The holiday season is upon us, and shopping stress is increasing. Gift-giving is a wonderful tradition, but one which also requires quite some work. Unfortunately, the amount of available free time is always the same, which will punctually translate in hectic weeks ahead, long queues, and general research frenzy in order to find the right presents. Right? Not quite so.
With CollaBoard, we designed a powerful tool for teamwork and brainstorming, which is all you need, right now, to pick the perfect present. The concept is simple: creating a shared inspiration board to gather relevant information from the team, get in the zone and brainstorm for ideas, then leverage the app’s collaborative features to get support in the decision-making process. Let’s get started.
On your Surface Pro or other Windows 10 device, open CollaBoard and start a New Project. Take note of the Project Code and Key and send them to your “team members”: family or friends, no matter where they are. This way, they can open the project on their devices and start collaborating on the project. It’s a good idea to add a deadline for adding input and making a final decision.
Next, add a Sticky Note to the board and write down all recent information about the present recipient. In our case, John has recently moved to a new apartment, will soon be travelling to Spain and is currently growing a beard. Together with the input added by other friends, including a voice message from John’s girlfriend Ann, we now know that John loves space-themed gifts, reading, hiking, strawberries, and more. This is how the inspiration board will look like after the first deadline:
Sharing research tasks was the crucial part of this project, but with CollaBoard, the power of the team is at your fingertips. With all the input in, we can now turn ideas and inspiration into concrete proposals: this is where the magic happens. Based on the recent information gathered, think about an object that can serve a purpose and that will match John’s taste. In our case, these were the shortlisted proposals:
- Galaxy poster
- Spanish phrasebook
- Travel guide to Spain
- Beard grooming kit
- Science fiction book
We can then submit these results to a final round of voting, which reveals a strong preference for the first and the third option. So there you have it: John’s present.
Repeat for other friends in different sections of the board or separate projects and enjoy a stress-free holiday season. Get started now: download a 30-day free trial of CollaBoard and test it with your friends and family. We recommend purchasing CollaBoard’s “Personal” package to continue collaborating and keep track of this year’s gift ideas and outcomes.
What about you? Did you use CollaBoard to find the right presents this year? Let us know in the comments.