It’s no secret that teamwork is constantly evolving.
For example, the number of organizations with a remote or hybrid workforce has increased every year since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As a result of this shift, the way we think about teamwork and collaboration must evolve as well, and part of that includes the tools we use to collaborate.
Organizations are recognizing the need to empower effective collaboration among remote and hybrid teams and dedicating more of their budget to collaboration tools that help their team work better together — but groupware is only effective when it’s selected and used properly.
When it comes to visual collaboration, Gliffy is the #1 choice for teams working in the Atlassian ecosystem. You get all the powerful diagramming capabilities of an advanced diagramming tool plus the collaborative and creative features of a digital whiteboard, all in one built-for-Confluence tool with no extra windows, logins, or information barriers.
However, it’s important not only that you choose tools that integrate smoothly with your team’s existing tools and processes, but also that you understand how to use them to their fullest potential.
So how do you effectively use Gliffy as a team? Keep reading to learn how to use Gliffy both synchronously and asynchronously to take your team’s collaboration to the next level.
Collaborate in Real Time
One way to use Gliffy as a team that works synchronously but not in one physical location is by collaborating on diagrams in real time. Gliffy helps teams tackle workplace collaboration challenges by making it easy to ideate together and align on key concepts with visual support without ever leaving Confluence.
Starting a Collaboration Session
First, the diagram you want to collaborate on must be saved and published on a Confluence page.
When you enter the diagram, just click the green “Collaborate” button to enter collaboration mode. Your teammates can enter the diagram either through the Confluence page or a share link, and they will also need to click the “Collaborate” button to join you in the collaboration session.
For a more detailed explanation with videos and images to guide you, visit our Confluence Cloud collaboration guide or watch the video tutorial here:
Virtual Whiteboarding
You can certainly build complex technical diagrams with your teammates in a real-time collaboration session, but more likely, you will want to capture ideas quickly and easily by sketching them out or jotting down a quick note. Using Gliffy as your digital whiteboard allows you to do that directly in Confluence.
Freehand Drawing
Whether you’re making notes and edits to an existing diagram or just sketching out your vision, freehand drawing allows you to visualize concepts and ideas without the limitations of specific shapes and connectors. To see this feature in action, watch this freehand drawing tutorial:
Sticky Notes
During a brainstorming or feedback session, there are often ideas flying from all angles, and it can be difficult to capture them all in order to consolidate them into a plan of action later. Gliffy’s sticky notes make it easy to record ideas during a real-time collaboration session, giving you engaging and easy-to-organize meeting notes to refer to later.
Want to see sticky notes in action? Check out this tutorial:
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Collaborate Asynchronously
Real-time collaboration is a great way to share ideas, but collaboration doesn’t begin and end with a live session. In reality, collaboration is an ongoing process that your team participates in even when not working on the same thing at the same time.
The way your team shares knowledge asynchronously is part of collaboration, and effective knowledge management is essential to keeping projects on track and stopping information silos from forming. Here’s how to use Gliffy to collaborate in Confluence as a team even after the meeting is over.
Automatic Updates
Out-of-date documentation can be more harmful than having no documentation at all, especially for software and IT teams who rely on it to understand the structure of systems. With Gliffy, you don’t have to worry about anyone accessing outdated information, because updating a diagram automatically updates every copy of it throughout the Confluence space.
Interactive Diagramming
With Gliffy, it’s easy for team members to get the information they need without being distracted or held back by too much information that is not relevant to them. Gliffy’s layer linking feature allows you to create diagrams that can be expanded or collapsed in the diagram viewer, revealing only the level of context your teammates need in order to get things done, and making your diagrams a more valuable and engaging resource.
See this feature in action with our interactive diagramming demo >>
Revision History
Version management helps you keep the whole team on the same page. Revert to a previous version of a diagram in just a few clicks or wait to reveal the latest version of your diagram when it’s completed.
Find Your Diagrams With Ease
Your diagrams are just as valuable a resource as any other part of your Confluence space, so it should be just as easy to find the information that you need whether it’s text on a page or part of a diagram. That’s why all text within Gliffy diagrams appears in Confluence search results.
Another way to easily locate and manage your diagrams is with the Gliffy lobby, available in Gliffy for Confluence Cloud. In the lobby, you can search for diagrams by name or sort them by name or last modified date.
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Collaborate With Your Team in Gliffy
Collaboration tools should make teamwork easier, not more complicated, and with Gliffy, you can create consistent, easy-to-understand visuals without ever leaving Confluence.
If you want to learn more about using Gliffy — and Confluence in general — to collaborate and manage information as a team, make sure to check out our blogs on how to collaborate in Confluence, supercharging your Confluence documentation, and the top 5 Confluence apps for your knowledge base.
Ready to start collaborating? Try Gliffy for Confluence free for 30 days.