Maximizing the Canvas View: Tips for Better Collaboration in Dovetail

For those using the canvas view, what do you use it for? I would like to use the Notes and lay them down onto a User Story Map chart. But in Dovetail I can only draw rectangles??!?!? I would like to use the canvas as a whiteboard tool so that I can lay down the Notes in a useful fashion. X,Y axis, drawing lines, change colour of the rectangles... making things in the canvas to facilitate the conversation and help conveying ideas to other stakeholders. In the current state, I can only drag notes around, and that's it? Is there anything useful that can be done in the canvas view that I am missing out? Otherwise, I just want a way to export the Notes onto Miro (or other whiteboard tools) so that I can create the chart the way I need it.

➕4

5 comments

armina
·
·
definitely agree with a lot here (and i’ve seen previous inputs very similar to this one). i think if we expect dovetail canvas view to entirely replace a whiteboarding tool like figjam or miro, we’ll be endlessly disappointed 😏 that said, i do try to encourage other stakeholders in our org to use the canvas view for some very basic affinity-mapping, in the interests of minimizing the number of tools. while i haven’t been 💯 successful, i do appreciate some new updates — most of all, the sections / groups in the canvas view (that mimic sections from figjam) make it much easier to cluster notes and work with said clusters. i usually use the titles of groupings as proto-findings, before i’m ready to create actual insights. i’ve also tried to create some kind of map in canvas (specifically for the insights), but the lack of basic drawing objects (like lines or arrows) makes it very difficult for that experience to function without hand-holding. i also appreciate the clustering capabilities (either by tag or theme) — that’s usually my first pass at affinity mapping. i wish there was something similar for the Canvas view of Insights… if you’re looking for a more seamless transition of Notes to Figjam, we usually export the project notes/highlights as csv, import it into figjam (which creates a gigantic table), and then use this very nifty figjam plugin that converts table cells to sticky notes. that makes it much easier for the stakeholders who prefer working in figjam. not sure if Miro has something similar, haven’t used it in years ⌛
👀2
Adriano
·
·
The bit that I love about Dovetail is the ability to link insights to notes, and notes to feedback, to the voice of customers (VOC). I would love to still be able to reference these VOC data points at any stage, even in the user story mapping. Being forced to export the Notes just to be able to work on the mapping is so disappointing.
➕1
Adriano
·
·
The other solution I am looking for, which is still a workaround for the lack of features in Dovetail's canvas, is to find a whiteboard tool that allows to create cards with Custom Fields. So that I can create cards in there and use the links to the original VOC as a Custom Field. But again, it's me trying to go through so many hoops just to do something with a Dovetail's object. It should be possible to be done within Dovetail's ecosystem rather than finding convoluted ways to export the data somewhere where I can manipulate it in a useful manner. 😕
armina
·
·
if it’s at the insight level, we usually link to them from figjam, so stakeholders can still get all the useful context in Dovetail, but the visualisation is more user-friendly. at the end of the day, whether they’re following a link to a dovetail insight from figjam or from the canvas view of dovetail, it’s still just a hyperlink. i agree, it’s frustrating to do this extra work of copy/pasting links to a different tool (!!), but at least the stakeholders have a better experience interacting with the map. at my most desperate (when i wanted to re-create some kind of mapping only in Dovetail), i made use of the largest text boxes + emojis (⬅️ ➡️ to semi-replicate arrows). it was completely bare-bones, of course, and nothing like what you can do in an actual whiteboard tool, but it saved me the extra work of copy/pasting.
Veronica Bluguermann
·
·
I'm a big fan of Highlight Canvas to analyse highlights of interviews. I always try to frame the tagging before tagging. For example, sometimes I use groups of tags of: Job-to-be done (JTBD) / Gains / Pains /opportunities. And then tag content that is a JTBD or a task, for example "washing dishes". I would tag in the group Gains what helps to wash dishes, for example: good detergent..Now I'll tag 'good detergent' under the category of Gains with the same tag name "washing dishes". There will also be a tag "washing dishes" in the group Pains and Opportunities. Same tag, different Tag groups. Then, when I create my insights canvas I ask Dovetail to group the highlights by tag. And that helps to group A JTBD with it's Gains, Pains and Opportunities...Select all the content and create an insights and/or ask AI to summarise the content....I love it!
➕1