Teams often brainstorm on physical whiteboards or external apps, then struggle to keep those great ideas connected to the actual project execution. The result? Blurry photos of whiteboards pasted into documents, or scattered diagrams that never translate into tasks. Enter Confluence’s new interactive whiteboards – an infinite digital canvas built right into Atlassian Confluence. It lets teams sketch ideas, jot down sticky notes, draw diagrams, and collaborate in real time, all in one place. This means your visual brainstorming lives alongside your project work, fully integrated with Jira and Confluence for a seamless flow from ideation to action.

Whiteboards 101

All-in-one visual toolkit: Confluence whiteboards offer an infinite canvas equipped with virtual sticky notes, shapes, connectors, text, and drawing tools. Team members can scribble ideas, create flowcharts, or mock up concepts just as they would on a physical whiteboard – but with limitless space and digital convenience.
Easy-to-use features: You don’t need to be an artist to use whiteboards. It’s about capturing and organizing ideas, not drawing perfect pictures. Smart connectors snap neatly to shapes, helping you quickly sketch out workflows or mind maps without fuss. Built-in sections and formatting guides keep things tidy automatically, so anyone can contribute confidently.
Templates at your fingertips: To jump-start your session, Confluence whiteboards come with ready-made templates for common needs like brainstorming, flowcharts, project retrospectives, and more. Instead of starting from a blank page, teams can select a template (e.g. a mind map or SWOT analysis) and start filling it in. Templates provide structure and inspiration, ensuring even a quick brainstorming session is productive.
Real-time collaboration: Multiple team members can edit the board simultaneously and see each other’s changes live. Every person’s cursor is visible with their name, so you can follow who’s adding what. This real-time aspect makes remote collaboration feel just as dynamic as if everyone is huddled around the same board in a room.

Use Case: Brainstorming & Ideation

Imagine a product team kicking off planning for the next big release. They open a Confluence whiteboard and start throwing out ideas. One teammate creates a cluster of sticky notes for new feature ideas, another draws a quick mind map linking related concepts, and a designer sketches a simple UI flow with boxes and arrows. Everyone is adding their thoughts simultaneously, and soon the board is covered with colored notes and sketches capturing the team’s collective creativity. The beauty of doing this in Confluence is that it’s automatically saved and instantly shareable to anyone in the company with access – no need for a separate Miro or Lucidchart link, no extra logins or lost whiteboard photos. All the brainstorming happens in the same ecosystem where the project will be executed. Confluence whiteboards give teams a free-form surface to shape plans before execution, and when the brainstorming winds down, those visuals don’t disappear or stagnate. They’re ready to be refined and transformed into real project deliverables when the team is ready to move forward. undefined

Use Case: Diagramming Workflows

Visualize complex processes: Many projects require drawing out workflows, architectures, or organizational charts. With Confluence whiteboards, teams can collaboratively sketch flowcharts, software architecture diagrams, or process maps directly in Confluence. For example, a software team can outline their system architecture with diagram shapes and connectors, ensuring everyone understands how components interact.
No more external diagram tools: If your team previously relied on Visio, Lucidchart, or draw.io for diagrams, Confluence whiteboards can replace those for most needs. The whiteboard’s shapes and “smart” connectors make it easy to create neat diagrams together. All edits are live, so an architect in one location and an engineer in another can refine a workflow in real time. Everything stays in Confluence, avoiding file exports or version confusion.
From diagram to action item: Diagrams on the whiteboard aren’t just static pictures. Each shape or sticky note can become actionable content. If a sticky note on the board says “Build API endpoint,” the team can later convert that into a Jira issue with one click. This means your brainstorming sketch can directly spawn tasks in the backlog. The visual plan and the work plan stay linked, reducing duplication and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
One-stop project hub: By using Confluence whiteboards for diagrams and visual plans, teams create a single source of truth. The architecture draft, the user flow diagram, and the feature brainstorm all live alongside related Confluence pages and Jira issues. Anyone reviewing the project can see not only the written requirements but also the visuals that shaped the thinking behind them.

Integration with Jira (Ideation to Action)

One of the most powerful benefits of Confluence whiteboards is how easily you can turn ideas into tangible tasks. After a fruitful brainstorming session, teams don’t have to manually re-enter their sticky notes into Jira – they can generate Jira issues directly from the whiteboard. For instance, once the team agrees on a set of features or action items on the board, a facilitator can click on each relevant sticky note or shape and choose “Create Jira issue.” The whiteboard will prompt for details like which Jira project and issue type to send it to. With a confirmation, that sticky note transforms into a Jira ticket, complete with a title drawn from the note’s text. In many cases, the note on the whiteboard will even display the new Jira issue key or a small badge, indicating it’s now linked to an actual work item. This seamless flow keeps the momentum going – no transcription errors, no delay, just instant movement from brainstorm to backlog. Your team can finish a whiteboard session and immediately have a set of Jira tasks ready for sprint planning. Integration works both ways too: you can pull existing Jira issues onto a whiteboard as cards (for example, to discuss or prioritize them visually during a planning meeting). The bottom line is that Confluence whiteboards and Jira speak the same language, allowing teams to ideate, decide, and act within one connected workspace.

undefined

Tips for Effective Visual Collaboration

Set some ground rules first: At the start of a whiteboard session, agree on a few simple norms. For example, decide on color-coding for sticky notes (blue notes for engineering ideas, green for design ideas, etc., or assign each team member a color). This way, when the board fills up with dozens of stickies, you can easily distinguish categories or contributors. Setting expectations early – like “one idea per note” or a designated area for off-topic thoughts – can keep the board organized and everyone on the same page.
Leverage templates to save time: Don’t begin from scratch if you don’t have to. Confluence whiteboards offer built-in templates for brainstorming, mind mapping, project planning, retrospectives, and more. These templates provide a handy starting structure. If you’re running a retrospective, for instance, grab the retrospective template which might already have sections for “What went well” and “To improve.” Templates ensure you’re not reinventing the wheel for common sessions and help participants know how to contribute.
Use smart links for context: You can paste a link (like a Jira issue or another Confluence page) onto the whiteboard, and it will automatically display as an interactive card or preview. This is great for context in a discussion. If your brainstorm references an existing user story or design spec, just drop the link onto the board – everyone will see a clickable card with key details, rather than just a raw URL. It keeps important reference material at your fingertips during the session.
Clean up and capture outcomes: After the session, take a few minutes to tidy the board. Group related clusters of notes, add titles or annotations to summarize key clusters, and delete any stray doodles that might confuse later viewers. The whiteboard is persistent (you can always reopen it later in Confluence), but it can help to capture a snapshot for the record. For critical diagrams or final brainstorm results, you might export the whiteboard as an image or PDF, or even convert parts of it into a structured Confluence page. This way, stakeholders who weren’t in the live session can still review the outcomes easily.
Import existing boards if needed: If your team has been using other whiteboard tools like Miro, Mural, or FigJam, you don’t have to start over. Atlassian provides options to import boards from external tools into Confluence whiteboards. This means you can bring in your favorite brainstorming boards and take advantage of Confluence’s integration features. Once imported, those sticky notes and diagrams from the old tool can be turned into Jira issues and kept up to date just like any native Confluence whiteboard content. It’s a smooth way to migrate your visual collaboration into a single platform.

Collaboration and Whiteboard Etiquette

Encourage inclusive participation: A digital whiteboard works best when everyone’s contributing. Create a welcoming environment where all team members feel safe adding their ideas. Consider doing a quick round-robin or using an icebreaker activity on the board (like having each person add a fun sticker) to get everyone comfortable.
Respect each other’s contributions: Just as you wouldn’t grab a marker and erase a colleague’s note on a physical whiteboard without asking, extend the same courtesy on the digital board. If something needs to be edited or removed, discuss it first. Maintaining psychological safety is key – team members should feel that their ideas won’t be deleted or altered without their input.
Use tools like cursors and timers: Confluence whiteboards show each person’s cursor with their name, which can help avoid confusion during a busy collaboration. If you need everyone’s attention on one area of the board, simply say so (“Let’s all look at the top-right section now”) or use a built-in attention feature if available. Also, take advantage of the built-in timer to timebox activities – for example, set a 5-minute timer for brainstorming ideas silently, then another timer for group discussion. This keeps the session energetic and focused.
Organize to avoid chaos: In a free-form canvas, things can get messy if everyone drags items everywhere. To keep order, consider using sections or frames on the whiteboard to partition different topics or agenda parts. For example, allocate one corner of the board to “Ideas Parking Lot” for thoughts that are important but off-topic, so they don’t derail the main discussion. Simple practices like these ensure the whiteboard remains an asset, not a source of confusion.

Wrapping Up

Visual thinking has now been seamlessly woven into your team’s single source of truth. No more taking a photo of a physical whiteboard and pasting it into Confluence pages, or juggling external whiteboard app links that get lost – everything can live in Confluence, live and interactive. By embracing Confluence’s interactive whiteboards, teams can brainstorm, plan, and execute in one continuous flow. Planning and prioritization become more engaging and dynamic when everyone can literally see the plan take shape. The next time you kick off a project or run a workshop, try using a Confluence whiteboard and watch how it sparks creativity and alignment. When you unite creativity (visual brainstorming) with execution (Jira) in the same workflow, there’s no limit to what your team can design and deliver.

Interested in learning more? Contact Atlas Bench to book a complimentary consultation with our Certified Atlassian Experts.

Start using Confluence for free and bring your whiteboard to life.

Atlas Bench is an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner with deep Cloud Specialization, helping Data Center customers move beyond migration and fully transform on the Atlassian Cloud Platform. We deliver Atlassian’s System of Work end to end through four collections: Strategy, Teamwork, Service, and Software, connecting planning to execution, aligning teams around outcomes, modernizing service delivery, and accelerating software development.

We are also recognized as an Atlassian World Class Software Development Partner of the Year (Americas), and we bring AI leadership to every engagement. By leveraging Rovo for automation and purpose built agents, we reduce manual work, unlock knowledge across tools, and speed up decision making so organizations realize measurable value faster in cloud.