Hi everyone, I'm happy to be back here announcing this huge update for Metro Retro, the collaborative whiteboard for fun team meetings!
I launched the first version of Metro Retro in 2019 to help teams run productive, fun, and engaging retrospectives. Now 1 million sign-ups later, our bootstrapped team of 3 people have built a new version of Metro Retro that caters for all the meetings and workshops that teams hold.
We believe that using a fun tool is important for team collaboration because people will look forward to and enjoy their meetings, which in turn drives engagement and effectiveness. Hence, Metro Retro.
Metro Retro combines the flexibility of an online whiteboard with a layer of tools designed to help facilitators manage the meeting flow, plus a sprinkling of quirky tools to keep everyone engaged.
This version was in early access for over a year as we worked with our first 100 paying customers to make a product they love. We learned a lot through the process and are excited to now launch it publicly!
In this version:
- Revamped whiteboard experience: practically everything has had an upgrade while keeping the simplicity that made the first version a hit.
- New Facilitator Functions: polls, anonymous mode, pointers, bring everyone to me, timers, ready checks, and tool selection.
- 100+ Templates: professionally designed templates across retrospectives, icebreakers, estimation, product planning and prioritization, interactive workshops, and other meeting types. All are completely customizable or create, save, and share your own.
- Overhauled Dashboard: Private team rooms with workspaces and folders, invite collaborators, and set roles. SSO keeps your security department happy!
- Better Import / Export: Drag and drop a CSV file onto a board to create auto-stickies, or pull out your selected stickies into a HTML table!
- And Lots More: drawing, hats, improved confetti cannon, index cards, tokens, poker planning, shapes and arrows, to name a few.
We've had fun building this and we hope you enjoy trying it! Looking forward to your feedback and comments.
Thank you
Steve
@alexanderptitsyn
Hi Alexander! Thanks for your message. We have a fairly open free plan that lets you use all the board functionality with your colleagues for free. There are some limits on the number of boards (4 per account) and more advanced facilitation features (e.g. anonymous mode) require a paid plan.
Cheers
Steve
@david_sipos Hi David, thank you!
Both products share common features as online whiteboards, but in general, Figjam is good for activities like sketching ideas, diagrams and concepting in small groups or solo, whereas Metro Retro is also a more specialised tool for recording and processing ideas, and excels in medium-large group workshops.
In particular, Metro Retro's facilitator controls, zones to organize stickies, private writing, grouping, and voting tools combine to get a team all the way through from brainstorming ideas to deciding actions together - a process that can be tough for remote teams.
This is particularly useful in retrospectives, workshops, and other similar meetings with an agenda and a process.
Lastly, our users tell us that they get the most engagement from their teams when using Metro Retro out of all the tools theyโve tried, and that the active participation leads to better meeting results.
I have used Metro Retro and other collaboration boards in my work experience.
It is the BEST tool for board collaboration as it is easy to use, versatile, and brings JOY.
@jamie_hanratty, honestly, more aggressive marketing.
I would like to switch my organization to MetroRetro.
As a techie, I would enjoy using the same UI/UX for architectural charts.
Congratulations on the launch of Metro Retro 2.0! It's always exciting to see tools that enhance team collaboration, and it sounds like your product is a fantastic addition to this space.
@sebastian_potcher
Hi Sebastian
So the first version of Metro Retro was built in 24 hours as part of a hackathon at the company I was working for at the time. I'd been playing around with visual collaboration projects in my spare time so it made sense to try and build something in that area on the hack day. To be honest, I just made the name up on the way to the office that day, I don't really remember why! I definitely didn't plan to start a business out of it, that just kinda happened... I might have chosen something different if it had been planned, but here we are... :)
Cheers
Steve
Metro Retro