Online whiteboard for client meetings: a 60-minute workshop plan

An online whiteboard for client meetings works best when the workshop is built around one decision. Set a clear goal, lay out the board so facts sit apart from ideas, and test access for the people attending. Then save the last 15 minutes for decisions and actions with owners.

A wall of sticky notes isn't the result you're after. A decision and a few owned next steps are. This guide uses a made-up example, a client team choosing what to improve in its customer onboarding, and gives you a board layout, an agenda, ground rules, a pre-call check and a way to turn the board into an action list.

Pick one decision the workshop should support

Write the goal before you send the invite. For example: “Agree on the two onboarding problems to look into next, and assign someone to gather evidence for each.” That's narrower and more useful than “brainstorm the customer experience.”

Also say what the meeting won't do. In this example, it won't approve a budget or promise a release date. Saying so up front stops an idea on the board from being mistaken for a commitment.

Invite the people who can explain the current process and the person who can make the call. More people won't make a better workshop. Name three roles: a facilitator, a decision owner and a note-taker who writes the final record.

Prepare people before the call

Send the goal, agenda, join details and one small prep task. Ask each person to bring one onboarding problem they've seen and how they know about it. Ask them to mark which points they observed directly and which are guesses or suggestions.

Use made-up or approved, anonymized examples on the board. A workshop about onboarding doesn't need a real customer's private details on screen. Share sensitive files only through a channel with proper access controls.

Test the setup your guests will actually use, including someone who isn't signed in to your workspace. Your own access as host doesn't prove a client can open or edit the same board.

Use a board layout that keeps facts apart from ideas

Set up labeled areas before the call. Leave room for discussion, but keep the layout simple enough that nobody has to hunt for where to add a note.

Don't rely on color alone to tell areas apart. Use clear text labels, readable text sizes and a spoken explanation. Give people another way to contribute if the board doesn't work well for them.

A 60-minute client workshop agenda

Treat these timings as a starting point. The one rule worth keeping is to protect the last 15 minutes for decisions and actions, so brainstorming can't eat the whole session.

If the goal is bigger than an hour, cut the scope or book a second session. Squeezing a hard decision into the last minute leaves the follow-up owner guessing what everyone meant.

Set simple ground rules

Tell people how to add, edit and discuss notes. Ask for one idea per note, with enough detail that someone reading it tomorrow understands it. “Fix onboarding” is too vague to become a task.

Give everyone a few minutes of quiet thinking before discussion starts. Then ask each person to explain the observation they think matters most. Silence isn't agreement, so check in with anyone who seems stuck on the language or the board.

Don't delete someone else's note without asking. Move off-topic items to a labeled parking area, then decide which ones need follow-up. Give every important parked concern an owner, so the parking area doesn't become a place to bury things.

To see where people lean, ask for a quick show of hands or a round of comments. If you'd like to use built-in voting or timers, check that your whiteboard actually has them first.

Check your Caletus setup before the client call

Caletus's feature pages put a shared whiteboard and notes inside the meeting itself. The Caletus shared whiteboard page shows how it works. What you still need to check is how it behaves for your guests and your meeting setup.^[2]

Do a short rehearsal with the host and a second test participant, using a test board instead of real client work. Note the plan, meeting location, browser and whether the test guest was signed in.

Don't tell clients the Caletus whiteboard will show up inside Zoom or Google Meet unless you've seen it work that way. Check which meeting room the board opens in, and any separate links, before you write the client's joining instructions.

Have a backup plan if the board fails

Keep a copy of the agenda and a simple notes template somewhere everyone can reach. If the board fails, the facilitator types contributions there, or reads them back while the group talks. This shared meeting notes template works well as that backup.

Call it what it is: a manual backup. Name the person who'll move the final decisions into the agreed record afterward. Ask people to confirm that record, since a screenshot rarely explains the discussion.

A good backup keeps people involved too. Someone who can't edit the board can speak up or post in an agreed chat channel, and the facilitator reads their points back to check them.

Turn the board into an action list

Before the call ends, go through each decision with the decision owner. Separate agreed actions from suggestions and open questions. A useful action says what will be delivered, who's doing it and by when.

In the example workshop, an action might read: “Maya will summarize the five approved support examples and list the setup questions that keep coming up, by October 12, 2026.” Maya and the date are made up for this example.

Agree where the action list will live and who can read it. The host still seeing the board doesn't mean every guest can. When in doubt, send a short written recap to everyone who attended.

Judge the workshop by its result

Afterward, ask three questions. Did the group answer the original question? Does every action have an owner? Do open items have an agreed next step? Also ask whether anyone couldn't take part because of access, format or unclear facilitation.

A plain board with two clear decisions and three accepted actions can be exactly what the client needed. How busy the board looks tells you very little.

• online whiteboard
• client workshop
• meeting collaboration
• facilitation