Stormz v3: What's New for Stormz v2 Users

Over the last months, I've rebuilt Stormz from the ground up.

If you've used Stormz v2 before, you'll recognize many familiar concepts. Stormz is still designed to help facilitators collect ideas, organize discussions, prioritize options, and make decisions together.

At the same time, Stormz v3 introduces many new capabilities. Some are immediately visible. Others are structural improvements that unlock entirely new workshop experiences.

This guide highlights the main differences between Stormz v2 and Stormz v3.

A simpler foundation

Workshops and quizzes are now one thing

In Stormz v2, workshops and quizzes were separate concepts.

In Stormz v3, everything is a workshop.

Activities are launched from templates, making the overall structure simpler and more consistent. Whether you're running a brainstorming session, a survey, a retrospective, or a prioritization exercise, you stay inside the same workshop.

Teams

You can now create teams and collaborate with other facilitators.

Teams make it possible to share workshops with colleagues, partners, or co-facilitators. Template sharing is also planned.

For facilitators who regularly work together, this creates a much more natural way to organize content.

Independent activities

One of the most practical additions is the concept of independent activities.

In Stormz v2, if you wanted to run a quick poll, survey, or brainstorming exercise, you often had to create a separate workshop or mix the results with your main board.

In Stormz v3, activities can either contribute to the shared board or remain completely independent.

This makes it easy to launch quick interactions without cluttering the main workshop content.

A new way to organize workshop content

One of the biggest improvements in Stormz v3 is how content is structured.

Questions and classifications

In Stormz v2, cards were primarily organized through clusters.

In Stormz v3, cards can be organized through two complementary concepts:

• Questions
• Classifications

Every card typically answers a question.

For example, in a Stop / Keep / Start retrospective:

• "Reduce the number of status meetings" answers Stop
• "Continue weekly demos" answers Keep
• "Create onboarding videos" answers Start

Questions define the context of a contribution and explain why the card exists.

On top of that, cards can also be classified using additional dimensions such as:

• Short-term / Mid-term / Long-term
• High / Medium / Low Priority
• Department
• Owner
• Status
• Any custom framework

This means the same card can answer a question while also being categorized in multiple ways.

For example:

Create onboarding videos

could be:

• Question: Start
• Time Horizon: Long-term
• Priority: High
• Department: HR

This separation between questions and classifications makes workshops much more structured and flexible than in Stormz v2.

Tags

Cards can also be associated with multiple tags.

Tags can be added manually by participants or automatically through AI automations.

Once tagged, content can be filtered, grouped, and visualized in entirely new ways.

Color coding

Stormz v3 introduces flexible color coding.

Colors can be driven by:

• Questions
• Classifications
• Participants
• Other workshop attributes

For example, Stop / Keep / Start cards can automatically display different colors, or each participant can have their own color.

New card types

Stormz v2 essentially had a single card type.

Stormz v3 introduces several specialized card types.

Sticky cards

The classic Stormz card.

Fill-in-the-gap cards

Perfect for guiding participant responses with predefined sentence structures.

Photo cards

Participants can capture and upload photos directly into the workshop.

Document cards

For longer content that goes beyond the size of a traditional sticky note.

Better image handling

When working with image-rich workshops, cards can display images using different layouts.

This helps keep boards readable while still benefiting from visual content.

Shareable cards

When participants create beautiful cards, especially image-based ones, Stormz can allow them to download those cards as souvenirs.

This is particularly useful for icebreakers and creative activities.

New ways to explore your content

Stormz v3 introduces several new ways to navigate and analyze workshop results.

Group by anything

In Stormz v2, grouping in the Kanban board was done only by cluster.

In Stormz v3, content can be grouped by:

• Question
• Classification
• Tag
• Participant
• And more

The same workshop can be explored from multiple perspectives without changing the underlying data.

New views

Stormz v3 dramatically expands the number of available views.

Vertical view

Ideal for debriefing one question at a time.

Card Wall view

When you want to see all cards in a single, ungrouped view.

Kanban view

Now the columns can be anything: questions, classifications, tags, participants, or even custom attributes, making it far more flexible than before.

Matrix view

Visualize ideas across two dimensions.

Table view

Display all workshop content in a structured table format.

Map view

Content with a location is displayed on a geographic map. To be paired with the Location automation.

Image Pin view

Pin content onto images and visual backgrounds.

Metaphor view

Display workshop frameworks as visual metaphors.

For example, a retrospective can be displayed as a sailboat, making activities more engaging and easier to understand.

Word Cloud

Generate visual representations of the most common terms.

Tag Cloud

Explore workshop content through tags.

Emoji Cloud

Visualize participant reactions and emotions.

Better participant experiences

Meeting bot for Zoom

Participants can now interact with Stormz directly from the Zoom chat.

They can answer questions, submit ideas, and vote without leaving the meeting.

Stormz automatically places contributions in the correct location inside the workshop.

QR codes

Joining a workshop is easier than ever.

Stormz can generate QR codes that participants can scan to join instantly.

Digitize real Post-it notes

Running a physical workshop?

Stormz can transform photographs of real sticky notes into digital cards.

This makes it easier to combine in-person and digital collaboration.

Facilitator example cards

When participants are viewing only their own cards, facilitators can still choose to display example cards to guide responses.

This provides better facilitation without exposing everyone's contributions.

Voting has been completely redesigned

In Stormz v2, most voting methods shared the same interface.

In Stormz v3, each voting method has its own dedicated experience.

Supported approaches include:

• Dot Voting
• $100 Voting
• Like / Dislike
• Emoji Reactions

Each interaction is optimized for the specific decision-making technique being used.

AI is now built into the workflow

AI capabilities are much more deeply integrated into Stormz v3.

Claude and ChatGPT integration

Stormz can now work directly with Claude AI and ChatGPT.

You can:

• Create workshops
• Analyze workshop results
• Work with Stormz content from your favorite AI assistant

AI automations

One of the most powerful additions is the automation system.

Automations can trigger automatically whenever a card is created.

Current automations include:

Generate images

Create illustrations directly from card content.

Auto tagging

Assign relevant tags automatically.

Location extraction

Detect locations from text and place them on maps.

Translation

Translate content into the workshop's official language.

Proofreading

Automatically improve spelling and grammar.

More automations will be added over time.

New tools for facilitators

Multiple display modes

Stormz now offers several presentation modes depending on your audience and setup.

These include:

• Facilitator view
• Presentation view
• Large-screen display
• Participant demo view
• Green-screen mode

This makes Stormz easier to use in training rooms, conference venues, livestreams, and hybrid events.

OBS overlays

Highlighted cards can be displayed directly inside OBS.

This is particularly useful for webinars, livestreams, and recorded sessions.

Stream Deck integration

Stormz can be controlled using physical Stream Deck buttons.

Actions include:

• Launching activities
• Changing views
• Starting votes
• Triggering workshop actions

This creates a smoother facilitation experience, especially during live events.

More powerful filtering

Filtering has been significantly expanded.

You can now filter content by:

• Question
• Classification
• Tag
• Author
• And many other criteria

A special participant filter allows users to focus on their own contributions while still seeing facilitator example cards.

Combined with the new grouping system and views, this makes large workshops much easier to navigate.

What is not yet available?

Most Stormz v2 functionality is now available in Stormz v3, often in an improved form.

However, a few features have not yet been reintroduced:

• Sections
• Scale Rating
• Bar Chart View
• Bubble Chart View
• Sort by Score

These remain on the roadmap.

Final thoughts

Stormz v3 is much more than a visual refresh.

The new content model, expanded views, independent activities, AI automations, collaboration features, and facilitator tools make it possible to run workshops that simply weren't possible in Stormz v2.

If you've used Stormz before, you'll feel at home quickly. But you'll also discover many new ways to design, facilitate, and analyze workshops.