As the content marketer at Poocho, it is my job to create promotional material for the Down & Dirty podcast episodes. If you are new here, the objective of Down & Dirty is to highlight the experiences of power users using their favourite tools. The show gives insight into the current trends in various industries and how some tools have completely transformed the workflows of professionals in these industries.

Now that I have gone through a significant amount of episodes, there is one feature that stood out to me in a sea of tools and their functionalities. A feature that professionals are seeking across industries and tools - collaboration.

“You can tell your teammate to follow you, then they see exactly what you are seeing.”

Figma and its real-time collaborative features were Omkar Mahimkar’s saving grace during the covid lockdown. The lead designer at Motilal Oswal told us how Figma facilitated teamwork during lockdowns, providing a platform for designers to work together from different locations.

“Everybody was at home but we were all working and at that time Figma really helped me to work with the team. So, we two or three designers used to be in the same file and discussing. Then Figma introduced what we can call ‘within Figma’. I was no longer dependent on Zoom or Google Meet. We can just call, point out things and write down things over there. It is a brilliant tool.”

He also spoke about how this feature was much better than simply sharing his screen. 

“Figma does more than just screen sharing. You can tell your teammate to follow you, then they see exactly what you are seeing. They can also be a part of the same file at the same time. Screen sharing is not the same.”

You can watch the full podcast here. 

“They are able to see the progress in real time.”

Anand Bongir, an accomplished UI/UX designer and the Founder and CEO of Sukratu Design, shares a similar sentiment. Anand is not just working with his team on Figma, he is using it to collaborate with different types of stakeholders in the entire product ecosystem.

“From the team side, from our side, from the client side, we can share access to the file just by sharing a link. And they are able to see the progress in real time. So we are actually live building the project in the file. And they can actually see and give us feedback if there is anything that you want to see. They want to tell us. So that is the second biggest sort of advantage, I would say.”

Through a screenshare, Anand showed us his entire workflow on Figma. You can watch the full episode here. 

“You need to nurture it. It's almost like gardening, right? So you need to have a set of gardeners...”

As the Manager of Product Design at Infra.Market, one of Anupriy Kanti’s main roles is to create an interactive environment for his team to thrive in. He emphasises the importance of not overwhelming teams with intricate details but rather initiating collaboration to test and refine the system.  

He creates playbooks that allow him to collaborate with his team. While there are many tools available out there, he prefers Notion because it allows him to create a portal-like experience with quick links to different sections.

“It [playbook] could have been on a Word Doc, but the problem with the Word Doc is it becomes a document rather than it becomes like a, I would say a portal where you can go into a different thing.” 

He calls playbooks “living, breathing artefacts” that need to be nurtured by a set of gardeners. 

“So there needs to be someone who compiles the information, someone who crafts the playbook and someone who makes sure that we are not like, you know, having consistency issue itself.”

Watch the full episode to get a glimpse at an actual playbook designed by him. 

“You can kind of put down your thoughts and kind of collaborate with the different team members who sit at different locations.”

As a product strategist at Fyno, Vivek Sundaram uses a lot of tools for work. However, when it comes to collaboration, he prefers to use Miro above all. According to him, Miro makes collaborating with different stakeholders “as easy as possible”. 

“I think Miro for the collaboration point of view, I would say it's as easy as possible. I mean, because at best, what you are expected to do is like add, make them add comments basically, right. We want other collaborators to add comments and to see what others are commenting. Basically, you want that to be done easily, right. And I think from that point of view, I think that that's the easiest I think anyone across your can easily adopt.”

He acknowledges that, while Miro may not be used on a daily basis by all team members, it become indispensable for larger projects requiring collective input. For personal use, Sundaram finds value in structuring his own thoughts before inviting others to collaborate, demonstrating that collaboration tools play a dual role in supporting both individual and group work.

“I kind of play around with different templates and see OK, how it fits with and how it can reframe that thought process because for me it’s very critical because I need to be clear on what ideas I need to be working on before even inviting others to collaborate”

He also compares Miro and Notion. While he prefers Notion for documentation, when it comes to collaboration, Miro is his go-to tool. 

“I think compared to Notion because Notion to be honest, it's a little complicated. It's not that straightforward, you can use it for lots of things but documentation, yes, it helps a lot. But if you want to do project management, everything like it is a little more messy, I think compared to that, I think Miro for the collaboration point of view.”

Click here to watch the full podcast.

After listening to all these professionals, it is safe to assume that modern professionals are actively seeking tools that enhance teamwork and streamline communication. As the professional landscape continues to evolve, the demand for intuitive and collaborative features in tools is likely to remain a driving force, shaping the way teams work together in the future.

🤔Curious about user research? Talk to us.

Cover photo by Gustavo Fring

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