Choose how to organize cards

In Stormz, everything starts with a question. Every card is an answer to a question.

Choosing your questions is usually the first step when you design a workshop.

Why organize cards?

Before an activity starts, you may want to give people a clear place to answer each question. You may also want to prepare buckets for their answers, such as Meetings, Tools, and Workspace.

As cards arrive, you may need to find common themes or bring similar ideas together. Before a vote, repeated ideas can also make the choices harder to compare.

Later, you may want to assess the ideas. Which are easy to carry out? Which need more work?

Stormz offers several ways to organize cards. You can use them together, and at different times during a workshop.

Question sets

Each activity has one question set. It can contain one question or several questions.

For example, you could start with one question:

• What should we improve in our meetings?

Or prepare several questions:

• What should we stop doing?
• What should we keep doing?
• What should we start doing?

Every card answers a question and stays with that question. People know where to add their answers. You can then read and discuss the answers to each question separately.

Categories and tags

Categories are buckets. Within a set of categories, a card goes in one bucket. For example, you could sort ideas for improving your team into Meetings, Tools, or Workspace.

You can have several category sets in the same activity. Each set has its own buckets. For example:

• Area: Meetings, Tools, or Workspace.
• Department responsible: HR, Marketing, or Sales.
• Feasibility: High or Low.

The same card can be in Meetings for Area, HR for Department responsible, and High for Feasibility. It belongs to one bucket in each set. You do not need to copy the card.

You can prepare the buckets before people contribute, or create them as you work with their ideas.

Use categories to:

• Guide contributions: ask people to add ideas to the Meetings, Tools, or Workspace bucket.
• Find themes: bring similar ideas together, then give each group a name.
• Classify contributions: separate Questions, Problems, and Suggestions.
• Evaluate ideas: place them under High feasibility or Low feasibility to show how easy they are to carry out.

Tags are labels you attach to a card. You can add as many as you need.

You can also have several tag sets in the same activity. For example:

• Topics: Teamwork, Time savings, Customer experience.
• Teams involved: Support, Product, Sales.

One card could have Teamwork and Time savings from Topics, plus Support and Product from Teams involved.

Tags work across buckets. A Time savings tag could help you find cards in both Meetings and Tools.

Unlike the single question set, you can have several category sets and tag sets. The rule stays simple: one bucket per category set; as many tags as you need from each tag set.

You can also use auto-tagging to add tags as new cards arrive.

Stacks

A stack holds several cards together. One card appears on the board. A small sticker shows how many cards are in the stack. Select the sticker to read them all.

For example, these two cards could go in one stack:

• “Send the agenda the day before the meeting.”
• “Share tomorrow's agenda today.”

You can also stack cards that describe different parts of one idea. For example, one card suggests a welcome session for new colleagues. Another suggests what to include in that session.

Every card keeps its own text. You can change the top card or separate the stack later.

Learn how to stack cards.

Where should you start?

• Start with your question set: decide what you want to ask in the activity.
• Use categories when you need buckets to guide contributions, find groups, or evaluate ideas.
• Use tags when you need labels to identify themes across cards and buckets.
• Use stacks when you want to bring contributions together while keeping every original card.

For help finding cards to stack, use Related cards to explore contributions similar to one card. AI stacking can stack cards from a larger selection for you, using near duplicates or related ideas.

You can also work with Claude or ChatGPT to discuss your own stacking rules. For example, ask it to pair problems with solutions or bring opposing ideas together for discussion.

These choices work together. You could ask “What should we start doing?” and sort the answers into Meetings, Tools, and Workspace. Add tags to show which teams are involved, then stack repeated suggestions before a vote.