As we’ve all experienced for over a year now, the pandemic brought on many challenges as much of the world was forced into a virtual working model. But the show must go on, and companies across the globe quickly had to pivot to new solutions for their daily workflow and communications. In addition to our typical remote tools (including Zoom, Slack, and others), the discovery and emergence of a few platforms in particular has allowed the Cloudberry team to collaborate effectively and continue on with planned projects, even in this new virtual setting. Here are a few of our favorites!
OpenReel
At the height of the pandemic, a client approached us about producing a series of short, educational videos. Since traveling to conduct a video shoot was out of the question at the time, and using Zoom would result in a video quality that was too low, we were thrilled to learn about OpenReel, a video capture platform that makes professional-grade, remote video shoots possible.
Using the OpenReel platform, the production team and filming subjects enter an online room and filming is done with the native camera on the subject’s mobile device. Since the video capture is temporarily stored locally on the subject’s device, you don’t have to worry about a spotty wifi connection potentially affecting the take.
This tool allowed us to film several subjects located all across the country in a short amount of time, and gave us the quality necessary to edit and deliver professional videos — without the static, fuzz, or warbling that we’ve come to expect from recorded Zoom calls.
The purchase of a license is required to use OpenReel, but when compared with the typical expenses associated with travel, set-up, and filming a standard video shoot, the licensing cost ends up being quite minimal.
Miro
With in-person workshopping out of the picture, we quickly needed to find a tool that could help us facilitate workshops and simulate whiteboard activities as if we were in the room with our clients. Miro is an interactive online platform that serves as a collaborative whiteboard – the perfect solution to simulate (as closely as possible) a workshop setting. We’ve been able to use Miro to hold virtual workshops with clients, internal brainstorms of concepts, sharing mood boards, and even collaborative wireframing. It’s proven to be an excellent addition to our toolkit of software used to share designs.
The platform has a number of templates and simple, lo-fi components that can be used for designing and wireframing – which were particularly helpful when we needed to quickly get the team together to flesh out a new landing page for a client. Miro even allows you to see all collaborators working on the board in real time, so you can see what your colleagues are viewing without having to worry about version control issues.
Beyond the brainstorming and sketching features that our team has found useful, the use cases for Miro seem almost endless. It’s quickly become a Cloudberry favorite, and we continue to find new ways to take advantage of it whenever we need to ideate together.
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While the lasting effects of the pandemic on the workplace are beginning to surface, it’s clear that remote collaboration will continue to be critical in a post-pandemic world. Both Miro and OpenReel have given us more flexibility to quickly and conveniently execute for our clients without sacrificing overall quality, and we’re excited to have these tools in our arsenal for the future!