Miro Online Whiteboard Tutorial for Collaborative Meetings

Miro is a browser-based whiteboard that several people can edit at the same time. In a meeting it usually runs alongside your video call tool: the call carries voices and cameras, while the board holds notes, diagrams and decisions. This guide covers preparing a board, bringing people onto it and keeping the session organised.

How to run a meeting on a Miro board

The basic workflow is the same for most collaborative sessions, whether it is a brainstorm, a planning call or a team retrospective.

• Create a board before the meeting and give it a clear name so participants can recognise it.
• Add structure in advance: a frame for each agenda item, a short instruction text in each frame and, if useful, a template that matches the meeting type.
• Set the sharing level. Decide whether participants should edit, comment or only view, and whether access is limited to invited people or open to anyone with the link.
• Share the board link in the meeting invitation or the call chat so people can open it in their own browser or the desktop app.
• Start the video call, then ask everyone to open the board. Walk through the first frame together before people start adding content.
• During the session, use sticky notes for ideas, connectors and shapes for relationships, and comments for questions that need follow-up.
• Close by summarising decisions on the board itself, then export or share the board according to your organisation's rules.

How a Miro board works during a call

A Miro board is an open canvas that you can pan and zoom. Everything placed on it, such as sticky notes, text, shapes, images and connectors, is an object that syncs to other participants as it changes. Each person sees collaborators' cursors and can work in a different area of the board at the same time, which is the main difference from sharing your screen with a static slide.

Frames group content into sections. They help the facilitator move the group from one agenda item to the next and can also be used as slides when presenting a board. Templates are prebuilt layouts for common formats, such as retrospectives, mind maps or kanban boards, that you can edit like any other content.

Facilitation features vary by plan and app version. Depending on your account, these may include a timer, voting on sticky notes, a way to bring participants to your current view, and the option to follow another person's view. Some of these have been limited to paid plans in the past, so check what your workspace currently offers before planning a session around a specific tool.

Audio and video normally stay in your meeting platform. Miro offers integrations with several video conferencing services, but which ones are available, and how they behave, depends on the current version and your organisation's admin settings. If an integration is not available to you, running the board in a separate browser tab or window works for most meetings.

Applying it to real meetings

Choose the setup based on how much participants need to contribute and what equipment they use.

• Brainstorming: give each person a sticky note colour or a dedicated area of a frame, set a short time limit, then group similar notes together before discussing them.
• Retrospective: use a template with columns such as what went well and what to improve, and let people add notes silently before anyone talks.
• Presentation with light input: give viewers comment access instead of edit access so the layout stays intact, and present frame by frame.
• Workshop with external guests: confirm in advance whether guests can join without an account and whether your workspace allows external sharing.
• Mixed meeting room and remote participants: open the board on the room screen and on each remote laptop, so remote people are not limited to watching a camera pointed at a display.

Screen layout matters for people who also need their camera and microphone controls. On a single laptop screen, splitting the window between the call and the board keeps faces and mute controls visible. With a second monitor, putting the board on the larger display and the call on the smaller one is a common arrangement. If the call becomes choppy while the board is open, closing unused browser tabs and turning off incoming video can reduce load on older computers.

Should you screen-share the board or share a link? Screen sharing is simpler for viewers who only need to watch, but they cannot interact and the image depends on your connection quality. Sharing the link lets everyone work directly and see crisp content at their own zoom level, at the cost of a short onboarding moment at the start.

Limits and related questions

Plan limits: the free plan has historically restricted the number of editable boards and some facilitation features. Limits change over time, so verify the current terms on your own account rather than relying on older guides.

Performance: very large boards with many images or objects can feel slow in the browser, especially on older hardware or while a video call is also running. Splitting content into separate boards or archiving old frames can help.

Privacy and files: treat sharing settings as something to check, not assume. Review who has access to the board, whether the link is public, and whether guests can download or copy content. Images and files you upload are stored with the board, and exported files leave Miro's access controls once saved or sent. If your organisation has data handling rules, confirm that whiteboard content is allowed under them before adding sensitive information.

Mobile and tablet use: apps exist for phones and tablets, but small screens make detailed editing harder. They are better suited to viewing, commenting and adding quick notes than to running a full session.

Connectivity: the board relies on an internet connection to sync changes. If a participant's connection drops, their latest edits may not reach others until they reconnect, so it is worth pausing briefly after a reconnect before continuing.

Recording: recording a video call captures only what is shown on screen, not the board's editable content. To keep a usable record, save the board itself and note the date or version of key decisions within it.