Zoom fatigue is real. Just ask Björn Ingmansson, Product Marketing Manager at Pleo.

Björn felt his product-launch workshops were getting a little boring. The team was unfocused and unproductive, so they were failing to generate the amazingly creative ideas he was looking for.

But now that Björn uses Butter, Pleo’s workshops are more engaging, more relevant, more productive, and more fun than ever before. 🙌

Challenge: Sleepy collaboration sessions

‍Pleo provides an all-in-one company card solution that simplifies time-consuming administrative tasks like producing expense reports, gathering invoices, and providing reimbursements. They also make people feel more valued by putting a company hard directly in every employee’s hands. 

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As the Product Marketing Manager at Pleo, Björn Ingmansson is responsible for communicating and explaining Pleo’s complex features in a simple way. 

To come up with innovative ways to announce new features, Björn runs regular creative workshops with the Pleo team.

“I take lead on how we should launch a new feature or update. We have a playbook, but there’s still lots of room for creative input in terms of format and narrative.”

Unfortunately, Björn found it was tough to facilitate remote brainstorms over Zoom.

"We had been doing all our workshops and meetings internally through Zoom. While Zoom is reliable, it's a boring tool at the end of the day. When you want to include some fun into the session, you need to rely on some sort of hack, which rarely ends up working perfectly."

Also, because Zoom is a meeting tool, not a workshopping tool, it was tough for Björn to facilitate his sessions.

“It’s important for everyone to get involved in conversations and for nothing to get missed. But it’s tough to get everything in. We often struggled to cover everything within the timeframe.”

Solution: Enter Butter!

But then Björn found Butter. 💛

“I'm always eager to try new tech, so I quickly saw the potential to use Butter with my team. At first, I was scared it wouldn't work as well as Zoom, but it was quick, easy, and free to get started. The fact that I could experiment by myself before a workshop definitely made me more excited to use Butter!”

We asked Björn how Butter made his life better, and he delivered.

Workshops made more fun

Butter’s features made it way easier to amp up the energy in his workshops.

“My favorite feature is the music, which I use at the beginning and end of all my sessions. Adding a fun musical intro in the waiting room allows me to create a really good mood right from the get-go.”

Björn loves Butter’s emoji and sound-effect reactions too, as they helped boost the team’s engagement during the sessions and to create more meaningful remote connections.

“The reactions add that little extra bit of fun needed to take a workshop from average to great!”

The agenda keeps things on track

Using Butter’s time-boxed Agenda, Björn can plan his entire workshop in advance and then hold his team to the agenda during the live session.

“Butter’s agenda really helps me manage the time of my meetings. Not only does it save us lots of time in meeting itself, but it also helps the discussion stay relevant. It also keeps me on track to make sure we don't forget to discuss anything important.”

Easier collaboration

Ultimately, Björn’s goal is to come up with great ideas with his team. Before Butter, Björn said it was tough to get input from his team once his meetings grew to a certain size. Luckily, Butter’s Queue allows him to better manage his team’s input.

“The comment and question queue makes it a lot easier to manage bigger sessions. Because there’s more structure to the collaboration, everyone can make their voice heard. It makes it a lot easier for me to manage as the facilitator.”

Results: More fun means more productivity

According to Björn, Butter’s impact on his product workshops was noticeable from the very first time he used it.

“People were so excited when they first entered the room and everything went according to plan. People were coming in saying ‘what's this cool thing?’ Butter helped me structure the workshop and prepare more ahead of time, which made everything super smooth.”

Now, Björn is able to run super-smooth product workshops that his team genuinely wants to attend.

“I'm a strong believer in ‘fun drives results’, and it's just so nice to be able to offer people a nice workshop format! With Butter's workshops, I've been able to get people focused and productive during these sessions, but also make sure they have way more fun while doing it. People are always excited for sessions now!”

Björn also said Butter has been a big boost to his street cred.

“I can say for sure that I've passed for the coolest person at the company now because of Butter. Who doesn't want that?”

How to Butter with Björn: Taking meetings from average to great

Björn was kind enough to share his favorite Butter features with us.

1. I use the Waiting Room music to set a fun tone right from the beginning. I'm a big fan of the Energy/Jazz tracks!

2. I then make an agenda to keep things on track.

3. The Queue function is another feature that helps me get the most out of sessions. I can make sure everyone’s voice is heard!

4. The emoji reactions also add an extra bit of fun to meetings. And it's something my colleagues at Pleo love using!

‍Björn’s top Butter tip: Focus on what's most important in life: having fun. It keeps you productive!

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Thanks to Björn and the Pleo team for sharing your Butter journey!

To inject way more fun into your product workshops, try Butter with your team for free.