Modern collaboration faces a conundrum.
Teams are constantly on the search for the best software to help their teams communicate, brainstorm, and plan effectively, as well as launch new products, campaigns, and process improvements. There are more tools than ever to theoretically make remote and hybrid collaboration easier. But having access to more tools often makes collaboration more complicated.
This is because the concept of “the best tool” doesn’t exist in a vacuum; what’s far more important to figure out is what mix of tools will drive collaboration efficiency and impact—not just activity—on your team.
What you actually need out of your collaboration tool stack
So how can you get more out of your collaboration? When it comes to technology, we’ve found that teams need to invest in several fundamental areas of their tech stack in order to collaborate at their highest potential:
1. Single sources of truth
There are few things more frustrating than looking for a critical piece of information and not being able to find it. Teams need to know which pieces of technology in their stack are reliable stores of knowledge for their team and business, and which tools assist with other functions of collaboration (like ideation, productivity, or evaluation).
2. Living documentation
Work is never linear, and cross-functional collaboration is messy; teams often have to go back to the drawing board or bring new stakeholders in after a project has already started. Prioritize investing in tools that leave a record of discussion and decisions versus relying heavily on live, ephemeral brainstorming.
Tools that leave a trail of documentation as you ideate, plan, and collaborate are valuable because they allow you to repurpose insights for future projects, help educate teammates, and even eliminate unnecessary meetings down the road.
3. Interconnected tools on top of a visual foundation
If the places where you plan, riff, and ideate are drastically separate from the places where you build, write, code, and execute, there’s a greater risk of your ideas getting lost in translation and the end product not living up to what you envisioned.
Too many disconnected tools make procurement and adoption more difficult and slow your team down due to constant switching back and forth between tools. A visual canvas that integrates your tools into one shared space creates a valuable home base for collaboration and reduces complexity.
How Lucid enhances your tech stack with visual collaboration
At Lucid, we believe visual collaboration—that is, hosting innovation-focused activities such as brainstorming, process mapping, and systems diagramming on an infinite virtual canvas—is the foundation of a modern collaboration tech stack.
Visual collaboration (versus chat, video, or text alone) offers a common language for understanding company-wide initiatives, communicating complex ideas, and flattening learning curves for new team members—all while allowing you to build single sources of truth and living documentation.
And when it comes to working well with the rest of your stack? That’s where Lucid really shines, offering a rich ecosystem of integrations with other popular tools you’re likely already using to bring the simplicity of visual collaboration to your entire workflow.
In a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Lucid, a composite organization using Lucid cut costs by 32% via streamlining their tech stack, which equated to $758,000 in operating expenses saved over three years (The Total Economic Impact™ Of The Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite, May 2023).
If you’re looking to level up your collaboration, here are some ways Lucid can act as a force multiplier on the rest of your tech stack.
Note: Integrations for Lucid's FedRAMP offerings may vary.
Daily task management
For large cross-functional projects, it can be hard to understand where your piece fits in the puzzle, and it’s easy to get bogged down in an overwhelming list of subtasks. With Lucid, you quickly achieve the context and clarity you need to move projects forward.
Integrations to try:
- Lucid Cards for Asana lets you visualize tasks as cards on your Lucidspark board so you can easily identify next steps and balance workloads across individuals and teams. Look for similar integrations with monday.com and Airtable.
- With Lucid Cards for Google Sheets, you can import rows in Google Sheets as Lucid Cards in Lucidspark. Convert tasks in a spreadsheet to work that can be organized and managed visually. Tag, gather, sort, and prioritize cards to keep work progressing.
