TruTrip is a busy startup at the moment. After several months of the world working from home, TruTrip is now helping businesses bring people back together by ensuring smooth and effective travel.
As a comprehensive business travel solution, TruTrip has found itself in high demand and as a result, they’re regularly meeting potential partners, analysts, and investors to share their story and explain their value.
To do this effectively, everyone on the TruTrip team must understand the core messaging and remain on the same page as the story is refined for investors. TruTrip is mainly a remote team operating out of Asia and they use Miro as their main discussion platform between the distributed teams.
Jaïr has a founder’s mindset with a passion for innovation, technology, and start-ups. In the Netherlands and internationally (Nordics and South America) he worked with leading brands and with Governments and NGOs. Helping startups grow is what he loves to do.
Hugh Batley, Co-founder of TruTrip explains, “Miro is the only platform that gives us real-time interaction the way we want it. We see it as a bit of a hub and because it’s so vast there are no hard or fast rules on how to use it. In our experience, this seems to free people up to use it more how they want.”
TruTrip’s three go-to Miro canvases
Hugh keeps his teams connected and engaged using Miro, and when it’s time for real-time collaboration, TruTrip uses Miro’s Google Meet integration to ensure everyone can participate in the discussions.
Let’s take a closer look at their top three canvases.
1. Product canvas
Miro’s product canvas template provides content-rich tools that help you describe your products and how they are strategically positioned. TruTrip uses it to create its product business case, which then helps them articulate the product story to investors and partners.
TruTrip adds everything about their product lines from the initial definition and user needs and expectations to technical considerations and UX design. By providing as many details as possible, anyone on the team can understand the product and the rationale behind each decision. Everything is documented with release notes, user comments, and statistics that drive the product direction.
According to Hugh, they use the Figma integration with Miro to quickly update layouts and deliver new versions, and the Confluence integration for prototyping.
The main benefit is a single source of product information that’s easy for us to come back to … it’s also easy to work from the board.
Hugh Batley, Co-founder of TruTrip
2. Intro canvas
The Intro canvas helps TruTrip keep all its top-level information in one place. Any team member can go to this canvas to learn more about the company, but the beauty of the canvas is that it’s not a linear experience that limits what you need to learn. They also love the fact they can embed other canvases like their product strategy and roadmap.
Hugh and his team found that anyone who wanted to know more about the business could do so in their own way. The canvas is open and visual. For some people the market potential might be important, others want to understand the impact of Covid. Having the high-level “why” laid out in a Miro canvas allows people to follow their own path.
The real magic here is offering a tailored experience. Those that want to ‘double click’ on a specific aspect of the top-level summary have the right information waiting for them. We use this intro canvas when talking to partners, future employees, and even potential investors as it gives more freedom to the discussion.
Hugh Batley, Co-founder of TruTrip
3. Growth canvas
For TruTrip, this is an ever-growing canvas that summarizes their growth tactics, progress, and impact. The canvas gives the team more freedom to share information the way each individual wants, which saves time and energy. No one feels pressure to create a traditional “presentation.”
Then, the team can easily collaborate in real-time as they review the whiteboards together. And because each person is free to express themselves their own way, there are fewer preconceived views of one should work. This creates a less stressful environment as people share work that is in progress rather than committing to something that feels final.
Using a canvas here seems to free up our team. No one feels they need to present in any fixed way. Some make tables, some draw diagrams, some drop images there. This freedom enables people to communicate their best thinking.
Hugh Batley, Co-founder of TruTrip
Iterating investor meetings
These three Miro canvases (and others) have helped everyone at TruTrip deeply understand their product line and how to talk about their value proposition. This has become even more evident as TruTrip refines its messaging to investors.
While TruTrip doesn’t always present the canvases to outsiders, they use them to align the team and build the story. Hugh adds, “Practically speaking, we have a base presentation that is imported (dynamic) from Google Slides and then items coming off each slide. Some are native to Miro. Some are links or other presentations.”
TruTrip then uses the feedback to iterate on the topic to strengthen the message or fill in the gaps that are missing.
Every time we speak to analysts or investors, we come back to the canvas and rate the material. Was the message clear? What were the discussion points? Miro becomes our learning platform.
Hugh Batley, Co-founder of TruTrip
Your startup might be eligible for Miro credits
As an early-stage startup that meets these requirements, you will receive $1,000 in credits towards Miro Team Plan to help your team collaborate and improve your processes. You’ll get unlimited boards, Guest Editors, Jira integration, and more. Learn more about Miro’s startup programs.
