Imaranda is the game changer your remote / hybrid team needs

In this week’s post we want to elaborate on how Imaranda works and how it is the one tool that your remote / hybrid teams have been missing. If you are wondering about the differences between hybrid, remote and async, check out our post on 4 different work modes.

The challenge of online discussions

Let’s start with why Imaranda is needed for teams who have to collaborate in an online setting; a typical online discussion is challenging on three levels:

Difficult to contribute in a sustainable way: Online discussions usually are not easy to contribute to for everybody. This depends on the tools being used by the team, but there are nuances with every type of tool currently available:

1. Documentation tools: People have to go through entire docs to understand contexts and provide meaningful comments. On the other hand the person writing a doc has to follow guidelines (if any) or structure the doc in a way that every team member can understand it. The whole process becomes quite time consuming and it’s challenging to reach solid results.
2. Threads in communication tools: It's quite easy to start a conversation in a thread over slack, but what's difficult is to moderate this discussion so it remains meaningful. What's even more difficult is to retain this discussion and share it with a wider group.
3. Video calls: Nothing kills a person’s productivity and flow more than an impromptu video, just for them to state things that they know about a given topic / situation. Also, many people have introverted personalities, and they in general struggle with contributing in an online in-person setting.
4. Digital whiteboards: It takes a lot of effort to understand the structure of the board. It takes even more effort for the creator to create boards that are self explanatory; it almost always ends up being a discussion over a video call.

Repetitive and short lived comments: Irrespective of the mode of discussion, comments and input from contributors start repeating after a certain point. People end up wasting time by stating things that have already been said / established.

Discussions are not accessible: After a certain amount of time has passed, discussions become inaccessible specifically to people who were not originally part of the discussion. This creates the need for explanations and ends up wasting valuable time and productivity.

Usually teams tackle these issues by establishing guidelines for communication and discussions as well as building a specific culture tailored to a specific tool set; this often turns out to be a long and hard process.

Imaranda’s unique approach towards facilitating discussions tackles each one of the challenges mentioned above, and creates an overall pleasant experience for teams conducting discussions online. Participants add their inputs on Imaranda boards around a central topic / question, which is added by the creator of a board. One main difference to other tools is that inputs are split into small chunks, think single steps in a line of thought. This makes it way easier for team members to react to specific ideas.

Using natural language processing (NLP) the app evaluates completeness and relevance of the comments added by the participants; NLP is also used to evaluate whether comments provided by the participants are redundant or unique. Imaranda allows the creator to structure boards and their input areas in a way that makes sense for the topic / team. The creator can configure a walkthrough of the board for the participants, so that participants can contribute without needing meetings for explanation.

The board will let its participants know what has changed on the board when they come back to ongoing discussions. Imaranda also makes it as easy as possible to take quick notes and then add them to the discussion where they fit. If wanted, the app will also make sure that inputs are always related to the overall goals set for the board. Identifying and reaching results comes very naturally this way.

All in all, Imaranda unlocks truly asynchronous discussions for your teams; this leads to an increase in efficiency of your team’s collaboration. If you are interested in trying out Imaranda for your teams drop us a quick word on info@imaranda.com. Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date about Imaranda’s journey.