We’re all about that Atlassian life at my workplace. I even use Atlassian products for my personal/hobby projects. At work, Atlassian products (Jira and Confluence mainly) is a daily thing for me. Recently I started using Confluence Whiteboards more frequently than Figjam which has been my go to digital white boarding, ideating, diagraming tool.
Why Confluence
One of the biggest advantages of Confluence is how it centralizes a lot of our documentation. If you track your work in Jira, which we exclusively do. Confluence docs work exceptional compared to other tools. Especially macros and embeddable views that you can document, slice, track your Jira activities in Confluence docs are amazing.
But we work with many tools and often, we have links scattered across various non-Atlassian places, which simply creates more clutter in documentation itself.
Lack of Visual Thinking / Documenting
Back in the day, when non of the online tools existed, we used to use Keynote as our free-form thinking tool. It was our main “meeting” tool that we were throwing ideas, notes, shapes, screenshots etc. But it was offline, it was someone’s computer who drove the meeting. Lacked multi-player completely.
Then Google Slides came along fixed collab and multi-player which I still enjoy how low-entry place that can work really well, but still not the right tool.
Miro and Figjam completely changed the game. Now I can’t think better ways to run certain meeting types without a Miro or Figjam board.
Then Atlassian recently joined the party.
Although, with some of the other Atlassian products, it falls short in functionality. It feels Level1.
But there are set of tools that the simplicity sometimes wins. Yes, it doesn’t have the 3rd party plugins ecosystem (maybe yet?), but it does 90% of the job.
Convenience and Access
Let’s talk about the true winning aspect of Confluence Whiteboards. It’s convenience.
As I said, we also use tools like Miro and Figjam. Both are fantastic, but there’s always that one team member who doesn’t have proper access. It can be a bit frustrating. Access issues consistently bites us in both tools, even though there is guest/open-session functions. There is always “I can’t access” scenario.
Confluence whiteboards saves us from the hassle of accessibility issues. Whoever has access to a space and a document, can see the white boards.
Pricing and Licensing
Now, let’s have a word about the price tag—Confluence whiteboards come included in the Confluence license. This is a significant advantage that can’t be overlooked; an aspect that makes adopting whiteboards a no-brainer for anyone already using Atlassian.
Shift in Preferences
I’ve noticed that most of our team members still rely on Figjam or Miro. Yet, I found myself creating enough whiteboards in Confluence that it may eventually became my go-to option. This might be due to the convenience of having everything in one place, or perhaps just being heavily invested in the Atlassian suite.
In the grand scheme of things, Confluence whiteboards serve their purpose effectively within the confines of the Atlassian toolset. While they may not possess all the flashy features of other popular whiteboarding tools, they offer a straightforward and integrated approach. It simplifies workflows, reduces accessibility hassles, and is included in the Confluence license.
Check out Atlassian’s official page. Happy brainstorming!