In case you’ve been living in a cave without Wi-Fi (in which case, we hope you at least chiseled some diagrams onto the walls), you’ve likely heard the buzz about Lucid’s latest and greatest product updates.
These cutting-edge capabilities were introduced last week on this launch party webinar, now available on demand.
To recap, Lucid Software, longtime leader in the visual collaboration space and proud creator of the famous Lucid Explains the Internet videos, has released not one, not two, not three, but…
FOUR exciting new features!
We know, it’s a lot to process all at once. Take a moment to gather yourself. Maybe get a cold beverage to cool yourself down, since the following new capabilities are sure to get you all fired up.
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Universal canvas: Move seamlessly between Lucidspark and Lucidchart to save time and leverage the best of both tool sets on the same document. Learn more.
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Team Spaces: Create a virtual home base where you can coordinate progress, document your most critical information, link to relevant Lucid boards, and stay aligned. Learn more.
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Visual Activities: Help your team make better decisions faster with engaging activities that uncover consensus, priorities, and preferences. Learn more.
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Collaborative AI: Supercharge your ability to generate ideas at any stage of your workflow. Learn more.
What Lucid Champions are saying
At Lucid, our users are at the heart of everything we do. We know we’re not the only option in visual collaboration (though we believe we are the best!), so keeping our users happy is a constant motivator for us.
After the launch party webinar, we asked our Lucid Champions which features they were most excited about, how those features would improve their specific workflows, and any other initial takeaways they had. Below are some of their thoughts, organized by feature.
Universal canvas
Universal canvas is going to be a game-changer for us. It allows us to build complex charts and then share them from Lucidspark, where collaboration is possible with non-licensed users.
Amy S., Change, Enablement, and Communications Manager
Universal canvas creates an exhilarating collaborative space where all members can unleash their ideas and feel an electrifying sense of being truly heard. It’s like having a virtual art studio where your ideas can run wild, minus the paint stains on your clothes!
When I am building processes, I start in the Lucidspark whiteboard to quickly knock out and brainstorm the process. Then I recreate it in Lucidchart to determine roles and workflow decisions and sequences. I often have to iterate going back and forth between whiteboard brainstorming and process design. With universal canvas, I will be able to do it all in one place. It’s going to save time and I won’t lose work.
Our team uses the Lucid suite to map stakeholders and operations/processes for our company but also for our clients. Being able to switch between different formats and track those conversations will be helpful when we’re stuck on a specific issue. Most of our client issues are pretty binary. But when we are collaborating and discussing our own internal org structure or accountability model, having a brainstorming and operational function all in the same board will allow our team a far more productive session. I’m excited to try universal canvas!
I’m excited for universal canvas because now I don’t have to plan ahead if I need to use Lucidchart or Lucidspark; I’ll have both at my fingertips!
Universal canvas will be a game-changer for us. Currently there’s a fair bit of in-meeting switching and loss of context. This will keep everyone on the same page… literally!
I’m most excited for the universal canvas feature! I think this will be beneficial to my work so that all organizations can be kept on the same page with policy improvement initiatives. We often collaborate with Quality, Infection Prevention, Pharmacy, Risk Management, etc., so having a canvas where there’s seamless connection between Lucidchart and Lucidspark will be wonderful.
Universal canvas will be a possible game-changer for my company. Lucidspark has many amazing features—like the JIRA card integration that shows real-time JIRA card statuses—but most of my company uses Lucidchart. With universal canvas, I’m hoping we can start taking more advantage of fantastic Lucidspark features like this.
Team Spaces
Team Spaces will expedite the decision making process by editing documents in the canvas without having to open the application. So many times, action items are “misplaced” when jumping from app to app. Lucid is pushing everything into the space, instead of pushing out—that’s innovative!
Team Spaces will be a massive headache reliever! Having this all in one space and shared just with the team that needs it will be incredible. The time-saving abilities and the overall capability to streamline messaging will really help teams function better.
I’m really excited for Team Spaces. We’re in the process of launching a new project management tool and have a ton of different workflows that we would need to map out. A document repository would help us align and house all documents in a single space!
Generally we work with IP network diagrams, so the ability to have two or three people working at the same time is really useful. I think this process will be exponentially improved thanks to Team Spaces, which will make it more organized and efficient.
Team Spaces has the ability to improve organization within the team and promote good governance by supporting proper documentation practices. It will make it easier to create a document repository with centralized messaging and communication.
Visual Activities
We love collaborating in Lucidchart but find ourselves having to jump to other tools to collect info from those in attendance. I am excited to see what parts of our team work we can now move into Lucidchart with Visual Activities!
Flipping between customer (external) boards to team (internal) boards throughout the day is difficult. Leveraging the AI functions of Visual Activities is like pressing the “easy” button to organize my thoughts, insights, and action items. We are excited to dig into this tool.
With Visual Activities, I can accelerate team consensus on priorities by seeing how each individual has prioritized and immediately see where we have agreement and where we need discussion. We won’t have to discuss every item but only the exceptions. Visual Activities will help us estimate the size of user stories at cheetah speed.
Visual Activities will allow us to save loads of time when running sessions. At the moment, there’s a lot of time spent organising tickets post-event.
Collaborative AI
For our use case, Collaborative AI has me intrigued. I suspect there are going to be various integrations and spreadsheet connections that will allow this to be far more valuable to us as we watch and work with external clients. As things change, I wonder if suggestions or “new hires” might pop up.
Collaborative AI will change the game. It happens so frequently that a meeting or discussion will end, only for a new idea to be thought of a few days or weeks later. If AI can help connect those dots quicker, we’re arriving to the same end point but in a much more expedited and efficient way. I am so excited to see how this was facilitate thorough project conversations for product rollouts, customer communications, and more!
The Collaborative AI is a very intriguing feature. I think there are many times during software design sessions where we get stuck on how to simplify the system or solve a certain problem, and I’m excited to see what the Collaborative AI can do for us here.
The introduction of Collaborative AI by Lucid can significantly enhance the way Lucidchart is currently being used. It can help me come up with new and innovative ideas more efficiently. It can assist in overcoming creative blocks by providing suggestions and prompts based on existing diagrams or user inputs. This can lead to increased productivity and creativity when creating flowcharts, mind maps, or other visual representations.
Collaborative AI takes us to a place where minds merge and machines meet. It is a magical symphony of ideas and algorithms dancing in perfect harmony!