Cutting through the board noise

Catch Up board summaries

0-1 design, Miro / Lead designer & facilitator

Catch Up board summaries

0-1 design, Miro / Lead designer & facilitator

TV app recordings feature redesign

Product Design / Zattoo GmbH

TV app recordings feature redesign

Product Design / Zattoo GmbH

Catch Up board summaries / 0-1 design, Miro / Lead designer & facilitator

Overview: From Stagnation to Strategic Innovation

When my team (Async Collab) faced a leadership shift and unclear strategic direction, the Catch Up feature emerged as a solution that addressed key user pain points but also helped us reposition ourselves for greater impact.

What is Catch Up?

Returning to a Miro board after some time away feels overwhelming—so many updates and comments to sift through. Instead of manually sorting through the noise, Catch Up does the heavy lifting for you. It automatically clusters key areas of interest and provides an intuitive AI-driven summary, visually highlighting what’s changed, who’s been involved, and where your attention is needed. This lets you quickly catch up and focus on what matters most.

When my team (Async Collab) faced a leadership shift and unclear strategic direction, the Catch Up feature emerged as a solution that addressed key user pain points but also helped us reposition ourselves for greater impact.

What is Catch Up?

Returning to a Miro board after some time away feels overwhelming—so many updates and comments to sift through. Instead of manually sorting through the noise, Catch Up does the heavy lifting for you. It automatically clusters key areas of interest and provides an intuitive AI-driven summary, visually highlighting what’s changed, who’s been involved, and where your attention is needed. This lets you quickly catch up and focus on what matters most.

When my team (Async Collab) faced a leadership shift and unclear strategic direction, the Catch Up feature emerged as a solution that addressed key user pain points but also helped us reposition ourselves for greater impact.

What is Catch Up?

Returning to a Miro board after some time away feels overwhelming—so many updates and comments to sift through. Instead of manually sorting through the noise, Catch Up does the heavy lifting for you. It automatically clusters key areas of interest and provides an intuitive AI-driven summary, visually highlighting what’s changed, who’s been involved, and where your attention is needed. This lets you quickly catch up and focus on what matters most.

Realigning for Impact

Navigating Leadership and Strategic Changes

After Talktrack's success, our team encountered an unexpected roadblock. While the feature had achieved success,our momentum began to fade. Leadership changes and shifting company priorities and strategy left us struggling to see a clear way forward. The team felt stuck, and we needed a pivot. After all, we weren’t just a "Talktrack" team; we were an async collaboration team.

In parallel, Miro was undergoing a major strategic shift, working on the introduction of Intelligent Canvas—a new initiative aimed at enhancing the board experience with AI-driven features. This shift was set to position Miro uniquely in the market, using AI to facilitate more appropriate collaboration and set us apart from the competition.

We realized that if we were to continue making an impact, we needed to refocus, realign, and reignite our momentum.

Navigating Leadership and Strategic Changes

After Talktrack's success, our team encountered an unexpected roadblock. While the feature had achieved success,our momentum began to fade. Leadership changes and shifting company priorities and strategy left us struggling to see a clear way forward. The team felt stuck, and we needed a pivot. After all, we weren’t just a "Talktrack" team; we were an async collaboration team.

In parallel, Miro was undergoing a major strategic shift, working on the introduction of Intelligent Canvas—a new initiative aimed at enhancing the board experience with AI-driven features. This shift was set to position Miro uniquely in the market, using AI to facilitate more appropriate collaboration and set us apart from the competition.

We realized that if we were to continue making an impact, we needed to refocus, realign, and reignite our momentum.

Navigating Leadership and Strategic Changes

After Talktrack's success, our team encountered an unexpected roadblock. While the feature had achieved success,our momentum began to fade. Leadership changes and shifting company priorities and strategy left us struggling to see a clear way forward. The team felt stuck, and we needed a pivot. After all, we weren’t just a "Talktrack" team; we were an async collaboration team.

In parallel, Miro was undergoing a major strategic shift, working on the introduction of Intelligent Canvas—a new initiative aimed at enhancing the board experience with AI-driven features. This shift was set to position Miro uniquely in the market, using AI to facilitate more appropriate collaboration and set us apart from the competition.

We realized that if we were to continue making an impact, we needed to refocus, realign, and reignite our momentum.

Navigating Leadership and Strategic Changes

After Talktrack's success, our team encountered an unexpected roadblock. While the feature had achieved success,our momentum began to fade. Leadership changes and shifting company priorities and strategy left us struggling to see a clear way forward. The team felt stuck, and we needed a pivot. After all, we weren’t just a "Talktrack" team; we were an async collaboration team.

In parallel, Miro was undergoing a major strategic shift, working on the introduction of Intelligent Canvas—a new initiative aimed at enhancing the board experience with AI-driven features. This shift was set to position Miro uniquely in the market, using AI to facilitate more appropriate collaboration and set us apart from the competition.

We realized that if we were to continue making an impact, we needed to refocus, realign, and reignite our momentum.

Get Signal, Get Focus, and cut through the noise

The story begins: Defining Our Focus

The product trio (PM, EM, and I) took the initiative to kick off ideation sessions, aiming to cut through the ambiguity and define our next steps clearly and quickly.

We turned to our async loop framework: Get Signal - Get Context - Get In Flow - Get Feedback, which had proven effective in the past. We focused on Get Signal, realizing that while Talktrack addressed steps 2 and 4, we needed something to help users identify where to start and what’s most important.

Next, we dug into existing research—both from our team and others at Miro—to identify the most pressing pain points. We also conducted a large-scale survey to revisit and understand remote collaborators' frustrations. The results confirmed our suspicion: users were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of updates and struggled to identify key changes in Miro boards. The need for a feature to filter out the noise and highlight relevant updates became even clearer.

We then realized that AI could help surface the most important updates, aligning with Miro’s Intelligent Canvas vision and helping us regain our team’s relevance and impact. That’s when the vision for Catch Up feature began to take shape.

The story begins: Defining Our Focus

The product trio (PM, EM, and I) took the initiative to kick off ideation sessions, aiming to cut through the ambiguity and define our next steps clearly and quickly.

We turned to our async loop framework: Get Signal - Get Context - Get In Flow - Get Feedback, which had proven effective in the past. We focused on Get Signal, realizing that while Talktrack addressed steps 2 and 4, we needed something to help users identify where to start and what’s most important.

Next, we dug into existing research—both from our team and others at Miro—to identify the most pressing pain points. We also conducted a large-scale survey to revisit and understand remote collaborators' frustrations. The results confirmed our suspicion: users were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of updates and struggled to identify key changes in Miro boards. The need for a feature to filter out the noise and highlight relevant updates became even clearer.

We then realized that AI could help surface the most important updates, aligning with Miro’s Intelligent Canvas vision and helping us regain our team’s relevance and impact. That’s when the vision for Catch Up feature began to take shape.

Delivering Immediate User Value for Greater Impact: Comments Summary

Quick win for a bigger goal

With our new focus in place, we realized that to gain leadership’s trust and make a bigger impact, we needed a quick win while laying the groundwork for a more complex feature like Catch Up. This led us to the decision to develop a smaller, AI-driven feature that would provide immediate user value: Comments Summary. It addressed the same problem, but on a smaller scale—allowing us to start solving the issue of cutting through the noise and demonstrating our team’s ability to deliver results quickly.

The ultimate goal was clear: gain leadership buy-in for a larger feature—Catch Up—and ideally, secure our place in the Intelligent Canvas presentation in New York. We wanted to show that our approach was both impactful and aligned with Miro’s vision.

Quick win for a bigger goal

With our new focus in place, we realized that to gain leadership’s trust and make a bigger impact, we needed a quick win while laying the groundwork for a more complex feature like Catch Up. This led us to the decision to develop a smaller, AI-driven feature that would provide immediate user value: Comments Summary. It addressed the same problem, but on a smaller scale—allowing us to start solving the issue of cutting through the noise and demonstrating our team’s ability to deliver results quickly.

The ultimate goal was clear: gain leadership buy-in for a larger feature—Catch Up—and ideally, secure our place in the Intelligent Canvas presentation in New York. We wanted to show that our approach was both impactful and aligned with Miro’s vision.

Quick win for a bigger goal

With our new focus in place, we realized that to gain leadership’s trust and make a bigger impact, we needed a quick win while laying the groundwork for a more complex feature like Catch Up. This led us to the decision to develop a smaller, AI-driven feature that would provide immediate user value: Comments Summary. It addressed the same problem, but on a smaller scale—allowing us to start solving the issue of cutting through the noise and demonstrating our team’s ability to deliver results quickly.

The ultimate goal was clear: gain leadership buy-in for a larger feature—Catch Up—and ideally, secure our place in the Intelligent Canvas presentation in New York. We wanted to show that our approach was impactful and aligned with Miro’s vision.

Comms Summary: Core UX/UI, snippet from the Intel Canvas Demo session

Comms Summary: Simplifying long threads

Quick, Clear, and Valuable

The Comments Summary feature was designed to condense lengthy comment threads on Miro boards, allowing users to click a “Summarize” button and instantly view the key points of a discussion, and helping them to focus on what mattered most. To make this happen, I collaborated closely with the AI and Conversation teams to develop the preferred UX and refine the AI model.

Once we had a working prototype, I pitched it to our head of design, in the Office Hours meeting. I highlighted the solution’s potential to create immediate user value. At the time, other Intelligent Canvas initiatives were moving slowly (or in the early stages). She got excited by the progress and said, "This is actually working already!", giving us the green light to move forward.

This was a pivotal moment in securing the buy-in we needed for the larger Catch Up feature. After a couple of design and solution reviews, the feature was shipped to the customers.

Quick, Clear, and Valuable

The Comments Summary feature was designed to condense lengthy comment threads on Miro boards, allowing users to click a “Summarize” button and instantly view the key points of a discussion, and helping them to focus on what mattered most. To make this happen, I collaborated closely with the AI and Conversation teams to develop the preferred UX and refine the AI model.

Once we had a working prototype, I pitched it to our head of design, in the Office Hours meeting. I highlighted the solution’s potential to create immediate user value. At the time, other Intelligent Canvas initiatives were moving slowly (or in the early stages). She got excited by the progress and said, "This is actually working already!", giving us the green light to move forward.

This was a pivotal moment in securing the buy-in we needed for the larger Catch Up feature. After a couple of design and solution reviews, the feature was shipped to the customers.

Quick, Clear, and Valuable

The Comments Summary feature was designed to condense lengthy comment threads on Miro boards, allowing users to click a “Summarize” button and instantly view the key points of a discussion, and helping them to focus on what mattered most. To make this happen, I collaborated closely with the AI and Conversation teams to develop the preferred UX and refine the AI model.

Once we had a working prototype, I pitched it to our head of design, in the Office Hours meeting. I highlighted the solution’s potential to create immediate user value. At the time, other Intelligent Canvas initiatives were moving slowly (or in the early stages). She got excited by the progress and said, "This is actually working already!", giving us the green light to move forward.

This was a pivotal moment in securing the buy-in we needed for the larger Catch Up feature. After a couple of design and solution reviews, the feature was shipped to the customers.

Catch Up: Exploration

Too many cooks in the kitchen

With insights from the research in hand, the Comments Summary shipped, and the overall alignment on the Catch Up feature's purpose and direction (Pre-Solution review), I began crafting the Catch Up UX with my design manager and the Conversation team designer, while my PM led the initiative. However, I quickly realized that too many voices in the room were slowing us down. Conflicting feedback and ideas from various teams put us at risk of overcomplicating the process—there were moments when it felt like we were treading water. Additionally, I wasn’t happy with the solution—it was too rigid, and the craft quality didn’t meet Miro’s standards. As a result, the design review didn’t go as smoothly as anticipated.

Catch Up: Initally presented UX/UI

Fewer Voices, Sharper Progress: Aligning, Refining, Delivering

Taking the lead and clearing the path for the unified UX

I knew we needed to regain focus, so I decided to step in and take control. My PM and I agreed to bring the work back to our smaller team, and at this point, I assumed design leadership of the project. This allowed us to move quickly and make critical decisions without unnecessary delays. I led several Open Design Jams with the team, ensuring that we clarified and crystallized the goals and the UX vision for Catch Up. These sessions were essential in helping us align on the feature’s direction and gain clarity on its scope.

Soon, we had the goals, scope, and core UX crystalized. The next phase focused on developing the PoC/MVP. Our developers worked on a technical spike, as the AI model played a central role in driving the feature. We spent significant time testing and refining the prompts to ensure the summaries were accurate and useful for users.

From the design side, I ensured the UX was intuitive and the UI craft met the highest standards. We moved away from the initial “panel” approach, using the board itself to visually communicate key edits.

During this phase, I kept everyone aligned by overcommunicating progress to stakeholders and leadership. I collaborated cross-functionally with teams across Miro to ensure we were developing the best possible UX. To keep the momentum going, I organized design critiques and presented various UX approaches to the team. Finally, I presented the refined UX design to leadership in a Design Review and Solution Review presentation with my PM. This was a crucial step in securing approval to proceed with the MVP. We were good to go!

Taking the lead and clearing the path for the unified UX

I knew we needed to regain focus, so I decided to step in and take control. My PM and I agreed to bring the work back to our smaller team, and at this point, I assumed design leadership of the project. This allowed us to move quickly and make critical decisions without unnecessary delays. I led several Open Design Jams with the team, ensuring that we clarified and crystallized the goals and the UX vision for Catch Up. These sessions were essential in helping us align on the feature’s direction and gain clarity on its scope.

Soon, we had the goals, scope, and core UX crystalized. The next phase focused on developing the PoC/MVP. Our developers worked on a technical spike, as the AI model played a central role in driving the feature. We spent significant time testing and refining the prompts to ensure the summaries were accurate and useful for users.

From the design side, I ensured the UX was intuitive and the UI craft met the highest standards. We moved away from the initial “panel” approach, using the board itself to visually communicate key edits.

During this phase, I kept everyone aligned by overcommunicating progress to stakeholders and leadership. I collaborated cross-functionally with teams across Miro to ensure we were developing the best possible UX. To keep the momentum going, I organized design critiques and presented various UX approaches to the team. Finally, I presented the refined UX design to leadership in a Design Review and Solution Review presentation with my PM. This was a crucial step in securing approval to proceed with the MVP. We were good to go!

Taking the lead and clearing the path for the unified UX

I knew we needed to regain focus, so I decided to step in and take control. My PM and I agreed to bring the work back to our smaller team, and at this point, I assumed design leadership of the project. This allowed us to move quickly and make critical decisions without unnecessary delays. I led several Open Design Jams with the team, ensuring that we clarified and crystallized the goals and the UX vision for Catch Up. These sessions were essential in helping us align on the feature’s direction and gain clarity on its scope.

Soon, we had the goals, scope, and core UX crystalized. The next phase focused on developing the PoC/MVP. Our developers worked on a technical spike, as the AI model played a central role in driving the feature. We spent significant time testing and refining the prompts to ensure the summaries were accurate and useful for users.

From the design side, I ensured the UX was intuitive and the UI craft met the highest standards. We moved away from the initial “panel” approach, using the board itself to visually communicate key edits.

During this phase, I kept everyone aligned by overcommunicating progress to stakeholders and leadership. I collaborated cross-functionally with teams across Miro to ensure we were developing the best possible UX. To keep the momentum going, I organized design critiques and presented various UX approaches to the team. Finally, I presented the refined UX design to leadership in a Design Review and Solution Review presentation with my PM. This was a crucial step in securing approval to proceed with the MVP. We were good to go!

Catch Up: Core UX/UI before x after

Catch Up: Core UX/UI

Catch Up: In motion

Catch Up: Navigating to individual "cluster' and filtering by collaborator

Instead of manually combing through updates, Catch Up does the heavy lifting. It visually clusters the key updates so you can focus on what matters most. With an at-a-glance AI summary of changes, collaborators, and mentions, it’s easier than ever to get up to speed.

Instead of manually combing through updates, Catch Up does the heavy lifting. It visually clusters the key updates so you can focus on what matters most. With an at-a-glance AI summary of changes, collaborators, and mentions, it’s easier than ever to get up to speed.

You're all caught-up! (a screen after seeing all the updates)

Behind the scenes: Testing the AI and designing the Qual research flow

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Catch Up Catches Up, and Steals the Spotlight

In October, the leadership presented a demo of the Catch Up MVP as part of the Intelligent Canvas presentation in New York. While it wasn’t the full feature launch, the demo was well-received, and users were excited because they could see the value it would bring to their daily workflows, by addressing a real pain point.

The Catch Up feature stood out in the presentation, not only for its functionality but also for its simple UX and appealing interface design. It was one of the most commented features of the presentation, thanks to its clean, intuitive design.

Catch Up is currently in closed/private beta, and the feedback we’ve received so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

Catch Up 0-1: Looking back, looking forward

Looking back on the Catch Up journey, several key takeaways stand out:

Driving Clarity and Momentum
Aligning the team around a clear vision allowed us to stay focused on the most impactful steps, ensuring we were heading in the right direction despite challenges.

Guiding the Team to Success
Taking ownership of the design process empowered us to make critical decisions quickly, ensuring the project moved forward with purpose and precision.

Bringing Diverse Expertise Together
Collaborating with cross-functional teams enabled us to refine the Catch Up feature, ensuring it met both user needs and strategic goals effectively.

Ensuring Alignment Every Step of the Way
By continuously communicating with stakeholders and leadership, we maintained clarity and alignment, ensuring that everyone was on the same page as the project evolved.

Adapting Quickly to Deliver Optimal Results
The ability to pivot quickly when things weren’t working allowed us to avoid roadblocks and find better solutions faster. By staying agile, we ensured that the final product aligned with user needs and company goals.

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