea was born for Miro Board Improv!
Jon and I went with it and started with Miro Distributed 2021. We had no idea what to expect. It was an AMAZING experience. People swarmed all over the board. They engaged, had fun, laughed, and left with new ideas.
It was one of my first times co-facilitating with Jon, and a lifelong facilitation friendship began. Our facilitation styles complement each other well. Find your facilitation partner in crime; I promise you won’t regret it.
Where’s the Improv?
How do we integrate improv concepts into these sessions? Why is it called Miro Board Improv?! Here are some core aspects of improv and how we use them.m.
🔥 Yes, And
Building on the ideas of others is huge in improv and our sessions. We try never to use the phrase “no.” As we like to say, “there’s no but’s here.” We stay away from Yes, But and No, But. It gets us all away from a mindset of immediately shutting people down.
🧠 Active Listening
Improv, in general, helps with active listening. A lot of improv is listening to understand. We are asking for ideas from our audience. We listen to their ideas and hear what’s coming at us. We also encourage participants to listen more closely to each other.
⚡️No Judgement Zone
There’s no judgment here! We want every idea, every thought, and every bit of input. We want to build each other up and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable jumping in. there are no wrong ideas here.
🙌 Be in the Moment
Sometimes in our hectic lives, we forget to pause and just take it all in. So even though our sessions can be fast-paced, we are fully present for them and ask that our participants try to do the same — to take it all in and enjoy it.
🥊 Roll With the Punches
Here’s a biggie. It’s not about being perfect. We want to experiment, make mistakes, and roll on. We almost always make blunders during our sessions, and they may turn into even better ideas. We encourage our participants to go with the flow as well.
The Evolution
After that first session we went all in! We started our Miro Community Group — Designing Experiences in Miro and we aimed to have a Miro Improv event every month — We’ve mostly stuck to that 🤣
We made some strides in how we actually run the event, and even our mindset. Check out some of our evolutions.
Voting on things
All the elements — We decided voting on aspects of the board would be the best way to get the audience involved. So we started by having votes on color palettes and themes, and we had designated font for the choice — then we went on to vote on the icebreaker activity and main activity we would build.
Too many things — We discovered that we had too many things to vote on overall. So we simplified and went down to selecting a theme (like robots vs. monsters!) and building activities.
Audience participation
Controlled — At the beginning, we controlled participation too much. We had a “do not go below this line area.” Part of this was my insecurities about having people building with me. I got over that quickly.
Opening it up — We realized the whole mindset here was wonder, curiosity, and engagement. So we quickly got rid of that controlling “don’t put things here “mentality. We now allow people to jump right in!
Playground area — Below our build area we also have what we call a Playground, where people can explore features on their own and add anything they want if they aren’t comfortable building with us.
Graphics
Stock — Stock was where we started for graphics. We also used built-in graphics from the Miro plugins. However, being mindful of copyright and licensing, we knew we couldn’t give those stock graphics away to our participants, so we shifted.
Custom — I started to create custom graphics that I would draw in Procreate and then vectorize so we had an SVG file. Participants get to take these with them as a gift!
AI-Generated — We started experimenting with Midjourney-generated graphics in our most recent session. These are also available as a gift to all participants after our sessions. We evolved our sessions to ask for audience input for what to generate also. Imagine being at an improv show yelling out ideas for the actors—yep, its like that but on Miro!
How Can You be Part of the Fun?
➡️ Join us over at our Miro Community Group — Designing Experiences in Miro. We have an event (almost) every month!
➡️ Follow us both on LinkedIn to see when we have events in other communities — Rachel Davis and Jonathan White.
