Google Doc vs Whiteboard

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to design digital workplaces or “offices in the cloud.” These environments enable companies to allow flexible and remote working for their teams. I also teach the digital literacy, fluency, communication and collaboration skills needed to work in these modern technology-rich workplaces.

“We need to be in the same room with a whiteboard to brainstorm!”

Have you heard that before? Let’s see if there is a better way:

On a physical whiteboard you can:

• Easily draw shapes and diagrams
• Group text with circles
• Add sticky notes
• Everyone needs to be in the same room.
• The most senior person usually holds the marker.
• The text on the board cannot easily be shared except by taking a photo.

With a Google Doc you don’t have to be in the same room you can all be on camera and:

• Have everyone write, not just the person with the marker
• Multiple people can write at the same time, versus waiting their turn
• See what people are looking at in real-time via cursor indicators
• Make comments that are time-stamped
• Change hierarchy with indentation
• Copy and paste
• Doesn’t run out of space
• Doesn’t need to be deleted after the meeting
• Be iterated on before and after the meeting
• Font is more readable than handwriting
• Use URLs to link to external resources
• Add screenshots and embeds from other tools
• Doc becomes an artifact that can be linked to or embedded in other tools and platforms
• Doc can be shared with a link for feedback from the entire company

Beat that!

The above is from the GitLab Handbook on the topic Google docs as a remote whiteboard