My Facilitator Tech Stack

A peek behind the curtain — tools, tech, and tips!

May 28, 2025

We all know tools aren’t everything but they sure do help once you have your approach and process down! Through the years I have used a lot of tools, I mean a lot…my friend and I were just joking the other day that we are tool junkies, and oh boy am I.

I do realize though you’ve got to simplify down to what works and scales especially as a facilitator. So here’s where I am today — as of May 2025 — in what works best for me as a facilitator.

You need to make your own decisions based on what works best with your personality, style, budget, and process. Here’s my stack as a starting point of what to consider.

*Please note there are referral and affiliate links throughout this article.

Video

Butter | I feel a little weird putting Butter in the video section because it’s so much more than video! Butter helps you give a whole workshop experience. It is a wonderful virtual facilitation experience. There are reactions, sound reactions, polls, break-out rooms AND you can integrate your Miro boards.

Miro Board Improv Session in Butter - Using an integrated Miro Board

Session Planning

SessionLab | This is my go to for planning, it’s a fantastic tool and there’s even a free tier. It includes a robust library of templates to inspire your future sessions. One of the things I love most is how you can adjust the timing of activities and elements and everything else adjusts with it like your overall session time—makes me question why I was even using a spreadsheet at all before!

Collaboration + Engagement

Miro | My collaboration virtual whiteboard tool of choice is Miro. I have been using Miro since 2016 when it was still Realtimeboard! I just love the ease of use and how creative I can be with Miro. I use boards for internal planning and for actual sessions to help visually bring people along in the experience while everyone can participate together.

Slack | Depending on the length of an engagement having an associated slack team or channel to accompany your sessions can be a great idea. It gives people a place to talk afterwards and continue the momentum.

Butter Scenes | When I have to use another video tool, like Zoom or otherwise I lean back on Butter Scenes to still be able to bring in some engagement. You provide a link to Butter Scenes and can still have people interact in real time no matter what video tool you are using! And it’s FREE right now.

Padlet | While I’m a super huge Miro fan, Padlet has some wonderful uses. I love using this for LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and having people take photos of their models to upload onto the board in real time. Being able to scan a QR code makes this even easier, especially for in person sessions. They also have a free tier, where you get 3 Padlets free.

Padlet Screen shot of Uploaded Images on the Board

All the tools built into ButterVideo! These do wonders for engagement in a virtual session. You can use things like ButterBoard (a simple virtual white board you can launch on the fly), interactive flashcards, polls and so much more.

Butter Interactive Flashcard, stamp your avatar

Wanna grab the interactive flash card template shown? You can find it in Butter here.

Design + Inspo

Adobe Illustrator | I love customizing my Miro boards. Adobe Illustrator is one design program I use to tailor vector images to use on my boards! I can brand them according to my own style or to match the team I’m working with (the wonders of being embedded as a part of a team!)

Canva | I do have a design background, and yes I also use Canva. Its easy to use in a pinch and has a mobile app that is super easy to use. I love being able to bring things in here for a quick background removal or other features like that. And yes I still use Adobe Illustrator too 🙌

CNVS | I use the heck out of this one! Premade sketchnote-style images that are ready made for your Miro (or any other virtual white board.) If I have to pop a board together super quick this is my go-to for sure. If you use them with Icon Jar, you can even change colors super easy on the fly and then upload to your boards.

MidJourney | I use MidJourney for inspo for design for my images and boards and a lot of images within my boards! Usually I’ll take an image into Canva or Photoshop after it’s generated to touch it up and make it my own.

ChatGPT | Yep this is a great brainstorming buddy for images and even activities! For session building, its great to bounce specific and intentional ideas off of my AI buddy for things I might not have though of. For images, it helps me think of visual metaphors when I get stuck, and even generates some images for me as well which I then adjust in Canva or Adobe, again to make them match my style.

Pre + Post Session

Notion | I use Notion as a Session Hub for participants. Beforehand its where they find the welcome video and what to expect, along with any pre-session adventures. Then afterwards they will find any recaps in this same custom hub. I create a custom Notion page for each experience. However I created a core template, making the hub concept easier to scale across many projects.

Google Docs | Sometimes, depending on the engagement, I go simple with a formatted Google document for sharing of insights and observations. This is no time for fancy pants stuff it’s simple straightforward insights of what I heard during a session.

Loom | This is my tool of choice for quick welcome videos and thank you videos for sessions!

Otter | This handy tool has transformed my workflow! I usually record sessions and then I take it one step further and transcribe in Otter. With the Otter AI chat you can ask about certain insights and what was said where.